Lausanne hockey club firings stir culture clash controversy

Controversy continues to brew at the Lausanne Hockey Club after one of the owners, Canadian expat Barry Alter, fired the team’s top management members.

Alter dismissed Robert Lei Ravello, chairman of the club and three other administrators, along with Gérard Scheidegger, manager for the past four years.

They received the news via a two-page letter on Sunday, a day after the ice hockey team lost 3-2 in a heart-breaking final game against Bienne in a best-of-seven playoff series.

A victory against Bienne, the bottom team in the Swiss national A league, would have promoted Lausanne, the top-ranked team in the B league, for the 2010-11 season.

It was the second year in a row that the Lions have finished atop the B league only to fail to win promotion.

The club, which regularly attracts sell-out crowds of 9,000 people at the Malley stadium in the Vaud capital, appears to be an otherwise successful operation.

But the removal of the Francophone management by Alter, who admits to not speaking French, has the overtones of a clash of cultures.

Alter, a native of Toronto who played in the Swiss national league, could not be reached from comment on Wednesday morning.

But he earlier told media in the Vaud capital that he was forced to act because the management was unable to offer the depth needed for the club.

Among other issues, he said sponsoring “was insufficient.”

An informed source told Swisster there were also concerns about financial irregularities and lack of communication between management and the owners.

The dismissed board members were replaced by Patrick de Preux, a notary, Christophe Bally, director of human resources at Rolex, the Geneva-based watch company, and Alter himself, who is taking on the job of chairman.

Sascha Weibel, a former Lausanne HC player, was named to replace Scheidegger as manager.

Ravello and Scheidegger have declined to comment on the situation publicly.

The firings stirred debate in local newspapers, although the discord failed to prevent hundreds of fans from showing up for an “After-Season Party” at the Malley stadium on Tuesday, where team players signed autographs.

Alter was on hand with team coach John Van Boxmeer, a former player with the Montreal Canadiens, among other National Hockey League teams in North America.

The 24 Heures newspaper reported that Alter declined to answer questions from reporters.

“As I don’t speak French there is a language barrier,” the newspaper reported him saying.

“What I want to say is that I understand the concern of those who like the LHC - people don’t like change, it's something they fear.”

Alter added that he wanted to be given a chance to show fans that he had made the right decision.

Chris McSorley, coach and part-owner of the Genève-Servette hockey team, declined to comment directly on the affair.

“Certainly Barry Alter has the best interests of the future of the Lausanne team,” McSorley told Swisster.

“He’s a good man.”

McSorley, also a Canadian expat, said he and his associates helped Alter and a group of owners reorganize the Lausanne team in 2007 with the interest of developing a good rivalry with Genève-Servette.

But he scotched rumours that the firings occurred so that he and his management team from Geneva can move to the Vaud capital.

“It’s a sensational story but there’s no truth to us going to Lausanne,” he said.

“Our focus is 110 percent on Geneva.”

The Geneva team lost the final game in the national league A playoff finals to Bern on Saturday.

It was the second time in three years that Geneve-Servette has reached the finals only to lose.

“I kind of feel like the bridesmaid,” McSorley commented.

But he said his goal is to continue working with the Geneva team and to lobby for improvement to the Vernets arena, which accommodates 7,200 people.

One of the shortcomings of the arena is the lack of VIP boxes - they only accommodate 114 spectators at the moment, McSorley said.

Geneve-Servette is awaiting approval from the city and the canton on a plan to add an additional 300 VIP seats in time for next season, something which he said would add two million francs in annual revenues for the team.

“It’s critical that something be done,” McSorley said, noting that the Vernets arena is almost 60 years old and is badly in need of refurbishing.

The Geneva team is put at a disadvantage to other teams in the top-tier Swiss hockey league that have new or renovated arenas to play in, he said.

The team’s players are being honoured on Wednesday by the city and canton of Geneva and McSorley said he was hoping for confirmation from municipal officials on the VIP seating issue.