Lugano Hockey

We went to our first HC Lugano game on Wednesday with people from Ryan's office. Maura (pronounced Mow-ra) has season tickets, and she blocked out some seats for us. The beginning was strange... a series of serene images played on the jumbo screen with Enya type music in the background. I'm pretty sure they were the exact images you get as stock screen savers when you buy a new computer. Think waterfalls, pretty meadows, and snowy landscapes. This picture is of Caribbean looking beach. Screams hockey, doesn't it???


Then, when the team started to come out, the music went straight to Rage Against the Machine. F words and all. It was insane.

We had a great time watching the game, but I think we liked watching the people even more. The "superfan" sections were on opposing sides of the rink, without a way to connect the two (people on one half of the stadium cannot get to people on the other side of the stadium). We were told this was done to eliminate the possibility of fighting. Here's a picture of Lugano's side. Their sign reads "Lugano one faith."


The cheers (hockey fans probably don't call them "cheers") coming from each side were HILARIOUS. I really can't even write half of them down they were so vulgar. We asked our Italian friends to translate. The first, "Black and White, Black and White, you are s*&t." Pretty simple, that one. The next was, "you who doesn't jump, is a farmer." This was a little harder to understand. Apparently, the opposing team was from a rural area, and our friends said that this cheer was very "heavy."

The cheers got heavier and heavier, but surprisingly, each side waited for the other to finish before they started. I thought this was very Swiss - very polite. If the cheer was particularly "heavy" the opposing side would shoot the bird at their opponents. But STILL, they waited for them to finish.

Lugano won 6-0, which was embarrassing for the other team. At one point they started to throw things onto the rink. People came out with a little broom and pan, and as soon as they'd head for the exit, the opposing team's fans would throw something else. Ryan called it "1 2 3 throw more."

It was a lot of fun, and we dont get to hang out with a big group very often, so we REALLY enjoyed ourselves.