The Ice Hockey Championship league is followed on Puhe’s Ice Hockey Tour. Shipping on Friday 15.9. from 6 p.m. The program includes a league round of four matches. Listen to the broadcast at this link.
A closed series, a boon for competitive sports.
Clearance sales, a shameful spectacle that repeats itself every season.
A miserable match schedule.
Low audience numbers in autumn.
And so on.
It seems that in Härmä, the SM league should be hated.
There is certainly reason for criticism. There are flaws in the SM league that need improvement. They need to be highlighted by the media, the public and the clubs.
But constantly clinging to negative things, repeating them endlessly, sometimes causes the facts to become blurred and the good things to be forgotten.
The positive news, the numerous good sides of the men’s hockey league and the future possibilities are almost completely overlooked by those who follow the SM league. Or at least they get clearly less attention than those mantras mentioned at the beginning.
Or did you notice that the SM League recently made a change to the much-maligned disciplinary rule, refined the referee line in the direction of protecting the players’ safety, started cooperation with the Cancer Foundation and told about the clubs’ record-breaking investments this season.
All that and much more has happened almost without anyone noticing, because THE SERIES IS OPEN NOW, PRKL!
I could list one column worth of recent positive league news here. Unfortunately, not many people would be able to read them, so I’ll just list a few: professional referee system, new arena projects (as I write this, the Helsinki Garden project otherwise, it made significant progress), the consistency of the series, a new sports director, the financial well-being of several clubs, famous returnees.
Why was the series closed?
Let’s go back to where this writing started. A topic that will be talked about countless times during this season. To a topic that understandably interests everyone who follows the SM league.
It is of course a series system.
You can’t drop out of the league by playing, and you can’t get there by playing. As a sports romantic, I find this a sad thing. At the same time, however, I understand that there is no clear-cut solution.
And when the mouth is foaming at the mouth about the opening of the SM league and the closed series is taunted, a few essential things are forgotten.
Like why the series was eventually closed.
The decision to end the SC league qualifiers was made at the end of 2013. It was replaced by a license system for the next season, where the winner of the second highest league level, Mesti, could request a license for the main league.
Ten years later, that decision can be considered strange, downright unsuccessful. And that’s what most people who follow the lad seem to think.
It’s just that the facts have been obscured by many, even forgotten.
Before the elimination of the qualifiers, a large part of the league’s clubs had made a financial loss from season to season. If the license system had not been created, many clubs could have disappeared from the hockey map for good.
The continuous financial distress of the clubs is no longer remembered. Now we only remember that the series was closed.
Eliminating the qualifiers could have been – considering the realities of the time – a very good decision.
It is also worth noting that the abandonment of the qualifiers and the transition to the license model received almost unanimous support not only from the league clubs but also from the Jääkieksliitto, which is responsible for Mestis.
In ten years, many things have changed, both in hockey and in other areas of society. Running league clubs is still not a money grab, but several – even most – clubs are doing well financially, or at least decently.
And that is exactly what now offers the opportunity for change. One that suits this time. No one can know for sure which is the best or most functional serial system in Finland today.
I personally still support the opening of the SM league to sporting competition, one way or another.
Opportunities, not threats
If you forget the overflowing negativity for a moment, you will notice that the hockey weather map shows a lot of positive winds right now. Other than the ones I listed there.
Jokers and Kiekko-Espoo! Who would have thought a couple of years ago that they are really interesting teams in the eyes of puck-crazy people, even more interesting than many league clubs.
Oddly enough, Jokerit and Kiekko-Espoo have been seen as a threat to the SM league in many contexts. What on earth? They are possibilities. Big ones like that. For the league and the entire Suomi hockey.
Jokerit and Kiekko-Espoo have raised Mesti’s interest to a whole new level. The away matches of the Jokers this season have been moved to bigger halls in several towns, so that everyone who is interested can fit in the stands.
The first match between the teams, the series opener, was sold out in a few hours.
At the same time, both clubs aspiring to the top level challenge the SM league teams to react, to improve their operations by all metrics. And to think feverishly about what to do with serial systems. That’s the best you can hope for in domestic club hockey.
I understand very well that at the office of the people of Espoo, the SM league is not viewed in a very positive light right now. The door to the main series was already open for them, but it was bluntly slammed in the face. The door will open in 2025 at the earliest.
It was a huge blow to Kiekko-Espo, which had already made plans and investments for a possible, even probable league place for the 2024-25 season.
The jokers’ seeming endless confusion forced the SM league to whistle the game for a while. Fortunately, the jester shirts finally got their rows in order when the name Harkimo it was finally understood to wipe out all activity.
I firmly believe that the near future is an opportunity for the SM League, not a threat. Of course, it requires bold, perhaps even painful solutions from the ice hockey bosses in order to secure the well-being of Finnish ice hockey.
Difficult decisions lie ahead. There will definitely be a place for criticism in the future, but I still recommend everyone to at least occasionally have a positive view of the SM league. You might see something surprising there.
Urheilu’s hockey expert can take the model, for example Ismo from Lehkone. Many considered the single opening match of this season’s SM league (Lukko–HPK) to be a completely insignificant start to the season, but Lehkonen got so excited about the game that he is currently looking for a fan shirt with HPK’s new head coach on it Maso Lehtonen.
And of course being a fan of Maso Lehtonen doesn’t hinder the fact that Lehkonen also fervently hopes that the SM league opens up to sporting competition.
What thoughts did the story evoke? You can discuss the topic on 16.9. until 11 p.m.