The ice hockey championship league is facing upheavals. Countless questions are still floating around the new order of Finnish club hockey. On Wednesday, the league unexpectedly announced that new license applications will be accepted for next season outside of the current major league clubs.
On Thursday, Kiekko-Espoo was the first to confirm that it will apply for a place in the SM league for the 2024–25 season. Jokerit, on the other hand, immediately announced that he was not going to apply for a license.
We asked hockey people what kind of series system Finnish top hockey should be played with in the future.
Sports expert Top Nättinen played almost 300 SM league matches in his career, but never got to experience what it feels like to play for a place in the series. In his model, the teams of the league and the second highest league level are brought into the leagues of less than 12 teams under a joint TV contract.
– I ended up here, because I think there are 24 Finnish clubs with the conditions that could play in this model. The leagues would have the same TV contract, from which those playing in the league would get more money. The names of the leagues could be commercialized, Nättinen suggests.
In a series of twelve teams, the stakes would remain at stake until the end. Only the seasons of the 9th and 10th placed teams would end in the regular season, while the top eight would go directly to the quarterfinals.
According to Nättinen, the biggest problem is not the series system itself, but how to get to it from the current model.
– If the world started today, the 12+12 team series would be the best and clearest option. I believe that a solution would be found.
Urheilu’s hockey reporter Jussi Paasin the model is close to Nättinen’s equivalent. The difference comes in the qualifying method, where no less than six teams would miss two league places.
– When approached from a sports romantic perspective, the solution is easy. The SM league and all ice hockey leagues must immediately be opened for sporting competition. If you erase romance from your eyes, the matter is much more complicated, says Paasi.
– Before the league was closed, a large number of clubs made a loss. What would have happened to the clubs if the league had not been closed? At the moment, most of them are making a profit, largely due to TV contract money and unfortunately also clearance sales.
Nättinen and Paasi both see the implementation of the new system as the most difficult issue. The changes would probably take several years.
– These are nice to spin and think about, but can we sacrifice two seasons to get 12+12 teams, Nättinen thinks.
– Maybe we could go towards a 12-team main league one season at a time. Even so, in the current 15-team league in the 2024–25 season, the last-place finisher would be relegated directly, and the runner-up would play against the winner of the lower league in a classic best-of-seven series. Every spring, one team would be eliminated from the league. When the number of clubs would be 12, the model I presented would be implemented, Paasi suggests.
Sports expert Ismo Lehkonen as a coach has seen several qualifiers at different league levels. He would open the majors as soon as possible.
– My dictator-like jerk is that from this day on, it will be immediately announced that the last one will be relegated from the league. Number 15 is said thank you and goodbye and given parachute money. The second last will qualify for the league place with the winner of Mestis, says Lehkonen.
According to Lehkonen, the so-called parachute money for those relegated from the league could be financed from a TV contract. He is finally tired of the lack of competitiveness at the tail end of the closed series and the discussion about the framework, money and other criteria required by the league.
– I don’t think anything will happen. The criteria is a loophole to say thanks and no this year. It’s as ridiculous a phrase as can be. I say shut up and open the sets.
Lions head coach Jukka Jalonen told Urheilu his own thoughts on the series system earlier this year.
– It only increases genuine competition that there is a chance to rise and the danger of falling. I would recommend building two high-quality series, Liiga and Mestis. Whatever that way would be, it could be fixed, but I think it could be that every year the weakest in the League would fall and the best in Mestis would rise.
Jalonen would not reduce the number of teams in the league as strongly as Nättinen and Paasi.
– I am a realist. It will not work if three or five teams are dropped from the league. There would be competition for 14.
Answers to questions about the future of the SM league will possibly be given as early as next week in connection with the general meeting of the SM league.
– Not all points related to future serial models will be ready until the 12th, but we will try to give answers to certain key issues at that time. Those solutions will be the basis on which the final stages of the future work will be built, the president of the SM league Heikki Hiltunen described on Wednesday.