8+8.
It’s the 16th.
SM league chairman Heikki Hiltunen presented that calculation as his own vision as a model for the future of hockey’s major league. Hiltunen was described as having thrown himself wildly.
– How about a series of 16 teams, which is divided after the autumn into an upper series of eight teams and a lower series of eight teams, Hiltunen suggested.
Juhani from Tammi quoting: My God, what an innovation!
Coincidentally, that 16 is the same number as the number of league teams next season. So if Kiekko-Espoo is included in the game.
Hiltunen underlined – either on purpose or accidentally – the biggest problems of the SM league. Especially the fact that a real change to the current situation is not desired.
I’m guessing the first option, that is, Hiltusen’s purpose is to close the series more and more tightly.
Is Liiga guilty of abusing a dominant market position? Is it even a cartel? Those questions have been discussed recently. There have been no answers yet. Maybe soon.
Hiltusen’s 8+8 model would practically mean that a possible cartel would continue to operate. It would just be split in half in the middle of the season.
I can imagine how the representatives of the Mestis clubs will tear their pants when they read Hiltusen’s vision. That’s when we completely forget the second highest league level Mestis, the vital catalyst of Finnish ice hockey.
The chairman’s model would mean that the League would continue to fight as usual, with too many teams. There is almost a unanimous opinion in hockey circles that there are too many teams in the League.
And if Hiltusen’s vision comes true, it would be even more difficult for outsiders to enter the League. 8+8 would perhaps at best bring a little more sense to the construction of the league teams, when the lower caste teams would have input until the end of the regular season, but at the same time it would deepen the gap between the League and Mestis.
The position of the weakest teams in the league would be further cemented in relation to Mestis.
At this point, I can hear the critics shouting: “Qualifiers! Don’t forget the qualifiers! The league is open, you can go up there.”
Nonsense. By restoring the qualifiers, the League managed to fog people who follow hockey for a while, including me. Soon after, it became clear that the ascent has been made practically impossible. Just ask the Joker’s office.
No Mestis club has the opportunity to pay nearly four million euros for a league share. Not even two million, at least in one shot. Point.
Suddenly there is a knock on the door
Hiuppuikö’s advisory board.
Of such The SM League announced. What does it mean and who is on this advisory board?
From the side of the Ice Hockey Federation, the chairman is involved Heikki HietanenCEO Sami KauhanenChairman of the Federal Council Pasi Kainulainen and a member of the same council Mikko Kuparinen.
The SM league is represented by Hiltunen, CEO Mikko PulkkinenPelicans board member Pasi Nurminen and CEO of Kärppie Tommi Virkkunen.
I rubbed my eyes as I read the bulletin. Where are the representatives of Mestis clubs? And where are the players? The players’ association already demanded access to decision-making earlier this season. If they were not included, there would be legal action ahead.
So what will the top hockey advisory board decide? About the conclusion of a new cooperation agreement between the Ice Hockey Association and the League and related matters. But what about those series systems that everyone is interested in?
“The agreement does not determine what kind of series model, for example, Liiga will be played, but it creates a broader framework for how Finnish top hockey will be organized in the future.”
At the same time, it was reported that “for the first time, working groups will be appointed to assist the advisory board, to which representatives of different parties and interest groups will be invited to discuss and bring their own expertise to support the advisory board acting as a steering group”.
Quite a bit of kapu language. Will the players be included in those working groups? Maybe, but from there, according to Urheilu’s sources, their chances of influence are non-existent.
– It isolates the actual decision-makers from those discussions and opinions that are not in their interests, heard an enlightened assessment from the insider.
Where will all this lead? I asked for the answer from a few people who are either at the heart of hockey’s decision-making or at the edge of it.
The answer was summarized: there will be a knock on the door soon. That door belongs to the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (KKV).
According to sources, Hiltunen’s fresh visions, combined with ignoring the players and Mestis clubs, lead to the fact that KKV has to be brought into the game to find out the legality of the operation.
After knocking it starts to happen. The equation 8+8=16 may not work the way Hiltusen hopes.