The Finnish Sports Confederation announced on Thursday that it will apply for the 2030 European Championships. Five other cities are also interested in the same games.
Anu Karttunen,
Bettina Törnvall
Finland has organized the European Athletics Championships three times (1971, 1994 and 2012). Although the Sports Confederation was financially successful in organizing the 1994 European Championship and the 2005 World Championship, the 2012 European Championship was quite a loss.
At that time, the sports federation made losses of no less than 3.6 million euros, and the Ministry of Education and Culture saved the federation from its worst predicament with extra grants.
Despite this, the Sports Confederation is ready to apply for new EC competitions. This time, it wants to organize the European Championships in Helsinki in 2030.
– Of course, these 2012 games have been thoroughly explained. You have to learn from everything, President of the Sports Association Riikka Pakarinen told Urheilu.
The losses in the previous games were influenced, among other things, by the London Olympics, which were held just under a month after the European Games. The so-called second place competitions did not attract Finns to the galleries.
Pakarinen believes that the situation will be different in 2030. Finnish track and field athletes have been successful recently, both among young people and adults, the visibility of athletics is on a different level than it was 12 years ago, and the sport is currently enjoying great popularity among Finns.
– I am absolutely sure that we will be able to fill the stadium by 2030, and that already creates one big precondition for the financial success of the Games, Pakarinen said.
Not at any cost
The races are held in mid-August, starting with two weekends. The sports federation has calculated that the TV broadcasts of the games will reach an audience of around one billion during the week of the games, 300,000 visitors will be received at the Olympic Stadium and double that number in the surrounding area. The games would thus bring tens of millions in tax revenue to the capital region and up to 100 million euros to the regional economy.
– At the moment, 38,000 covered seats can be sold at the stadium for one competition event. When box office receipts are calculated from it, it creates a strong foundation for the success of the Games as well, Pakarinen said.
The CEO of the sports association Harry Aalton according to the union’s economy is currently stable. In the past couple of years, the union has made a “small loss”, but this year’s budget has been built to be 200,000 euros profitable.
Because the financial framework is tight, the Sports Confederation does not seek the Games at any price.
The costs of the application process itself are several thousand euros.
– We want to make this investment, but then we will see in the future what is a realistic and reasonable way to apply for the games through the official application process. At the beginning of the application process, we find out the income structure, we think about the expenditure structure very carefully, and only based on that we make the final decision, whether we will apply for the games, Aalto said.
The final decision on the race search is made by the board of the Sports Federation based on the information collected during the application process.
Five tough opponents
The sports association has been holding preliminary discussions with its partners for six months now, and the reception has been positive. However, Helsinki can do its best in the application process, as Belgrade, Brussels, Gothenburg, Lausanne and Zurich are also interested in the 2030 European Championships.
From these six candidates, the working committee of the board of the European Athletics Federation will select three candidates for next autumn. Getting into this trio is the first goal of the Helsinki search committee.
Pakarinen is convinced that Helsinki is the best candidate. The newly renovated Olympic Stadium is an athletics sanctuary that meets European standards. Helsinki and the capital region offer competition organizers the opportunity to organize the competitions in an environmentally friendly and sustainable manner.
– One significant thing is that the position of athletics is currently very strong in Finland. That is not the case in many European countries, Pakarinen said.
Last summer, Finland organized the successful European Youth Championships in Espoo. There was also 10 medals worth of success. According to Harri Aalto, it would be great if Finland could offer these athletes the opportunity to participate in the home European Championships for adults in 2030. In his opinion, the European Athletics Federation also wants Finland to be involved in the application process.
– We are known as competition organizers and we have good business cards. As Helsinki, Finland or Finnish athletics, we don’t need to be ashamed, on the contrary. I believe that everyone is excited that Finland is included in the designs.