GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Hugh Quennec is a familiar name to Geneva Servette Hockey Club fans, as one of its two owners, with Chris McSorley. The Swiss Canadian, who runs Continental Capital Markets, which has offices in Nyon and Zurich, has now stepped in to save another Geneva Servette, the city’s football club.
GSFC said early this week that it was bankrupt, and as the door appeared to be swinging shut, Quennec quietly stepped in, and the relief throughout the world of Geneva football and sport in general was audible.
The club has 30 days to find some CHF3 million to settle short-term debts, after Quennec paid a symbolic CHF1 to take over the shares of Majid Pishyar, former owner. Quennec is putting up CHF650,000 and will now hustle to find investors to make up the difference. The critical task right now, he says, is to get a clear picture of the overall financial situation.
Links to other sites: RTS public TV, Tribune de Geneve
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The long-discussed future home for the Geneva-Servette Hockey Club came closer to reality with the announcement Tuesday 24 January that it will be built on the Trèfle-Blanc site in the commune of Lancy. The canton, city and club jointly announced the news, saying that they have agreed with Lancy to undertake an in-depth feasibility study, which is being assigned to an international group of professionals, that will include the broader economic impact of the rink.
GSHC’s current rink is scheduled to be replaced by 2015.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva-Servette Hockey Club added a win to its season, defeating Rapperswil-Jona Lakers in an away match, 2-3 (1-0, 0-2, 1-1). A rough start to the season is being smoothed out and the team has moved up the rankings to ninth place.
Eliot Berthon, out for the season to repair dislocated shoulder
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva-Servette Hockey Club received the bad news Tuesday 29 November that 19-year-old French attacker Eliot Berthon will be out for the season. Berthon was earlier told to stay off the ice for up to six weeks to recover from a shoulder injury he sustained 10 days ago. But yesterday doctors said his dislocated shoulder is not healing as they hoped and he will need surgery to repair it correctly.
The player was injured 20 November during an Elite Juniors match with Zug. He also suffered a concussion.
GSHC is asking fans not to try to contact Berthon without going through the club, in order to give him time and privacy to recover.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva-Servette HC came back to life Tuesday evening to defeat Davos 4-0, after a disappointing start to the season.
The crowd of 6,501 at Les Vernets saw the hometown team take over, 0-0; 2-0; 2-0.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Geneva-Servette Hockey Club (GSHC) had a crowd of more than 7,000 to watch its electrifying match against Gotteron 28 October.
Tuesday 1 November it will need all the fans it has and a strong dose of good luck as it faces off against Davos, ranked second in the LNA with 41 points, against GSHC’s weak 11th place with just 16 points.
The Grenats have had a disappointing season to date, with injuries, the loss of a couple key players and the missing spark that has carried them to the Swiss playoffs in the recent past. Tuesday evening the team announced that American-Swiss player Eric Walsky will be off for four to six weeks with a knee injury, but at least he won’t require surgery.
TSR wrote enthusiastically about last weekend’s match, where Geneva defeated Fribourg-Gottéron 4-3 at home, but the Tribune de Geneve, which follows the team closely, says flatly that GSHC doesn’t have the talent it needs to claw its way back up the LNA, and in its current state of emergency, a win tonight is crucial.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The ice hockey season is off to a weak start in Geneva, with Geneva-Servette Hockey Club (GSHC) losing 7-3 (1-2, 2-0, 4-1) to EV Zug.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Geneva-Servette Hockey Club is out of the Swiss hockey playoffs after losing a tense fight Thursday night 10 March in Geneva, to EV Zug in 12 minutes of overtime: 4-5 (0-3; 2-1; 2-0; 0-1). GSHC’s quarter-finals loss leaves Zug moving on to the semi-finals.
Links to other sites: TSR (Fr)
Ice hockey in Geneva, not always smooth sailing
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Geneva-Servette Hockey Club (GSHC) has snapped back at unnamed critics who, say the club owners, have been making damaging and incorrect innuendos that the GSHC is not transparent about its finances and that recent changes have caused problems with the team.
