KTP-Basket and Peli-Karhut are satisfied with the playing and training conditions offered by Kotka’s old sports hall.
Better than reputation. With these words, the head coach of KTP-Basket Roope Mäkelä comments on the conditions offered by the Karhuvuori sports hall.
Mäkelä is satisfied with the parquet, the team’s dressing rooms, the gymnasium, and the VIP area found in the building.
– Very functional spaces, says Mäkelä.
The top-level basketball conditions in Kotka became a topic of conversation at the end of the summer, when it became clear that it is possible to play major league-level basketball games in the city’s new event center Satama-arena.
Some of the basketball fans from Kotka hoped that the city would have had the conditions of the 2020s for game days.
However, organizing matches in the new arena is significantly more expensive than in the Karhuvuori sports hall. Among other things, the price is increased by the parquet that is rented for the arena.
In addition to KTP-Basket, the sports hall is used by Peli-Karhuje’s women’s representative team and both junior teams. The sports hall also serves as a sports hall for the neighboring Karhuvuori school. The hall is heavily used, but there is enough training time for all users.
– The discussion connection with KTP and the physical education teachers at the school has been good and there is flexibility, head coach of Peli-Karhuje Mika Haakana says.
An aged building
The traditional sports hall in Karhuvuori is one of the oldest buildings where SM-level basketball is played. The building will be 50 years old next year.
Sports director of Kotka Tommi Lankin the condition of the sports hall is planned to be determined during the fall. The results of the survey are to be presented to the city of Kotka during the end of the year.
– There is nothing acute. The sports hall is in normal use, says Lanki.
The teams’ home halls and their years of construction.
Lahti – Lahti Suurhalli 1981
Helsinki – Töölö race hall 1935
Nokia – Nokia’s ball hall 1980
Kotka – Karhuvuori sports hall 1974
Loimaa – Loimaa sports hall 2005
Joensuu – Mehtimäki Indoor Volleyball Hall 2022
Kauhajoki – Kauhajoki multi-purpose arena 2022
Lapua – Lapua Sports Hall 1982
Uusikaupunki – Uusikaupunki arena 1981
Kouvola – Mansikka-aho ball court 1973
Salo – Salohalli 1998
Tampere – Pyyniki ball hall 1977
According to Mäkelä, when comparing game arenas, the Karhuvuori sports hall does not pale next to other older halls.
– Of course, I look enviously at Joensuu and Kauhajoki, where there are new halls. New halls are also coming elsewhere, such as for Nokia and Uuteenkaupunki.
Haakana, who worked as a coach in the women’s Korisliiga for a long time, is satisfied with how the conditions have developed at the women’s SM level as well. Recently, HBA Märsky moved to play and train in the new Urhea hall in Helsinki.
The discussion in the teams has been monitored
KTP-Basket and Peli-Karhut are currently not planning to organize matches at the new Satama arena.
– I myself have been following the situation discussion through the media. The communication between the sports people and the builder must have been broken at some point, because the end result was not the best possible, says Haakana.
Roope Mäkelä states that he followed the discussion at the end of the summer with a little sadness. As a basketball player, he wished that playing at Satama Arena had been made easier.
– It’s so expensive and a big job that it probably shouldn’t be done for one game. In this same matter, it is indeed mixed that this [Karhuvuoren urheilutalo] would be somehow bad. The facilities work well, says Mäkelä.