Jani Valkeapää, who has been influential in baseball for a long time, starts in May as the CEO of the league team SaiPa.
Helena Korpela,
Ville Toijonen
Imatra’s Pallo-Veikko sports manager Jani Valkeapää is known as the brainchild of Finnish baseball.
Among other things, the ideas for opening the super pesis season on the Spanish Sun Coast in Fuengirola and the Lunta tupaan event, where a skiing competition is organized in connection with the Super pesis match, originate from him.
Now Valkeapää faces a new challenge: he will start Liiga-SaiPa’s CEO at the beginning of May.
Valkeapää is excited about the new task.
– The SM league is by far the most followed sports league in Finland. Compared to IPV, everything increases tenfold, says Valkeapää.
According to him, the decision to switch from baseball to football was not difficult.
– I am very proud that I was chosen for the task and that I get to wear the yellow and black color. I have followed ice hockey for years.
Pressure to succeed
Lappeenranta’s SaiPa’s season that ended in the spring was difficult and the team floundered in the mud.
Valkeapää’s task is to turn the club’s course. According to Valkepää, sport is a wave movement. As CEO, the pressures are part of it.
– There is always pressure in sports. There is pressure to succeed and make a good result financially.
Valkeapää sees a lot of opportunities in his task. He plans to bring with him to SaiPa more throwing and separation. He considers sales and organizing events to be his strengths.
– Sport is sport, it should not be messed with. However, different elements can be built around match events and throw yourself outside the box.
However, Valkeapää does not yet promise that SaiPa will open its league season in Fuengirola in the future like IPV.
– There is an ice rink in Malaga. However, let’s stay at Kisapuisto for now, he says.