Sports director Paolo Duca, coach Luca Cereda in the background. Image: KEYSTONE / TI-PRESS
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Eismeister Zaugg
Whining was yesterday – Ambri’s brilliant marketing strategy
Whining and collecting money was once Ambri’s fifth season in Leventina. Those days are over. Sports director Paolo Duca is a “Marc Lüthi of the mountains” when it comes to marketing.
Do a lot, sometimes good things and talk about it. Good public relations work according to this principle. No other sports director follows this golden rule in times of virus crisis like Ambris Paolo Duca.
Ambri has been reporting news at regular intervals since the end of February. Contract extensions, injuries to be cured or small transfers. No spectacular news. But mostly good news that signals the loyal fans that the sports director is moving and Ambri is alive. Paolo Duca says he actually saved some reports for the period after the season. «When the game is running, it is better to concentrate on the sport. News or rumors about players and their contracts only create unrest. »
An Ambri legend: Paolo Duca, here as a player. Image: TI-PRESS
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Except for the filling of the foreigner positions and the commitment of another Swiss player (“but that’s still open”), all transfers have now been made. The cooperation with the Ticino Rockets continues, Ambri still holds a majority with 51 percent of the shares. Lugano and HC Davos are also part of the farm team. Whether coach Alex Reinhard remains, is still open.
And so it happens that Ambri has kept his passionate fans happy with good news from the early end of the season (February 29). The contracts with Matt D’Agostini (33) and Brian Flynn (31) have been extended. Two foreigner licenses are still to be issued. “We will certainly redeem one of them for a striker,” says Paolo Duca. With Benjamin Conz and Damiano Ciaccio (new from Langnau) he filled the goalie positions very well and coach Luca Cereda has long enjoyed cult status before his fourth season. Two good goalkeepers and a charismatic coach are almost half the battle.
Damiano Ciaccio, here in the dress of the SCL Tigers, now one of the two goalkeepers of the HC Ambri-Piotta. Image: KEYSTONE
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So the sports director did his homework. It is now becoming apparent that the team is nominally as strong as last season. Austrian striker Fabio Hofer is moving to Biel. But he is more than replaced by Daniele Grassi – he returns home to Ambri after four years abroad (Kloten, SCB).
A more or less equally strong team is actually no reason for optimism. Ambri finished the last qualification in second last place. But it is due to a classification under the true value and the excessive burden (Champions League, Spengler Cup, championship). The Champions League is now a thing of the past, which Ambri took very seriously and meant that the team was already in top form in August. Looking back, Paolo Duca confirms that this load was probably too great.
He does not yet want to formulate a goal for the new season and says for fun: “We want to secure league preservation …” There will be no relegation next season. Ambri is good enough to hit the playoffs. A look back at the classifications of the past two years enables us to make a prediction: Ambri will finish the qualification between 5th and 11th place. Like all other clubs, summer training in Ambri is also affected. Joint training is not possible. But the players see each other twice a week. With a joint “video training”, comparable to a “video conference” in business.
“Tell me, how was it back then?”
Season tickets have been sold since the penultimate Friday. The prices have not been increased. Paolo Duca says the feedback is positive. Although no one knows yet whether the season will begin on September 18 as scheduled and whether it can be played in front of spectators. “For many fans, buying a season ticket is a way to show that they stand by us, especially in difficult times.” The commitment to Ambri is simply an “amore senza confini – per semper”. A love without limits and forever. Just as it is sometimes announced on banners in the stadium. And whoever buys a season ticket now is guaranteed a place in the new arena. The new stadium will open in autumn 2021. So Ambri is facing a historic season: the last in the old Valascia. In 50 years’ time, children will ask their grandmother or grandfather: «Have you seen a game in Valascia? Tell me how was it back then? »
Going into her last season: the venerable Valascia. Image: KEYSTONE / TI-PRESS
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In summer there are no longer any great sports excitements. But politically. Paolo Duca does not say what opinions his club will take in the league’s groundbreaking political decisions over the next few weeks. “What we want, we will represent where the decisions are made.” The sports director is not interested in public hockey political debates or even polemics. Ambris makers are well networked and the guarantors north of the Gotthard report that Ambri will have a clear opinion on the upcoming debates and votes at the league meetings in June and August: no increase in the number of foreigners and the introduction of a salary ceiling.
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