Marketing - ice cold

You probably only get to experience the construction of a new stadium once in your sports marketing career," says Silvano Monn (46). "Helping to shape the EVZ's move into the Bossard Arena is a unique experience." Monn knows what he's talking about, after all, he's been on the ice for a long time: before the marketing professional took over responsibility for advertising, sponsorship and events at EVZ, he was in charge of marketing for HC Lugano.
The Grisons native shares his excitement about the opening of the ice rink with the EVZ fans. "Everyone is euphoric," reports Monn. "The fans are excited about the new, stylish stadium and the development of the EVZ's game in the new season. We not only sense this, we can also prove it: Before the pre-sale officially started, we had already sold 2,800 season tickets - within three weeks. There is great interest in seat subscriptions and advertising presence. The acquisition of sponsors has also been successful. Many of them have approached us of their own accord." A box for 15 people in the new stadium costs from CHF 120,000 upwards, static advertising between CHF 4,000 and CHF 80,000 depending on placement and size, and digital advertising between CHF 9,000 and CHF 20,000.
Euphoria and feel-good temperatures
The old Herti ice rink falls in spring, in its 44th year. The Bossard Arena, which has been under construction directly behind the old stadium in Zug's Herti area since April 2008, will take over its job with the inauguration festival from August 20 to 22. The first preparation tournament in the Bossard Arena will take place from August 27 to 29 on the occasion of the Kolin Cup. Part of the euphoria that is currently blowing through Zug is certainly due to the new stadium: the Bossard Arena is the most modern ice hockey arena in Switzerland and can even boast the Minergie seal of approval. Unlike other ice rinks, it is not a gigantic energy-destroying machine, but a model building: every ounce of waste heat is used and the roof is covered with solar cells. As a result, the building consumes no more than half the usual amount of energy for ice stadiums. But that's not all that's worth mentioning about the new stadium: it accommodates 4,300 seats and 2,700 standing places, ten VIP boxes, an event terrace for around 100 people, a VIP restaurant, various food stands and a sports bar. The sports bar is open to the public 365 days a year.
The ice surface of the Bossard Arena is lowered five meters into the ground so that all match visitors have an equally good view of the pitch. Visitors to the stadium can watch image films, commercials and spectator information on the center cluster on the stadium ceiling and 40 multimedia screens. And the new stadium is cozy and warm: temperatures inside the Bossard Arena will be between 12 °Celsius and 16 °Celsius. Compared to the usual minus 5 °Celsius in ice rinks, this is extremely pleasant. Not only the men, who have always tried to hide their shivering, but especially women who are prone to frost will be delighted with this climate.
warm-up - and perhaps encourage them to go to a game or two. Then the EVZ would have achieved one of its goals: to get more women interested in ice hockey. The EVZ marketing team does not need to specifically advertise the greater comfort of the new stadium. Word has already got around that you don't need winter gear to watch a game in the new arena: "Most of our donors are men," Silvano Monn gives an example. "In the Hertistadion, many of them had rented a seat just for themselves. Now we have too few seats because many patrons suddenly rent two seats, one for themselves and one for their wife. We know this trend from arenas in Germany, but also from football stadiums in Basel and Bern: with a new, comfortable stadium, the proportion of women increases from around 7 or 8 percent to often over 30 percent."
Relationships on ice
Mirjam van Zweden (45), the first female board member of the EVZ, is delighted with the expected increase in women: "We will score points with many women, not only with the higher temperature, but also with the gastronomy, the great design of the arena and spacious, beautifully designed sanitary facilities. The EVZ is the sporting crowd puller in Central Switzerland. In future, however, attending an EVZ game will no longer be just a sporting event, but a happening." The Bossard Arena will also become an attraction outside of the games: In future, parents who bring their children to junior training will be able to enjoy a coffee in the stadium restaurant or at the sports bar while watching their offspring from the terrace. The stadium restaurant is operated by EVZ Gastro AG, which was founded specifically for the catering in the arena. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of EVZ Sport AG. Monn, Van Zweden and their team are responsible for assigning names to the various restaurants that match the CI/CD of the arena.
The stadium restaurant is open to the public all year round. The VIP restaurant and the event terrace are intended for larger social gatherings, such as company dinners, general meetings or networking events for EVZ sponsors. "For our sponsors, the EVZ is a hub that enables a special form of networking," explains Monn. "Because we see them as partners to whom we want to offer more than just one stiff meeting a year." EVZ supporters get to know each other at events and benefit from synergies. The new stadium with its various catering options offers the perfect conditions for this.
Marketing at freezing point
Around 30 ice hockey matches are played in the Bossard Arena every year, contested by a total of 17 EVZ teams: the first team, which plays in the National League A, the second team, twelve junior teams, two senior teams and one veteran team. Around 180,000 spectators a year will watch the games live in the stadium, with many more watching at home on television. An attractive array of spotlights, especially for sponsors and advertising companies - and plenty of work for the EVZ marketing team.
The special challenge at the moment is the "double" stadium: The EVZ marketers promote the games in the old Herti Stadium, look after fans and sponsors, help players and coaches with administrative problems, sell tickets, produce match flyers and the EVZ magazine and deal with media inquiries; At the same time, they acquire and look after sponsors for the new stadium, take out box and seat subscriptions, sell poster, perimeter board, ice, jersey, helmet and multimedia screen advertising, take care of online advertising, build up the catering facilities in the stadium, implement advertising in the restaurants and initiate events for 2010 and 2011. Monn and Co. can and should give free rein to their ideas for all marketing activities, whereby all measures must of course be consistent and fit in with the EVZ.
"Don't sit on your ideas, let them dance for you" is Monn's motto. In fact, the marketing team has come up with all sorts of ideas to flood the ice hockey club's coffers: EVZ-
Subscribe to future shares, purchase limited-edition jerseys, join a donor club, become a patron, immortalize yourself with an engraving on the "Wall of EVZ" at the entrance to the stadium or become an Executive
package, which allows you to use the EVZ network and attend matches without having to use your name.

