HC Ambrì-Piotta


Hockey Club Ambrì-Piotta is a Swiss professional ice hockey club and a member of the National League. The club was founded September 19, 1937, and is also known as "Bianco-Blu". Though they have never won the league championship, the club has not been relegated to the Swiss League since being promoted in 1985, the same year that saw the arrival of Dale McCourt.
The team plays its home games in the 6'775-seat Gottardo Arena.
WWW Official Site

History

and Piotta are two small villages in the municipality of Quinto, located in the northern part of the valley Leventina canton Ticino, with a combined population of 500 people. Ambrì-Piotta has more than 40 fan clubs all over Europe. For major events, like the derby against southern rivals HC Lugano, the fans compose a choreography. When Ambrì wins a game, fans rejoice to the valley anthem "La Montanara".
Since 1959, they have called their self-owned Valascia as their home. Standing 1,000 metres above sea level, it is an open-ended facility with 2,000 seats and additional standing room space for 5,000.
In the summer of 2013, the team raised roughly five million Swiss francs in response to financial difficulties. The donations given to HC Ambrì-Piotta came from both large and small donations, many of which were given via SMS. The efforts of the team and its fans have secured the right to play in the National League.

Club culture and supporters

Supporter culture at Ambrì-Piotta is highly organised and historically politicised compared to most Swiss ice hockey clubs. Since the late 1980s, the most visible organised group has been the Gioventù Biancoblù, founded around 1989. The group draws inspiration from Italian ultra culture and operates in a self-managed structure, funding itself through merchandise sales rather than sponsorship. It has traditionally occupied the Curva Sud, the standing section behind one goal. Its banners and iconography have included portraits of Che Guevara and the Apache leader Geronimo, which members have described as symbols of resistance, anti-racism and identification with a small, marginalised club rather than explicit ideological politics. One founder of a supporters group stated in 1999 that Che Guevara symbolised "the one who fights for justice" and the "romantic" dimension of struggle.
The supporters' self-image has consistently been tied to opposition against wealthier and more successful clubs, particularly HC Lugano. This rivalry has been framed in social and regional terms, contrasting northern, rural Ticino with the more affluent southern part of the canton. Chants such as "Il Ticino è Biancoblù" have been used since at least the 1990s to assert this identity. The traditional singing of the alpine folk song "La Montanara" after home victories became a defining ritual by the 1990s and remains in use.
Relations between organised supporters and club management have not always been harmonious. In 1997, protests against the head coach led to banners being displayed inside the arena, subsequent bans imposed by the club, a coordinated boycott by supporters, and demonstrations outside the Valascia. Afterwards, the bans were lifted. Supporters have also publicly opposed corporate ownership or naming-rights arrangements. During financial crises, banners such as "Senza padroni" appeared, expressing rejection of external control.
Attendance figures have regularly exceeded 5,000 per game since the 1990s, with a significant proportion of fans travelling from outside Ticino, including German-speaking Switzerland and northern Italy. Attendance of away games by several hundred supporters has been recorded for domestic and European matches, including Champions Hockey League fixtures after Ambrì qualified for the competition for the first time in 2019.
In recent years, tensions between supporters and authorities have continued. In December 2025, the standing section carried out a silent boycott during a home match against Genève-Servette after the club filed a legal complaint following pyrotechnics and trespassing incidents at an earlier game.

Honours

Domestic

National League
Swiss Cup
  • Winners : 1962

International

IIHF Continental Cup
IIHF Super Cup

Invitational

Basler 'Cup'

Players

Current roster

Updated 31 August 2025.

NHL alumni

Adam Hall