Mark Streit renounces power struggle with Marc Lüthi and leaves

Mark Streit cannot have a career at the SCB because, as a junior, he is not considered athletically fit for professional hockey. So he moves to the Gottéron juniors in 1994. He only plays briefly for the SCB during the NHL lockout (2012/13) (32 games/25 points). But by then he is already an NHL professional and brings his friend John Tavares with him to Bern for a guest appearance. In 2021 he returns from North America and becomes a co-owner of the SCB and a member of the SCB secret lodge. Now, exactly 30 years after the SCB no longer wanted him as a junior, he has said goodbye to the SCB. Or to put it more casually: in 1994 the SCB no longer wants Mark Streit. In 2024 Mark Streit no longer wants the SCB.

The relationship between Mark Streit and the SCB would have been perfect material for director Franz Schnyder.Image: KEYSTONE

SCB secret lodge? The largest hockey group in Europe is owned by the SCB Group. This stock corporation includes the various subsidiaries such as SCB Sport AG and Beizen-AG. The owners of the SCB Group form a very secretive group of men (there are no women), some sit on the board of directors, but their names are not mentioned. The SCB secret lodge, in other words. A term that doesn’t seem to particularly annoy Marc Lüthi: “Call it a sub-lodge or a senior lodge or, for all I care, a Masonic lodge.”

Mark Streit has also been part of this SCB secret lodge since 2021. Now he has sold his shares to one of the board members and has left completely. He does not say how much he passed on his SCB shares for: “I am not allowed to reveal that because of the shareholder agreement. Otherwise I will have to pay a fine.” He now owns two SCB securities: “I still have two season tickets in seating area H, which I pay for. Very good seats where my father used to watch the games.” Mark Streit is now only an SCB season ticket holder. An idea that even an SCB romantic would be suspicious.

Mark Streit, why did you withdraw from the SCB? “Yes, I know, you have to ask. We had different opinions. I don’t want to go into detail.” He doesn’t want to go into detail about what those opinions were. “We all get along well with each other.”

Different opinions at the SCB mean different views than those of Marc Lüthi. Anyone who does not share the same views as Marc Lüthi has three options: adapt, leave voluntarily, or be removed, as was the case recently with Crown Prince Raeto Raffainer. Mark Streit is not someone who likes any kind of dispute – and left voluntarily. He says there was no dispute. Different opinions do not have to lead to a dispute. You can leave beforehand.

Raeto Raffainer had to resign.Image: keystone

Mark Streit is now investing his energy in two companies in which he has a stake: the watch brand Norqain, based in Nidau, Bern (official timekeeper at the Spengler Cup, among other things), and the mineral water brand Adelbodner. “I will be stepping up my involvement in this area.” He continues to maintain very good relations with the world’s most important league and especially with the NHL players’ union, and says he will be traveling more in North America again.

This certainly brings us to an explanation as to why Mark Streit is leaving the SCB. He says he could have, for example, also aspired to the position of sports director. “But jobs in ice hockey require round-the-clock commitment.” Or in other words: all or nothing. And since Mark Streit doesn’t do things by halves, it’s clear why he doesn’t want to take on a job in the hockey universe of Bern after his brilliant career in North America. Understandable and smart: someone who earns $41.50 million gross in the NHL and has now started a family no longer needs to struggle in the hamster wheel of a hockey job at the SCB.

Mark Streit played twelve seasons in the NHL and won the championship with Pittsburgh.Image: KEYSTONE

A hockey world traveler who has played more than 400 games in our top league, more than 800 NHL games and has taken part in 13 World Cups and 4 Olympic tournaments may come to a different conclusion about how the SCB should be organized and managed in what is perhaps the most delicate phase of sporting and infrastructural change in history. And he may also judge the personnel at various levels differently than someone who has known and judged the hockey world primarily from the inside of the SCB since 1998. And since Mark Lüthi’s views are gospel in Bern, there are only two options: disagree or leave.

Since Mark Streit – contrary to what his name might suggest – simply doesn’t like arguments, he decided not to get into a power struggle with Marc Lüthi and left. That’s a shame and a loss for the SCB.

The 1000 Club of Swiss Ice Hockey

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The 1000 Club of Swiss Ice Hockey

So far, 17 ice hockey players (as of October 6, 2023) have managed to play 1000 or more games in the highest Swiss league. These are them:

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