Boundaries make you creative
The EVZ marketers are more restricted when it comes to designing the advertising spaces in the stadium, as they naturally cannot ignore the structural conditions of the arena: For example, the advertising spaces on the third board are different sizes because the architect placed the emergency exits in the middle of the board. "We had to find advertising that would fit on areas 17.97 meters, 15.12 meters or 4.31 meters wide," says Monn. "That required a lot of creativity. Of course, you could have measured the whole area beforehand, left out the 37.5 meters of emergency exit and converted the rest into advertising space."
The exact height and width of the logos that may be placed on the players' jerseys and helmets is also specified. This is regulated by the Swiss Hockey League. "However, you can always get very close to any limit, and in certain cases it is also possible to be creative with the regulations," says Monn. "We also offer completely new advertising opportunities in the Bossard Arena, for example in the catering areas and on large screens." Exploiting creative leeway is obviously one of Monn's specialties.
Monn and Van Zweden not only secure the advertising budgets of companies, they are also responsible for the production quality of the advertising material. EVZ works with specialized partners for perimeter advertising. "It is important to us that the advertising spaces are also produced professionally and in accordance with CI/CD
are designed," says Van Zweden. "In the Herti Stadium, the boards were a real hodgepodge, and every possible surface was decorated with panels and advertising boards. We don't want that in the Bossard Arena. Everything should be of one piece and look nice."
Commitment pays off
The EVZ marketers have to plan the advertising on the ice in the long term. Before experts start casting the ice sheet, it must be clear where which advertising foil is to be used. "We have a total of nine areas on the ice where our sponsors can place their logos," explains Monn. "On the center circle, next to the four bullpen points in the middle and two each on the left and right in front of the goal. In the bossard
Arena, Postfinance in the center and Eichhof and Chicco D'Oro in the middle zone are already set, we are still negotiating with interested parties for the other four spaces."
The ice surface is cast in several stages: First, the first layer is sprayed onto the very flat, cooled concrete. Channels around 30 centimetres wide in the concrete surface ensure that any condensation can drain off. Once the bottom layer of the ice slab is around four centimetres thick, the sponsor logos are laid out on the ice. The ice is then piled up until the entire sheet has reached a thickness of eight to ten centimetres. Before the games, two centimetres of ice are sanded down again so that the advertising is clearly visible. However, the layer over the advertising foil must not be too thin, otherwise the banners could become a stumbling block for the players. Removing a foil before the normal term of a sponsorship contract expires - for example because a sponsor has dropped out or the brand is undergoing a rebranding - is costly. "Our sponsorship agreements run for at least one year, but of course we prefer two or three years," says Monn. "But the ice is produced anew after every season anyway, so it would be bearable if a logo had to be replaced after this time."
The largest advertising space in the new ice stadium is the arena itself: As with the construction's well-known role models, the Allianz Arena in Munich, the SAP Arena in Walldorf and the Postfinance Arena in Bern, the new ice stadium bears the name of a money-spinning company: the Bossard Group. The globally active Zug-based trading company, which specializes in screws, has secured the naming rights for the next ten years - for "well over two million Swiss francs", according to Zug mayor Dolfi Müller. EVZ was able to secure Zuger Kantonalbank as its general sponsor, which made a one-off payment of three million francs for the new stadium. A lot of money for a flagship - but it already seems clear that the investment will pay off. Now all that remains is to get the ball into the corner.
Anne-Friederike Wilhelm

EV Zug - the new stadium in fast motion
2004: Competition to tender the project
12/2005-02/2008: Overall project development with zoning plan amendment, preliminary project for the overall development, building permit procedure for the stadium site, development of the energy concept and binding purchase offer for the acquisition of the land by the City of Zug
04/2008-04/2010: Start of overall realization with ground-breaking ceremony, concrete work, grandstand construction, roof construction,
Façade work, installation of the ice panel; start of construction work on the adjacent residential and commercial building;
Demolition of the old curling hall
04/2010-09/2010: Demolition of the old stadium after playoff; commissioning of the new stadium; handover of the new stadium
ice stadium to the city of Zug
09/2010-04/2011: Construction of the underground parking garage; start of construction on the town square; completion of the residential development
by 09/2011: Completion of the outdoor ice rink and the residential and commercial building
by 12/2011: Completion of the town square

Passionate about playing university hockey: EVZ marketing manager Silvano Monn.