Willkommen – Post Finance Arena
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Situated on the predominantly-hilly, so-called Swiss Plateau in the national capital city is the home rink to the incredibly popular professional ice hockey club, SCHLITTSCHUH CLUB BERN, that has now boasted the best per-game attendance compared to all others throughout the whole of Europe for the past 10 consecutive years in a row — the POST FINANCE ARENA.
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The Post Finance Arena is the largest rink in Switzerland as well as one of the largest facilities used for ice hockey in all of Europe. The rink was originally opened in 1967 as the Eisstadion Allmend and later assumed its current name as part of a sponsorship deal prior to the start of the 2007/08 season. In light of the arena’s age and with the 2009 IIHF World Championships scheduled to take place in die Schweiz, the stadium owners in Bern invested 105 million Swiss francs (CHF – roughly $ 114 million U.S. dollars today) for extension and restoration of the building. The work was completed prior to the start of the 2008/09 campaign with the majority of the construction focused on renovation and expansion of the so-called VIP Zone, which now includes 21 luxury boxes.
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The official capacity for the POST FINANCE ARENA in Bern would be 17,131 at present. Oddly enough, the Swiss stadium actually still has only 6,709 fixed seats. But the facility does host a world-famous standing-room-only section that is traditionally well-stocked with passionate SC Bern supporters for each and every Nationalliga A game. One notable feature of the eye-opening second level (standing-room-only section) is the very steep incline; the above photo provides a good look at the railings in the s.r.o. section and captures youth players at practice.
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A bird’s eye view from way up in the so-called “rafters” of the world-famous, second level standing-room-only section of the Post Finance Arena in Bern.
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Finnish Olympic silver medalist REIJO RUOTSALAINEN (above), the diminutive, smooth-skating rearguard who represented the New York Rangers at the 1986 NHL All-Star Game and earned two Stanley Cup rings with the powerful Edmonton Oilers in 1987 and 1990, also contributed to another three Nationalliga A titles with Schlittschuh Club Bern in six seasons spread out over four different tours of duty for the capital city side in Switzerland.
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RYAN CALLAHAN (24) of the New York Rangers, who went on to collect a silver medal with the United States at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada, goes to the forehand and beats Metallurg Magnitogorsk goaltender ANDREI MEZIN, the three-time Belarus Olympic netminder who backstopped his country to a famous upset of Sweden in the quarterfinal round at the 2002 Winter Games at Salt Lake City, with 20 seconds remaining to allow the National Hockey League representative to down their Russian counterparts in the VICTORIA CUP match staged in early October of 2008 at the Post Finance Arena in Bern, Switzerland.
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DAN FRITSCHE of the New York Rangers, who scored one of the goals that allowed the Original Six NHL side to rally from a deficit of three and defeat Russian Super League club Metallurg Magnitogorsk, holds the Victoria Cup trophy aloft in front of the official crowd of 13,749 at the Post Finance Arena in early October of 2008. The native of Ohio, who had been acquired by the Blueshirts after skating in 187 NHL games for the Columbus Blue Jackets the previous three years, only played 16 regular season games and scored just one goal with the Rangers before being traded to the Minnesota Wild in late January of 2009. Fritsche has spent the last two seasons lacing his skates in Switzerland again, this time with HC Servette Geneva.
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Russia captain ALEXEI MOROZOV (95) of Ak Bars Kazan, who was once chosen in the first round of the 1995 National Hockey League Draft and later skated 451 NHL games over six seasons for the Pittsburgh Penquins, observes as United States forward JOE PAVELSKI (8) of the San Jose Sharks goes flying during the 2009 IIHF World Championships semi-final contest at the Post Finance Arena in Bern, Switzerland; a third period goal by SKA St. Petersburg center Konstantin Gorovikov with less than two minutes remaining propelled eventual gold-medalist Russia to a 3-2 victory over the United States, who ended the tournament in fourth place.
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The Zamboni and its driver begin to take laps at the Post Finance Arena in the capital city of Switzerland to prepare for the third game of the best-of-seven Nationalliga A Playoff Final between host SC Bern and visiting SC Zurich this past Saturday just ahead of the Easter Holiday.
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