The Hockey Club Milano is back and will have red and blue colours: it will play at the Ice Fiera Arena

“I’m going to skate at the Fair”: it is with this slogan that Giovanni Bozzetti, president of the Fiera Milano Foundation, officially launches the project for the future Milan ice sports facility. “The Olympics has lit a flame that cannot be extinguished – says Bozzetti, recalling the enthusiasm of the five-hoop days in February, with Fiera the scene of long track competitions and many ice hockey tournament matches -: after words, deeds. The legacy of the Games must also be concrete”. At his side, in the Foundation’s headquarters, Andrea Gios, president of Federghiaccio, partner of the initiative and Davide Fadani, 25 year old goalkeeper of the Olympic national team and the Swiss Kloten, who grew up in Milan.

The project

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Everything is confirmed: the Temporary Ice Fiera Arena – this is the name of the facility – which is intended to have a lifespan of three years starting from October, will be built in a tent structure created specifically near the South Gate, not in an existing pavilion, but still within the confines of the fair. An external route of a dozen minutes on foot will connect it to the metro and train stations. The load-bearing structure will be in galvanized steel with a double anti-condensation PVC cover, with a surface area of ​​5710 square metres. It will have a capacity of approximately 4000 spectators. The track will be 26×60 meters, NHL championship model. The investment is approximately 5 million, self-financed by the Foundation. In 2029, elsewhere, it is expected to give way to a permanent facility. Meanwhile, in May, the foundations of the structure will be laid, in June the tent structure will be erected, in September work will be done on the rink, on the stands and on the services and in October, in fact, skating will begin. “We are looking for a title sponsor – admits Bozzetti – and we are thinking about an inauguration event”.

The prospects

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“For us – says Gios – it is a dream come true. Milan is so hungry for ice and, above all as an Olympic metropolis, it cannot do without at least one dedicated arena. For the development of our disciplines it is a fundamental step. We support the project, together with the Government, the Lombardy Region and the Municipality of Milan, in support of the top management activity, but also that of the growth of the youngest practitioners. The facility will become the home of the rediscovered city ice hockey team, which will revive a history glorious also made up of 32 championships, but will also be used for figure skating, for basic short track and for sledge hockey. Aside from the short track, which requires special protective mats instead of balustrades, we will be able to host prestigious international events, for example a stage of the figure Grand Prix or a real challenge Eurochallenge tournament, starting from the “fees” that the ice hockey team will pay and keeping the cost of the other hours low ice, will be to make it economically sustainable: regarding management there are already concrete business plan proposals and an organizational chart idea. But we will have to look into this further while also waiting for the reopening of the Agora in the city, expected at the end of 2027. In the meantime, I thank the Foundation for the timeliness with which it has moved”.

the team

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Gios, regarding the new team, offers some previews. There is a name: Hockey Club Milano. And there are the possible club colors and, therefore, shirt colours, although for now only on sketches: red and blue for the first, red and white for the second, with the Milan coat of arms in the center in both cases. They hark back, both, to the golden seasons of ice hockey in the city, between the 1980s and 1990s, with Saima attracting thousands of fans and a passion that has never waned. The unborn team, barring any surprises, will already participate in the next ICE, the Central European professional league which now includes thirteen teams from Austria, Slovenia, Hungary and Italy (Bolzano and Brunico), with capitals such as Vienna, Ljubljana and Budapest involved. “The context – guarantees Gios – is of a high level, as will the team”. The related plan – an annual budget of around six million (“But the former, being a long-term investment, will not break even” admits Gios) -, once the involvement of the Florida Panthers NHL franchise through general manager Bill Zito, in the same role also with the US national team fresh from Olympic gold, has faded, involves two realities. Christian Leitner of Vipiteno, a leading company in cableways and, through Realice, in technologies related to ice rinks (it collaborated for the Milan Cortina rinks) and a cryptocurrency company, the US House of Doge, which already boasts important investments in sport, in particular with Triestina Calcio (the relationship, last month, also led to the club being involved in an investigation by the Prosecutor’s Office) and in ice hockey Sierre, the queen of the second division Switzerland. Member of the board of directors, general manager and head coach is the 64-year-old Canadian (from Ontario) Chris McSorley, older brother of Marty, former NHL star: former England coach, a life at Geneva and then also at Lugano, he could be the strong man of the new team. The request to register for the championship, submitted at the beginning of March, must be approved in April-May by the general assembly made up of the clubs. Next season will start on September 18th, so the first matches will be played away. The composition of the management staff, the technical staff and the roster of players are to be defined. But the priorities, up to now, have been different.

the player

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The closure is up to Fadani: “For those like me who started playing in this city – he admits – today’s news is worth a lot. Since 2019, when Milan was awarded the 2026 Olympics, I have hoped that there could be a future for Milanese hockey and so now it is. It gives me great pleasure and makes me proud, because with Italy’s performances we have contributed to creating enthusiasm. Milan, over time, has demonstrated that it has great passion and culture for this sport, I am sure that we will have an important tomorrow. For now, I am under contract with Kloten. But who knows, in the future…”.