The last day of March 2023 is coming soon. It is the last day to apply for a Mestis license for the 2023–24 season. Before that, you have to apply for a place in the series from the Jääkieckoliito’s federal board, which meets about once a month. Can’t wait Joel Harkimo to build a deck of jokers by then?
You must be quite a magician.
At the end of the summer, the rounds got hot, when the Jokerit ry, responsible for junior hockey, decided to show Teemu Selänten opened the door for the Laughing Fool project. Selänne didn’t swallow the decision, but shared opinions one way or the other. The social icon who appointed himself as the savior of the Jokers was not qualified, and the parties involved did get to hear about it.
The Selänte project was driven by a mysterious entity, whose background was played from the beginning and now also announced as the sole owner of Team Jokerit Oy, Joel Harkimo. Harkimo is probably not going to stay in the company, at least not in a big role, but the actual owner of Jokeri will go public when the pieces have fallen into place.
When the League announced in September that it would not accept new league license applications for the next season, even the Joker’s camp heaved a sigh of relief. The rush ends and there is more time to build the league project.
Since then, hard work has been done behind the scenes for the project, or so it is claimed. However, the promises of the new owner’s presentation have always been postponed a week or two ahead, and at the same time assured that the issues will be announced soon.
The end of summer has turned into autumn and winter. At the same time, the credibility of the whole project has dropped to the freezing point.
Does anyone, even Jokerit ry, believe in Joel Harkimo’s project anymore? I guess they have to believe, there are hardly any other options.
Everyone seems to agree on one thing. The return of the Jokers to the main league level or even to Mesti would be desirable, as long as all connections with the eastern neighbor are severed.
From what was published by the consulting company EY in December From the league’s financial report (you will switch to another service) it turns out that the possible return of the Jokers to the main league would bring significant growth to the entire league.
– The Jokerit would be one of the largest clubs in the league financially and would be able to increase the combined turnover of the league clubs by an estimated 10-15 percent, if the club’s supporter levels and interest even reached the same level as before the KHL trip, Janne Aalto EY’s financial administration advisory services are evaluated in the bulletin.
But those pieces.
One of the biggest reasons why the Jokerit ry chose Harkimo was his effort to get the Helsinki arena back into use and the home arena for the Jokers. In mid-November, I held the general meeting of Helsinki Halli Oy, where it was said that the Russian owners on the embargo list due to the war of aggression Gennady Timchenko and Roman Rotenberg would be willing to sell their share. Of course, the deal wouldn’t happen overnight, because it still needs permission from the Finnish and American authorities.
It didn’t take many days for the Jokers to receive a job post from the EU. The EU is planning a harsh punishment: the frozen assets of those on the sanctions list would be directed to Ukraine. The intention is good, but in practice these plans mean that the interests of Timshenko and Rotenberg, who are part of Putin’s inner circle, to promote indoor trading ended immediately. They’d probably rather burn the whole thing.
A call to the head of the sanctions team at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs For Pia Sarivaara reveals that the Russian owners on the embargo list have not applied for an exemption for the sale.
Without a hall, it is quite difficult to build a credible representative team. Or maybe there are two halls in Helsinki that meet Mestis’ license conditions, one of which is held hostage by the Russian owners and the other where the league team HIFK plays. There has been talk about the return of the Jokers to HIFK’s club Nordenskiöldinkatu, but in the same sentence it has been stated to be very difficult, if not impossible.
The neighboring municipalities of Vantaa and Espoo play for Mestis, but sharing the hall with another Mestis team would be challenging there as well.
Kiekko-Vantaa had a cooperation agreement with the Jokerien KHL team that lasted for years, but the ice situation in Vantaa is miserable. There are currently four indoor tracks in the big city and Kiekko-Vantaa’s juniors are already going to practice in nearby municipalities. So bringing one more professional team to Vantaa does not seem very realistic.
In Espoo, the main arena is used not only by the Kiekko-Espoo Mestis team, but also by Susijengi, among others. Kiekko-Espoo’s new CEO Aku Kallonen does not want to comment on the possibility of sharing the Espoo Areena with the Jokers as well. He only states that the Jokers have not been in contact with the matter.
The last straw could be found quite close to Ilmala, Pirkkola. The new hall built there does not meet Mestis requirements in all respects, but Mestis might be able to get an exemption permit. However, that would mean that the juniors of many clubs would be forced into the role of sufferers, because even in Helsinki there is not enough ice time for everyone.
None of the ice rink projects planned for the capital region will help the Jokers, because none of the rinks are even in the construction phase yet.
If we look at the Joker’s situation purely based on the facts, we have to say that it doesn’t look good. Ten months have passed and the pack is still very loose. There is no hall, no budget, no players, no coach. And there are just over three months left on the hourglass.
There is only the company, its owner and the board. There’s still no way to play with those cards, no matter how much there is a desire to bring the Jokers, who live strongly in childhood memories, back into the limelight. And yes, the new owner will definitely want a little more meat around the bones before he opens his purse strings. It doesn’t matter whether you’re involved just for business or for the love of the sport. In the best case, both.
And the more time passes, the more your own lines usually start to have gaps. High-quality junior work is done in the Jokers, but at the moment the player path ends with the U20 team and the club’s public image has taken a bad hit. Fans can still get excited about the games of the U20 teams, but for how long?
Now is the time to save the hockey influencer and the founder of the Jokers Aimo Mäkinen inheritance.