The ZSC Lions inaugurate their new stadium and celebrate themselves in a dignified manner that not many in Swiss sport have yet managed to do. The heroes of the evening include 99-year-old Heinz Hinterkircher, a master player from 1949. He was rewarded with a piece of Black Forest cake for the title.
Impressive ceremony: ZSC celebrates entering the stadium itself.
The ZSC Lions have won eight league titles between 1936 and 2018. They were Champions League winners and won the 2009 Victoria Cup. Goalkeeper Ari Sulander and defender Mathias Seger made themselves immortal. There are banners for the two icons and all the titles, they were already hanging under the roof in the Hallenstadion. And then, when the stands emptied after the final whistle, they were quietly rolled up again and locked away. The ZSC was no longer a tenant in the Hallenstadion in Oerlikon. On Tuesday, the club not only moved into a stadium in Altstetten with the imposing Swiss Life Arena, but also: a home. When there’s no reason to roll up the banners again.
It’s better to walk home in your gear than to have to pay 20 centimes for the tram
With the opening ceremony before this first home game, the ZSC made a big splash. It is one of the strangest weaknesses in Swiss sport that hardly any club manages to celebrate its past with dignity. Here and there there is a museum, but in many places the rich cultural and sporting heritage is gathering dust. The ZSC provided evidence on Tuesday that there is another way. With the exception of the 1936 champion team, grandees from all teams were present and carried their banners onto the ice. Also 99-year-old Heinz Hinterkircher, who became champion with the ZSC in 1949 on the Dolder ice rink. As a reward for the title, there was a golden ring and a piece of Black Forest cake. Hinterkircher once told a local newspaper that some players had walked home from the Dolder after training in their equipment to save the 20 centimes for the tram. Hinterkircher was a national player – for international matches he was compensated with a daily rate of 20 francs. His grandson Mattia missed his grandfather’s big performance: He strikes for the ZSC farm team GCK Lions and was in action himself on Tuesday evening.
Hinterkircher was followed by local heroes such as Edgar Salis, Michel Zeiter, Roman Wick and Severin Blindenbacher. Flown in from North America were Marc Crawford and Hans Kossmann, the 2014 and 2018 championship coaches. Crawford was an assistant coach with the Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL until spring. Kossmann, 60, is still in the process of renovating his home on Vancouver Island. He says he’s no longer pushing back into business with all his might. He was last in charge of SC Bern for a few months in 2019/20.
The ZSC’s power play is picking up speed
The atmosphere in the sold-out 12,000-strong arena reached its peak of the evening as Sulander and Seger took center stage, those two icons whose shirt numbers 31 and 15 are no longer assigned at the club. Seger, 44, is a house husband and brews beer in Oerlikon. Goalkeeping legend Sulander, 53, works as an undertaker in Oulu. Both cult figures were honored with ovations, the atmosphere had something electrifying; it was no comparison to the often non-existent, sluggish background noise in the converted Hallenstadion.
The entertainment value of the entertaining ceremony surpassed that of the actual main program, the comparison with Gottéron. ZSC won 2:1 in an uneventful game in which goalkeeper Simon Hrubec was particularly convincing. The honor of scoring the first goal in the new stadium was reserved for international striker Denis Hollenstein. Finland defender Mikko Lehtonen doubled in the final period, both goals coming from a power play that had been sluggish earlier this season. They were enough to win and to end a magnificent ice hockey evening in Zurich on a happy note.