The city and canton of Zurich should take Basel as a role model. And even on Miami Beach. These locations would also support congresses, say those responsible for the Hallenstadion.
Not only suitable for concerts: the Hallenstadion Zurich.
Superstars and their special requests: They can sing a little about it in Zurich’s Hallenstadion. Madonna wanted all toilet rings backstage replaced. Robbie Williams had a treadmill delivered to his dressing room. Justin Bieber got a whirlpool, Beyoncé got a white carpet up to the shower.
On the other hand, a chef from Prince’s entourage had bad luck: the black singer from Minneapolis felt like a glass of wine, the chef organized a bottle of the Hallenstadion house wine. When the musician noticed the label on the bottle, he immediately fired his employee. The wine was a Negro Amaro.
The operators of the Hallenstadion hung these anecdotes on notice boards in the legendary Zurich Arena on Friday. The Hallenstadion organized a meeting and tour for customers, partners and the media. A blue line led from the main hall through the catacombs, into the artists’ areas, into boxes, to the stage entrance and even onto a secret roof terrace.
The reason for the action: The Hallenstadion has to reinvent itself. For 72 years it was the home of the ice hockey club ZSC Lions, but they have now moved into their own arena in the west of Zurich. With the traditional club moving out, the Hallenstadion will lose 20 percent of its sales and 25 percent of its visitors. And: There are suddenly 50 free appointments in the agenda.
All this shortly after a pandemic that has eaten a 20 million hole in equity. That’s a lot of money for a company that, given the huge hall, you wouldn’t necessarily think so, is just an SME: AG Hallenstadion only has 24 jobs.
First Eric Clapton, then Deep Purple
The pandemic, of all things, which hit the company so hard, is now helping the Hallenstadion: Many artists are catching up on their performances. The hall is currently well booked. Eric Clapton, for example, will give a concert on October 14 that was originally planned for June 2020 and had to be postponed four times. Just one day later, on October 15th, Deep Purple will perform. This is also a postponed concert.
The fact that the two concerts can only take place 24 hours after each other is not a matter of course. Balz Hösly, Chairman of the Board of Directors of AG Hallenstadion, says that no other large arena in Europe has such a quick conversion time.
That is still a remnant from ZSC times. “Back then, we had to convert the hall from an ice hockey arena to a concert hall and back again overnight,” he says. “The ZSC was our teacher.”
Since the ice hockey team moved out, the indoor stadium has invested 4 million francs in extensions and conversions, including a new district heating system. The hall had previously been heated with the waste heat from the ice machine. But the core is a new hall floor. Instead of the permanent ice rink, which had to be painstakingly covered with slabs for concerts, there is now a concrete floor at ground level.
The cooling loops for the ice hockey field have remained underground, but ice is only used for special occasions, such as the “Art on Ice” figure skating gala. A return of ice hockey is also possible in principle, for example a world championship is conceivable.
The box area in the rear part of the hall was also rebuilt. Where journalists used to follow the ZSC games, private rooms for up to 12 people, the so-called studios, have now been created. While today’s boxes a little higher up cost several thousand francs, the surcharge for a studio is 700 to 800 francs in addition to the ticket price. Hallenstadion CEO Philipp Musshafen speaks of an upgrade, comparable to the premium economy class on an airplane.
A demand almost as big as an artist’s fee
From a purely financial point of view, the Hallenstadion does not have to compensate for every previous ZSC game day with events in order to achieve comparable deals as before the pandemic. Because concerts are more lucrative than ice hockey matches, it is enough if about every second to third previous ZSC game day is covered, says the chairman of the board, Balz Hösly.
The move of the ice hockey club also gives the hall more flexibility. Longer events are now much easier to do, such as a guest performance by Cirque du Soleil lasting several weeks.
The Hallenstadion also has high hopes for increased cooperation with the neighboring exhibition center. The idea: Large congresses should be brought to Zurich. Without government support, however, this would be difficult, says Hösly.
It is customary in the industry that such a major event receives support from the local authorities, this applies to the Art in Miami Beach as well as to the International Motor Show in Frankfurt. The canton of Basel-Stadt also has a similar program.
«Convention organizers know that they are a key economic factor for a region. But they ask for something in return, for example that they get the hall for free,” says Hösly. The Hallenstadion cannot bear these costs itself, which is why it needs state support. “If the political will for such help is not there, these major events will simply pass Zurich by, because then we are not competitive in terms of price.”
Discussions with the city and canton of Zurich must be held to determine whether the Hallenstadion can fulfill this special request as easily as Justin Bieber did with the expansion of the cloakroom equipment. A corresponding working group has been set up, says Hösly. However, the financial magnitudes are almost as high as the fee of a superstar: the Hallenstadion is hoping for up to one million francs from the canton and city of Zurich. per congress. There could be two or three of these a year.