Bern Women

The Mobiliar Arena sits in Gümligen, just outside Bern, and holds around 3,500 people when both ends are open. It is here that the club's sides play in front of supporters wrapped in red and white, the colours the Bären have carried through several changes of name.

Those changes are part of the story. The handball section traces back to 1959, when it operated simply as BSV Bern. In 2002 it merged with Handball Muri Bern and took the joint name BSV Bern Muri before the club reverted to its original identity in 2018.

The women's team currently plays in the 2. Liga, a level below the country's top flight. Switzerland's premium women's competition is instead contested in Bern by SG Handball Bern, a joint venture bringing together TV Länggasse, BSV Bern and HGO — a sign that top-level handball in the city has rarely belonged to one club alone. That top tier has, for years, been the property of others: LC Brühl, ZMC Amicitia Zürich and TSV St. Otmar St. Gallen have carried the major honours between them.

What has stayed constant is the ground. Whichever name has stood above the door — BSV Bern, BSV Bern Muri, or BSV Bern once more — the Bears have kept coming back to the same red-and-white corner of Gümligen.