The city and canton have been slow to move on projects agreed to in 2010 to renovate the existing Vernets ice rink, before building a new arena for 2015, says the club.
20 minutes 17 February quoted Socialist Rémy Pagani, head of Geneva’s buildings and construction department, as saying that “At the moment the club’s project, which is supported by the city for a cost of CHF14 million, is stuck in the finance commission because the club has not yet presented its accounts.”
Simon Brandt, a centre-right Geneva politician, a week earlier accused Pagani of making empty promises to the club, saying it had nothing to worry about because Geneva would support it, even though the project doesn’t appear in the budget.
A meeting 8 March between the club, the city and the canton must see these projects move ahead, GSHC says, in order for its finances to become healthier: the club needs more VIP seats to be able to pull in additional revenues from these.
Chris McSorley and Hugh Quennec, the two Geneva-Servette owners, sent out to journalists a lengthy press release 17 February stating their position: the club’s accounts have been completely open to Geneva auditors, they insist, the Foundation’s finances are managed separately from the club’s and no players have been paid out of the foundation’s money, responding to accusations that have been made, mainly in Geneva’s political arena.
The complete release, in French, is below.
It shines a light on the murky side of Geneva politics as much as on the club’s business. McSorley told GenevaLunch in October that while relations with the city and canton are good, the process of getting and keeping essential financial support is not always easy. This becomes clear in Thursday’s statement, where McSorley and Quennec note that:
- work agreed foreseen in June 2010 agreements with Geneva have not been carried out. As a result, the club’s CHF3 million deficit has not diminished, despite strong demand for VIP seats.
- Work planned for 2011, including work not done in 2010: GSHC has received no confirmation about when work will begin.
- The new arena for 2015: the club is still waiting, despite the June 2010 agreement that the Vernet site will be used, for the credits to be approved and deposited to carry out the studies necessary to move the project ahead.
GSHC press release, 17 February 2011
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Geneva-Servette showed Tuesday evening that it has the capacity to bounce back from a rough start to the season, marred by injuries. It defeated HC Ambri-Piotta 3-0 (2-0, 0-0, 1-0) before a crowd of 6,818 at Les Vernets in Geneva.
Coach and co-owner of the Geneva Servette Hockey Club, Chris McSorley
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Christophe Stucki joined the Geneva-Servette Hockey Club Monday 14 February as the company’s new general director, with responsibility for the staff, monitoring revenue and developing game operations, according to Chris McSorley, one of the club’s two owners.
The move by club President Hugh Quennec comes shortly after the team hit a rough spot in the 2010-2011 season, with several crippling injuries and the loss of top player Thomas Déruns in order to keep the club’s finances healthy.
The team has slipped slightly in Swiss A league club rankings to 6 out of 12 teams, but it has made it to the playoffs for the eighth time in nine years. McSorley says that while he expected this, he is proud of the club’s efforts despite what he calls “an abnormal amount of injuries”.
The team has won 17 of 46 matches this season.
Stucki’s addition will not deplete the hockey team budget, which is separate from that for administration. It’s the latest in a step-by-step effort to professionalize the entire operation, says McSorley, moving beyond previous director Philippe Kneubuehler, who left in 2009 after four years and Louis Christoffel, former director.
“Our ambition is to be one of the biggest, best-run sports franchises in Europe,” McSorley says, noted “for the quality of the administration and the players on the ice.”
Stucki’s background is in finance, most recently in the jewelry industry, and includes a stint as a senior auditor for PriceWaterhouseCooper. He was head of finance and administration for Cartier Joaillerie, a branch of the Geneva Richemont group, until 2008, and he has worked as an independent consultant since then.
“We’re not only the owners, but it’s an owner-managed company,” says McSorley of his role and that of Quennec, his partner. “Hugh is involved as a poliltician, in the renovation project at Les Vernets, the new arena project and monitoring the programme of the foundation. I still have my hockey club responsibilities. I’m both manager and coach, two fulltime jobs in one.”
