Will the Valais Arena become a little less virtual this December 11?
Valais Arena
I am from Sierra. I have 55 brooms. I grew up on a bridge, before it was condemned by the floods of the Rhône, in the Cité du Soleil. I must have frozen the tips of my 43 at least 739 times in an ice rink in Graben that I always considered dilapidated and which is surprisingly still allowed to accommodate thousands of people during professional hockey matches.
On February 14, 2021, in the columns of “Matin Dimanche”, I revealed the first outlines of the project for a new ice rink and new residential eco-district, in Condémines, by Chris McSorley and his first business partners.
Since that date, twice a month, in order to follow its evolution, I have met the thinking heads and the kingpins of the file, with the exception of a tall man burned by a publication and who put me away in his list of “persona non grata”. I asked hundreds of questions and got as many substantiated answers, sometimes after being redirected to experts in specific fields (the price of land or the energy recovered by ice production, for example).
From “we’ll see” to “yes”
In recent months, I have also shared a few drinks with elected officials, from several political persuasions, at the local level. These people too, with the exception of a few inevitably stubborn ones, have gradually gone through the stages of “we’ll see” and “yes but” before arriving at a “yes” which resonates as obvious.
This is why this December 11, almost four years after his first contacts established with the president of the City of Sierre Pierre Berthod, Chris McSorley will finally know if the people of Sierre, through their General Council, finally want, or not , enter the 21st century.
For the initiators, the indicators are green (we are talking about the color of the fire and not the elected officials of this color). That will be yes. It remains to be seen whether the proportion will be sufficient to avoid a popular vote which would lose another six months (a season for HC Sierre) on the file.
It is however regrettable, even if I am a champion of democracy, that the largest project of the City of Sierre since the central artery was tarred (or that Graben was erected, was around the same time in last millennium) is attacked, without any real argument, by a small group with a tickled ego.
The real question avoided
Let’s say that the credibility of a character who praised the McSorley project in an email a few months ago and who tramples on it today tends towards nothing.
However, the echo found among the usual Woko-leftist newspapers has diverted the subject from the real substantive question.
Are the general councilors of the city of Sierre ready to whistle professional hockey out of play in their own municipality?
Because they have no real plan B to offer.
And because, without plan B, the national league will no longer grant a playing license to HC Sierre.
That would still be stupid since plan A guarantees the future of their city, their region, their hockey team. A bit like in Bienne and Friborg where in more or less comparable markets, a new XL-sized stadium allowed clubs to exist in the present and imagine a future.
And that, forever, at aperitif and elsewhere, the 60 general councilors will be able to boast of having been, too, the builders of a project which will make their city and, probably also, their hockey club shine.
