More than half of the league clubs want a model that is compatible with normal business operations, writes Jussi Paasi.
Jussi Paasi sports reporter
Let’s have a little thought game.
You are a kiosk owner. Several kiosks operate in the same area. You compete against each other.
Who finds the customers? Who manages to sell the most products? Which kiosk is the most innovative?
You will notice that neighboring kiosks are clearly doing better. The door of your company does not open as expected. The cash register doesn’t sing.
How do you work? Are you trying to make your own kiosk even more attractive? You develop new ways to attract customers.
Or do you walk up to your competitors and demand a slice of their profits, when here we are entrepreneurs from the same area, one family?
I know, the latter option is counterintuitive. No entrepreneur could even think like that.
But apparently you can in the hockey SM league.
The eight SM league clubs want the successful clubs to give their profits to those who have not made their own latte kiosk profitable.
HPK, Jukurit, JYP, KalPa, KooKoo, Pelicans, SaiPa and Ässät prepared a petition for the board and shareholders of SM-liiga Oy. It proposes a franchise model, “where each team pays a percentage-based franchise fee to the League for its income stream other than through the League”.
According to the proposal, the revenues collected through that would be divided equally among all the league clubs, or would be used for the joint development of the League.
You may have left your own kiosk unattended
When I read the petitions of the eight clubs, I spontaneously burst out laughing many times. This isn’t real! More than half of the league clubs want a model that is compatible with normal business operations.
Every real entrepreneur knows how it works. Your own product, your own service, your own kiosk – whatever the company’s industry is – must be put in such good shape that the operation is profitable.
If the company is not profitable, the reason is not the competitors. On the contrary.
It is crazy to think that hockey clubs that have made big investments, such as Tappara and Kärpät, would pay percentages of their “income stream other than through the League” to others.
The company makes investments so that the company’s operations expand and develop. Not because others are doing better.
In other words, the income from the Qstock festival owned by Kärppie should be donated to charity in the future, so that SaiPalla would do even a little bit better. I hold back my laughter again.
The proposal reveals the barren current state of the SM league.
For years, small clubs have gotten used to the fact that no team can lose in this series. Not athletically, and not really even financially.
It has not been possible to drop down from the league. A spot in the majors is cemented even if you lose every game of the season. And the economy could have been saved by selling the best players before the transfer deadline expired.
It has caused a shameful, completely different cycle from normal business operations, where one could leave one’s own kiosk unattended.
HPK, Jukurit, JYP, KalPa, KooKoo, Pelicans, SaiPa and Ässät, I’ll give you all a tip that should be self-evident.
Focus all your energy on taking care of your own product. First of all, take the example of those clubs that manage their affairs well and are successful. And then come up with something of your own, better.
If you have to beg for alms from the neighboring kiosk, you should change your field. Going with other people’s wallets won’t save a single kiosk.