Thomas Déruns
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Chris McSorley’s message Monday 31 January to his team and supporters was grim: the acclaimed top forward for the Geneva-Servette Hockey Club, Thomas Déruns, 28 and Swiss, is moving to Bern. By Tuesday the club’s site sported a video that drew a large number of fans, with teammates’ reactions to Thomas leaving.
Déruns has been “one of its key players” for some 10 years, says McSorley, but the GSHC was obliged to let him move to SC Bern “in order to reduce the structural deficit of the club in the short and medium term if it cannot balance its budget which is amongst the four smallest of the League.” The player “has been in a position to negotiate a new contract for four or five seasons in the last few months,” McSorley’s statement notes. “The GSHC is no longer able in its current situation, to match the offers made by other clubs of the LNA (national league A).”
GSHC’s tight budget looked like it would get help from Geneva in the form of an improved and enlarged arena before the current 2010-2011 season opened, which would have let the team sell more VIP seats and get more sponsors. McSorley, who has been careful to speak well of Geneva authorities’ efforts to improve the aging (1958) Vernets arena, which has been in the political hot seat in Geneva politics, issued these remarks in a statement published on the team’s web site Monday:
Improved seats should help boost finances and set up in time for 23 December match
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva-Servette Hockey Club (GSHC) has a new VIP area, one of its requests to the city and canton in order to boost revenues and provide some fans with a better seating option. The 180 new seats are in place in time for tonight’s match against HC Davos, ranked number two. They provide a complete view of the playing area and of the large screen as well as of the rest of the club, and the VIP seats are closer to the ice.
This is the final game before the mid-season break for the holidays. GSHC in January will be on the ice again, but will also start to work with Geneva authorities on details for the improvements to the Vernet arena, for September 2011, and the completely new rink that is scheduled for September 2015.
Background, GenevaLunch interview with coach Chris McSorley and 2010 profile of the GSHC team
Interview: Chris McSorley, coach and part-owner, Geneva-Servette Hockey Club
“The mission of Geneva-Servette is not to be just a hockey team but a community”
Coach and co-owner of the Geneva Servette Hockey Club, Chris McSorley
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Chris McSorley says he is determined to sell the best steak and hamburgers in town at McSorley’s Pub, and to have a top-of-the-league hockey team playing just metres away. Both of these were looking like big challenges as December crept, cold and often damp, into Geneva, and politicians, enthusiastic about their local hockey team’s needs, back in June, coughed discreetly in winter over the same sums needed to improve the Vernets arena.
Getting the right kind of meat and a chef who understands North American tastes is not easy. More critically, the Geneva-Servette Hockey Club team that came within a hair of winning the Swiss title in March 2010 hasn’t yet found its legs this season. Thirty-two matches have given an uneven result of 17 losses and 15 wins. Zug and Davos matches on the 21st and 23rd of December remain, before the Christmas holiday break.
Then again, the last two matches have brought wins, despite a Geneva team suffering from injuries: the tide could be turning.
The coach, age 46, is a man who enjoys challenges, who is used to fighting for what he wants, starting from the days when he had to be quick to get his share of dinner at a table with eight children.
McSorley barks at the team, training hard, working up a sweat on the ice.
Two loves, both at Les Vernets
Food: the steak at McSorley’s Pub and Steakhouse at the Vernets arena is en route to being the best in town, the hamburger is very good, American-style hearty, and the chips/french fries are terrific. If you are feeling glum about Geneva’s winter fog, head to the rink’s restaurant for a cup of clam chowder or the excellent piping hot chili.
Hockey: McSorley has become a Geneva household name in his nearly 10 years in town, as coach and now part-owner of the Geneva-Servette Hockey Club, where he has built a strong hometown following.
