Mestis club Helsinki Jokerit announced on Monday that the team is not aiming for a place in the SM league under the current conditions. Earlier it was reported that the Jokers were applying for a league place for the 2025–26 season.
The main reason why Jokerit does not apply for a league place at that time is that the team does not want to jeopardize the club’s future. Moving up to the ice hockey league would require, in addition to winning the qualifiers, the purchase of a league share, the price of which Jokerit has estimated at around 3.8 million euros.
Chairman of the board of Jokerit Helsinki Oy Mikko Saarni previously told Urheilu that promotion to the main league, depending on the method of calculation, would cost the club a total of 7–9 million euros.
– It didn’t even occur to me (in the beginning) that when you go gambling, the share price will double afterwards. Actually, getting up by playing has been made as difficult as possible, Saarni said in an interview with the club on Monday.
Urheilu’s expert and former league player Top Nättinen wondering about the share’s high price tag.
– First of all, you should know what that amount is based on. What all is thought to be included in it? Sometimes the matter is justified by the fact that you can make some money from the league, which is why you also have to pay for it. If you consider that the share price in the previous clubs has been around 1.8 million, that is an outrageously high amount.
– Yes, with this decision by the Jokers, a message is also sent to the SM league. If even the most likely riser doesn’t want to rise under these conditions, it will certainly make the League think, Nättinen adds.
The SM League has announced that the qualifiers will return to the series from spring 2025 onwards.
Chairman of HPK Jyrki Louhi said earlier that, for example, if HPK dropped to Mestis and applied to return to the main league, promotion would cost the club around 10 million euros.
Nättinen thinks that raising the league shares will make it harder to rise on purpose.
– Yes, this seems like a purposeful activity. Its background effect has been to prevent ascent and make it practically impossible. Yes, the opening of the League and its celebration seems quite ridiculous at the moment. With this decision, Jokerit proves it to be true.
A message to the SM league
Jokerit published its strategy plan at a press conference held in June. The Jokers’ main themes were responsibility in everything they do, securing and developing their own junior work to the top European level, and the club’s financial self-sufficiency.
Jokerit feels that by aiming for league promotion under the current conditions, all the above values to which the club is committed are watered down. The jokers’ goal in the future is still to play at the highest league level in the country and aim for the Finnish championship, but it has to happen on financially reasonable terms. This is not possible with the current model, the club announces in its press release.
– The management of the Jokers has created clear values and a strategy that we will not compromise on and stick to. The fact that Jokerit gave up applying for a league place for 2025 is a valuable decision for other Finnish clubs as well. It is proof that the club can also operate with dignity and in accordance with its own values. For the Jokers, a very good decision on how to act. From the point of view of the league, the price of promotion is unfathomable, Nättinen says.
– Jokerit wants to communicate that everything will now be built on a stable foundation. The club has been reformed from what it was in the KHL. They don’t make any rash decisions now since all the action.
The club said that the funds planned for the pursuit of league promotion will be directed to the development of the Helsinki club’s junior pipeline both in the oldest age groups and at the beginning of the joker path.
“Quite a joke”
In Sweden, direct promotion has been in use since the 2020–21 season. When a team wins the HockeyAllsvenskan, the second highest league level in Sweden, it goes directly to the highest league level, the SHL. At the same time, the last two teams of the SHL meet in the relegation series, of which the team that loses the series drops down the league level.
Nättinen says that in terms of sports, promotion has been made practically impossible in the domestic SM league.
– And then we add such financial conditions on top of that, so opening the league like this a month later looks like quite a joke. You can always say that someone is open, but if the conditions are like that, then what is it on a concrete level. The league won’t stay afloat for very long here. Yes, especially people who follow hockey understand what was done here.
Expected changes coming
Nättinen believes that the conditions for promotion to the hockey league can still become more favorable for its applicants.
– If you’ve been following the news of the SM League since last spring, it can definitely change. From the outside, it seems that the league’s activities are really fast-paced.
– The jokers’ decision will certainly affect the conditions of the increase, but how will e.g. the betting market, the future television contract and in general all other things affect? My own belief that I will stick with these to the end is pretty low. So, changes can be expected, but it is difficult to predict what they will be like.
Nättinen says that the spring 2025 qualifiers will practically not happen now.
– Even if they come, the Jokers are not there in the qualifiers. If Kiekko-Espoo, for example, is promoted to the league again or not, I don’t think they can afford to be promoted under these conditions either.
The league has announced that the qualifiers will be played at the end of the 2024–25 season, when the league place will be fought between the winner of Mestis and the team that finished last in the SM league.
Nättinen also believes that the league teams may not even have to qualify at the end of next season, because there is not a single club in Mestis that wants to go to the qualifiers due to financial conditions.
– The next qualifiers will then be played in the spring of 2026 at the earliest. One can only talk about the opening of the league on a theoretical level, but on a practical level, the League does not seem to be open, for example, regarding the qualifiers.
Jokerit has announced its goal to win the Mesti championship in the 2024–25 season. At that time, however, the team will not pursue promotion due to the reasons mentioned.