The end as a superior team: how HC Davos reinvents itself

Ambri, located on the old trade route between north and south on the Gotthard St., has a different story. Founded in 1937, when HCD was already one of the best teams in Europe and the core of our national team, which had become European champion for the first time in 1926. And supported by half the canton in a world of hockey bipolar with the nouveau riche around Lugano and the rich traditionalists around Ambri.

The canton of Graubünden has even fewer inhabitants than the canton of Ticino and the local economy is even less capable of financing a world-class hockey team. Like tourism and mountain farmers, HCD also relies on lowland money to survive as a superior team in the age of ice hockey commercialization.

The traffic situation is too unfavorable to feed a major sports company with audience revenue (less than 5,000 on average). The road to nowhere is as difficult as to Davos.

The Spengler Cup, which began to function properly commercially only from the 1980s and now has a profit of more than two million francs in the coffers of the HCD, is a reliable source of money. The other is lowland money. It is almost certain that people from Zurich or homesick people from the Zurich area who have completed their wealth training will contribute more to economic well-being than the local economy.

It fits the picture that in the 100th year of its existence, Gaudenz Domenig, a Zurich-based business lawyer with roots in Grisons, is president of the HCD.

“Crazy money in the mountains”

The HCD was down early in the middle. The first time in 1969. The two most critical phases in history only occurred in modern times. After the first and only relegation to the third top league (1990) and the great financial crisis of the beginning of this century, which was as dramatic for the HCD microcosm as the 2007 financial crisis was for the world.

In 1989, the company was immediately promoted again: ice hockey was not half as expensive as it is today, and a return to the top league was affordable. A series of clever transfers (including Reto and Jan von Arx, Michel Riesen, Patrick Fischer, Beat Forster, coach Arno Del Curto) and the good years of their own players (including Beat Equilino, Marc Gianola, Sandro Rizzi) led to HCD back to The national team points backwards and enabled the first title since 1985 in 2002.

But the money wasn’t enough to hold a team of champions together and fund it for the long term. In attempting to do so, HCD plunged into the most dangerous currency crisis in its 100-year history. Discreetly, a team with far-reaching national political and economic ties around current Landamman Tarzisius Caviezel (who assumed the presidency at the time) and current President Gaudenz Domenig rescued the HCD and reorganized the finances.

Until six years ago, HCD could pay the highest salaries in the league. A player agent once summed up this latest “Belle Epoque” in HCD’s story: “Crazy money in the mountains.” With additional, often expensive moves, young players of their own, and top-class foreign staff (including Jonas Hiller, Leonardo Genoni, Peter Guggisberg, Marc and Dino Wieser, Andres Ambühl, Joe Thornton) it was even possible to build a dynasty. The HCD became Swiss champion in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2015.

Salary cap as last hope

The construction of new stadiums in Unterland, new income opportunities (gastronomy, networking), which depend on large numbers of spectators, modern infrastructure and easy accessibility, have given hockey a further price increase. This development brings SCB, Zug and soon also ZSC Lions and Ambri completely different revenue from gaming operations. Income that is largely denied to HCD at its isolated location.

Plus there’s a further urbanization push for hockey: For the new generation’s top players, Hockey Gen Z, so to speak, the location in the mountains isn’t great anymore.

HCD has lost its top team position in the last five years. The 2015 title could have been the last in a long time. And the HCD may have to wait as long for a new master coach after Arno Del Curto as our army for a new General Henri Guisan. The anniversary game loss to the ZSC Lions on Thursday is symbolic. It is, so to speak, the sign on the wall that must be interpreted correctly.

At 100 years old, the HCD has to reinvent itself. The wise President Gaudenz Domenig tried it in various ways. He uses his political influence to introduce a salary cap (“financial fair play”) in the league. He developed the whole concept. Your HCD needs this salary development containment in order to become a superior team again.

This means that additional income is possible through game operations and the Spengler Cup. Not to the same extent as the Titans of the Lowlands. But at least more money is coming in. But the most important reorientation, which has hardly been noticed so far, concerns the expansion of the sports base.

A farm team in Chur?

To this day, it has never been possible to mobilize the whole of Graubünden for the HCD. This may be due to the geographical peculiarity with the different regions and mentalities separated by high mountains (Engadin, Prättigau, Landwassertal, Bündner Herrschaft) or the pronounced municipal autonomy.

But now Gaudenz Domenig, hardly noticed by the public, is about to become the “Bismarck of Graubünden hockey”. So the man who brought hockey-Bündner, Arosa, Chur and Davos together for the first time in history. If successful, you should receive a sports Nobel Peace Prize. However, what makes matters difficult: the SCB now, of all time, with the Engadine Raeto Raffainer, has unleashed the “Mephisto” in this matter.

The second indoor ice rink will come into operation in Chur in autumn 2022. The Chur stadium is by far suitable for the Swiss League and is named after a very close relative of Gaudenz Domenig: in honor of Thomas Domenig, the architect and builder of the modern Chur and the ice rink.

If only it wasn’t for envy

If it is possible to form an agricultural team in the new Swiss league (as of the 2022/23 season) in Chur and thus capture, train and develop the full potential for the young talents in the canton, then the HCD will have a much wider reach. large. sports base as a training club. A second sports location in Chur would be more efficient than the current collaboration with the Ticino Rockets in Biasca below. From Davos to Chur there are 60 kilometers and 50 minutes by car. After Biasca 150 kilometers and more than two hours by car.

With Chur, a traditional club with the potential for more than 1,000 spectators per game would return to the second highest league. Gaudenz Domenig confirms his efforts for the Chur location: “The construction of the second ice rink in Chur also opens up new prospects for us. If the thing can be financed, then a farm team in Chur is a problem for us. “

From a hockey, politically united Graubünden could become a candidate for the title again. However, Gaudenz Domenig notes: “We also have to convince circles that they would rather not want hockey at all than cooperate with the HCD.”

Even in the Graubünden mountains, envy is the second strongest force in nature after foehn. That’s the price HCD has to pay for 100 years of glorious history and 30 championship titles.