ELF: Helvetic Guards announce home stadium

This weekend, one of the expansion teams in the European League of Football officially found its home, as Switzerland’s Helvetic Guards announced that they have chosen the Lidl Arena in Wil, Switzerland as their home stadium.

As part of the Sportpark Bergholz athletic complex, Lidl Arena has a capacity of about 6,000 seats.  The complex has high-quality athletic facilities on site, and it has plans to improve them even more next year.  The arena is also the home to FC Wil, a soccer team in the second-tier Swiss soccer.

In a press release, Guards managing director Toni Zöller commented:

“We are proud and happy to have found a partner in Wiler Sportanlagen AG (WISPAG), who believes in our vision, celebrates great events with us and wants to establish top European sports in the Lidl Sportpark Bergholz.”

The Guards organization has remarked in the past that they want to make home games feel like “one-day vacations” to the United States, and they believe that the Sportpark Bergholz has the potential to make it happen.

The town of Wil is excited to host the team.  Sabin Rickenbach, the managing director of WISPAG, shared his thoughts on the announcement:

“We are delighted to have succeeded in bringing the Helvetic Guards‘ home games to Wil. The fan community of the team is familiar and peace-loving.  The chemistry with those responsible has been right from the start and we are convinced that the planned events will delight our audience.”

With a population of about 24,000, Wil is small compared to most other cities in the ELF, so it will be interesting to see what happens when teams from metropolises such as Berlin, Paris, Istanbul, and Milan come to town.  With six teams being added to the league this offseason, this is an exciting time for the league as each new team forms its identity.