In Sweden, Luleå and Brynäs set new women’s hockey league records this spring as the SDHL finals filled the halls.
You can still only dream of a crowd like Sweden in the Women’s League, even though the final series saw five delicious finals. The final series attracted a total of 1,934 spectators.
– It would be very nice, but it doesn’t seem realistic at the moment. In Sweden, culture on the women’s puck is a whole different matter. We have a lot of men’s league teams that do not get such crowds, Kiekko-Espoo manager Jarkko Malm points out.
And it wouldn’t be possible, as Kiekko-Espoo played his home game in the final series in his familiar home pitch, Tapiola Training Hall. HIFK’s home hall is Pirkkola’s new ice rink.
Neither can accommodate even a thousand viewers. Admittedly, clubs do not even aim for such an audience.
– We want to play in our own new hall. The trough and the environment are right for us, and we did not now consider the Helsinki Ice Rink as an alternative, HIFK’s team leader Johanna Sandqvist says.
Kiekko-Espoo did not consider playing in the finals on the side of the Tapiola arena in the same building, where the club’s men’s team plays.
– If we have had well under 100 spectators per game since the corona, it sounds unrealistic to suddenly get 1,200 spectators there. And 1,200 viewers would not cover the costs that would come from it, says Jarkko Malm.
– It’s a different sized trough and a different ice. These are small things that are not noticed in the auditorium, but for the player are big things. We are aiming for the Finnish championship. We can’t give up on a neighbor.
Defender of Kiekko-Espoo Tea Villilä is on the same lines.
– I would think that if we went to the arena to play the finals, it would be a guest trough for us.
Sad squirrel wheel
What should happen if the troughs of the Pirkkola and Tapiola training halls would be too small for the public and a spectator rush like Sweden would be seen in Finland?
A lot, says Villilä, who operates more than 200 league matches on the back lines of Kiekko-Espoo. He compares the situation to a squirrel wheel.
– Because we have no visibility, there is no audience. Partners may not want to become partners because we have no visibility. There will also be no money to gain visibility through it.
– I understand that it is also necessary to succeed at the national team level, that you can earn visibility, but the national team has proven to be successful.
Villilä would like the clubs not to have to do everything alone, but to receive support from the association, for example, for acquiring sponsors.
– We have had a situation for many years where players are allowed to acquire sponsors, which means in use, you do not hey company X, would you like to give money so I can play because I pay 1,500 euros per season. It’s a bit like a grapple. In a way, they would expect the union to have their own appreciation for the sport as well.
Neither materialized in four years. Most players still pay to play and there is no main sponsor. Through marketing communications, the series was to become more familiar to more and more Finns.
– Awareness of the league is not the best. We were in the Square where there was good visibility, but now it was taken away from us and we are on Lions TV. At least that visibility has not improved, HIFK experienced Karoliina Rantamäki44, line.
HIFK previously showed women’s games for free on YouTube with a review. However, the Hockey Association forced the Women’s League clubs to switch to the Lions TV service they owned this season.
At the monthly price of ten euros for Leijonat TV, you can watch, among other things, the Finnish Ice Hockey and Women’s League matches. There have been problems with the quality of broadcasts and there has not always been a description of the matches. HIFK has received permission to carry out its own production instead of automatic cameras itself and as described.
– In a way, we’ve gone back to where you see the games. No one gets lost outside of hockey. I do not feel that it has in any way raised the profile of the union, Kiekko-Espoon Villilä sees.
Everyone interviewed by Urheilu in this story hopes that the series will receive more resources and help with everyday activities: for example, the person who would be responsible for developing the series.
Malm, for example, takes Mestis, who has a full-time chief operating officer.
– Then you will definitely get better than we, who can only concentrate in the evenings and on weekends.
Malm, like many of those who work in women’s hockey, goes to day jobs elsewhere and does club duties on a voluntary basis.
In Sweden, for example, the main series SDHL has a commercial director and a sports director. In February, the series also began recruiting a marketing coordinator.
Sandqvist, who has won numerous Finnish championships in his playing career that ended in 2009, feels that the direction is the right one.
– We can always do things better and more, both we clubs and the federation. Personally, I see that we have been able to take certain things forward and we are on a path of development. You have to live in the spirit where the organization is going. Can’t go right. We have to do the footwork and basic work in the company to make the Women’s League visible and appreciated through it in everyday life.
As a solution, a joint organization with men
Hockey for girls and women has been registered as a priority of the Hockey Association’s strategy for 2018–2022. The main goals have been to strongly increase the girls’ and women’s hockey and enable women’s national team level players to practice and play for free.
In the Women’s League, for example, there have been more full-time coaches. The female lions have received more and more attention all the time, and the audience was especially interested in the spring 2019 World Championships.
Tea Villilä would have liked the home competitions to have been utilized in the domestic series as well.
– There was a terrible boom in the home races. People who didn’t even follow hockey knew the women’s national team had played well. On a practical level, the shame and enthusiasm that came with it was not quite visible. I don’t think anything has changed terribly, Villilä ponders.
The manager of Kiekko-Espoo, Malm, doubts that the investment has been focused primarily on the Female Lions.
– I have such an itch that we have applied for the best possible national team. That is important, of course. At the same time, however, it has been said that you go to Sweden to play when you get money from there. It will not cure Finnish hockey, at least in Finland.
HIFK team leader Sandqvist sees that the Women’s League has a lot to learn from Sweden.
– The support or lack of support from the league club makes a difference in the long run. Through our company, we have seen how quickly investments can produce results. When the club tries and puts in a certain financial investment, the road starts to grow fast.
At HIFK, the women have collaborated with the men’s league team. The women’s activities have also been featured on the men’s team website and the women have visited the men’s match events.
For example, the HIFK league team has previously had a campaign in which the club’s sponsor donates one hundred euros to women’s activities for each goal scored by the men’s team. However, Korona has also watered down cooperation.
– When Korona started, we planned to cooperate more with the league teams. I hope we get a fresh start in everything we do together as the corona situation improves, Sandqvist says.
According to Malmi, co-operation has also taken place in Espoo, although women and men are under their own organizations.
– At the moment, the situation is not such that we could receive direct traction financial assistance. They too have to do a lot of work. We work together and the relationship is good, but they also have their own challenges, Malm says.