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Made with phone and videoconference. Thanks to special permission, representatives from the National League and Switzerland meet on Monday for an extraordinary league meeting at the PostFinance Arena in Bern. To keep a good distance, club bosses don’t have to spread out where the ice is. You sit in the area where VIPs generally drink champagne.
However, they don’t feel like partying, even if on the same day they can finally go back to playing sports and training in groups. There is no fear of a crown party like the one recently held by some MPs.
A two-thirds majority is needed
For professional clubs, it’s about planning the next season and opening the parachutes so that the damage caused by the crown crisis can be kept within limits. Sports grounds are of secondary importance. It’s about money, about survival.
On the agenda the theme descent and promotion. And one seems to agree: next season there will be no relegation, but there will still be a relegation, provided the Swiss League champion meets the economic criteria. A two-thirds majority of the NL and SL clubs is required for this mode change, which is the goal of a vote.
Pre-playoffs as a gift for television
Also, a new mode for the upcoming season overshadowed by the corona virus is coming to the table in Bern. The first six of qualification must secure the ticket to the quarterfinals in advance. Behind are pre-playoffs like you know from Germany, Finland or Sweden. In a best-of-3 series, the seventh meets the tenth and the eighth meets the ninth.
This means that ten out of twelve teams can enjoy playoff hockey, and the last two also land smoothly because there is no relegation team. It’s not important either: For TV partners (MySports and SRG) there is a treat in the form of additional games after the playoffs were completely phased out this spring and the screen was scrapped.
Decisions regarding medium-term planning should only be made on June 17 at the league’s regular meeting, where a three-quarter majority will no longer be required. Then you will have to agree on how to play from 2021/22. Will relegation be postponed any longer to save club finances? What would the mode look like if you had 13 teams in the National League? And above all: will the number of foreigners increase?
Does the alien restriction fall in June?
Just two years ago, SCB chief Marc Lüthi, who campaigned vehemently for an opening, failed when it was voted to play with six instead of four foreigners. Meanwhile, the wind has changed. The reasoning remains the same: if you remove all or part of the restriction on foreigners (for example, increase it to eight mercenaries), the supply of players increases, and therefore prices decrease.
No one knows if the invoice will work. Because not only the wages of the Swiss, but also those of foreigners, are too high for us in relation to income.
Salary limit or luxury tax against salary insanity?
Other models are also being discussed: a salary cap for teams like the NHL (salary cap) is less likely to fail due to legal obstacles than a lack of confidence and control options. The proposal for a luxury tax on excessive wages was resolved a few years ago and could now be removed from the drawer again.
But first, total damage to the crown should be avoided. Above all one expects a signal from the policy that within a useful period of time not only can it be played but it can also be played in front of the spectators and thus season ticket sales which are important to the liquidity of the clubs will begin.