His local fame is due only in part to the game. He’s worked tirelessly to open the sport up to a wider audience and to use hockey to lace together the local community, especially the English-speaking international community.
“Forty-five percent of the fan base is women,” he says with pride. He spoke at Chavannes-de-Bogis 17 November to a local group, Executives International, one more talk in a steady string of public speaking engagements. He likes to remind visitors to GSHC’s home, the Vernets ice rink, that the team works actively with non-profit groups, running a breast cancer fundraising Pink Night, for example, that literally turns the team pink for charity.
McSorley is Canadian, born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario, one of eight children in a devoutly Catholic family where hockey was nevertheless the first religion, he likes to joke.
He played professional hockey after finishing school. Younger brother Marty became a National Hockey League star, but Chris thought professional hockey was not on the books for him, after an accident, so he turned to studies. When Marty moved to the majors, big brother Chris, age 25, told himself, if he can do that, so can I!
Coaching, a dream come true
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva-Servette Hockey Club, crippled by injuries since the start of the season, had a turn-around weekend, with two wins to improve their 32-match record, which now stands at 15 wins, 17 losses. Friday night the score in an away match with Rapperswil-Jona was 5-2. Saturday the hometown match against HC Lugano was won 3-1.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Call it a lengthy early season warm-up, but Geneva-Servette Hockey Club‘s loss of its first four games this season were beginning to worry the crowd. And then Saturday night 25 September the Eagles pulled off a win, defeating the Zurich Lions 1-3, after the Geneva team’s loss to Bern earlier in the week.
Club has record season ticket sales
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - If anyone doubted that hockey is an increasingly popular sport in Geneva, season ticket sales for the Geneva-Servette Hockey Club have just proved them wrong: 4,800 season tickets sold in three months. The sales tally breaks the previous record, in 2009, of 4,740 season tickets, and the season has not yet opened. The team will play its last friendly 5 September in Geneva. Remaining season tickets are on sale on the GSHC web site.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch.com) – Geneva Servette Hockey Club has won the love and admiration not only of its growing number of local fans, but of the city and canton of Geneva. The two have thrown their financial support behind the club led by Chris McSorley, which finished the recent Swiss season in second place:
- CHF1.6 million for the team for the upcoming season and CHF500,000 for the next year
- CHF 2.75 for 2010-11 for the juniors team
- CHF800,000 for a study to redo the Vernet ice rink and stadium, a CHF8 million project that should lead to a new stadum by 2015.
The other good news for fans of the club: subscriptions for the new season go on sale 21 June.
Chris McSorley, Geneva Servette Hockey Club, with Alexandre de Montmollin, Geneva cantonal oenologist
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Canton Geneva presented its new wines to the world Tuesday 4 May and one of the guests was a knowledgeable fan: Chris McSorley, who heads the Geneva Servette Hockey Club, which just lost the Swiss hockey title in a tight best-of-seven battle with Bern.
McSorley, who also owns a restaurant, loves to cook and knows his wines, discovered that GSHC has a number of fans among the local winemakers.
His favourite wine? No spilling secrets!
As for the wines, 2009 was an excellent year in the region, with wines overall showing good balance and fruits that come through clearly.
The canton holds its hugely popular Open Day Saturday 29 May, when scores of producers open their doors to the public for a congenial winetasting day.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva Servette defeated SE Bern 2-1 in front of another sellout crowd to bring the best-of-seven series to 3-3 after the sixth match Thursday 22 April. The two teams now fight it out Saturday 24 April, in Bern, for the Swiss LNA championship. Geneva came back from being 3-1 down in the series.
The most exciting moment in the evening’s play came when the referees took a few minutes to decide to validate Geneva’s winning goal.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Ticket information update:
Paleo will feature Southern African artists in 2010, a nod to football’s World Cup, inlcuding Ubuhle Be Afrika.
Paleo Festival in June in Nyon, 20-25 July
Tickets were promptly sold out Wednesday noon 21 April, the first sales day, for everything but Tuesday night! Tickets for Sunday, the hottest night, went in 15 minutes and for the other nights within two hours. Paleo’s sale pitch for the remaining night: “The Tuesday night will swing between hip-hop and rock with, on one hand, the mythical French NTM and the inventive N*E*R*D and, on the other, the bruising rock of rock’n'roll legends Iggy and the Stooges and the Frenchman Saez, incisive and engaged.”
Paleo does a great job of fighting the ticket scalping problem with the Paleo bourse, starting 5 May, where you can buy or sell tickets at a fair price. This is also where you can get tickets for the Tuesday shows. And 1,500 tickets go on sale every morning at Paleo for shows that night, so there is always a last-minute chance to get tickets.
Geneva Servette Hockey Club versus SE Bern in the finals
Thursday 22 April in Geneva
Tickets sold out within two hours Wednesday morning to Thursday’s (22 April) sixth game in the best-of-seven series, so the ticket windows won’t be open at the Vernets ice rink.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva Servette played the hometown crowd hand and defeated Bern Tuesday evening 13 April, 5-4 (2-0, 1-2, 2-2) in the second match of the Swiss ice hockey championship best-of-seven series. The Vernet ice rink held a capacity crowd of 7,202.
Background, GSHC, GenevaLunch
Geneva Servette Hockey Club white t-shirt for the championship
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Geneva Servette Hockey Club is offering its fans special white t-shirts for upcoming matches to help turn the Vernets ice rink into a “patinoir blanche.” The team is asking fans to show up for the games wearing white tops, a repeat of what they did two years ago when they tried for the Swiss title. The Tag Group has donated 5,000 playoff t-shirts to support the project.
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Bern overpowered Geneva Servette Saturday 11 April in a hometown game, 3-2 (0-0, 1-0, 1-2), to take the lead in the Swiss championship. The teams played in front of a sellout crowd of 17,131, nearly three times the usual crowd size for Geneva hockey, with many stadiums holding only about 7,000 spectators. The two meet again Tuesday 14 April in Geneva. Ticket information
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Geneva Servette Hockey Club had a good weekend, thumping EHC Bienne 8-1 (3-1, 2-0, 3-0). Its fourth consecutive win pushes the club to the top of its class, where it is tied with Bern.
Links to other sites: Le Matin (Fre), TSR TV interview with Tobias Stephan (Fre)
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - A hometown crowd of 6,808 at Les Vernets in Geneva Sunday 3 January watched as the Geneva Servette Hockey Club (GSHC) defeated HC Ambrì-Piotta 6-2 (1-1, 2-1, 3-0).
The Right to Play Foundation will benefit from Tuesday night’s GSHC game against the Fribourg Dragons, which will be broadcast on TSR2. The foundation is supported by 14,000 athletes worldwide who use sports to help improve the lives of some 600,000 children.
Match: Les Vernets, Tuesday 5 January, 20:15, details GSHC
Title: Geneva-Servette HC (GSHC) – SCRJ Lakers
Location: Geneva, Patinoire des Vernets
Link out: Click here
Description: Geneva’s hockey club at home, LNA champtionship game
Start Time: 19:45
Date: 2009-12-22
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Geneva Servette handed a defeat to the Zurich Lions in front of the Zurich hockey club’s hometown fans, 6,915 of them, at the Hallenstadion. The Geneva team came from behind with only 10 minutes left in the match, for a final score of ZSC Lions – GSHC ap 3-4 (1-1, 0-2, 2-0). GSHC is now ranked fourth in its Swiss group.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Geneva Servette Hockey Club defeated HC Ambrì-Piotta 5-2 (2-0; 2-1; 1-1) Friday 16 October at the Vernets ice rink, to a good early season crowd of 6,185.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A crowd of 6,200 turned out at Vernets Tuesday evening to see GE Servette defeat Lugano: GSHC – HC Lugano 2-1 (1-1, 1-0, 0-0).
