The Ice Hockey Federation and the League did not want to come to ‘s Sports Studio to discuss whether the country’s most popular sports series is really open or not. The view of the chairman of the Jokers is clear.
In the hockey discussion of ‘s Sports Studio broadcast on Saturday, we also had to hear the view of the main league, the League and the Jääkieksliitto, on whether the League that was declared open in October is really open or just kidding.
However, the league and the union did not want to send their representatives to the studio, where the president of the players’ association finally arrived Teemu Ramstedtchairman of Jokerit Helsinki Oy Mikko Saarni and the chairman of TuTo Hockey Oy, which submitted a league license application Tuomas Haanpää.
According to current information, close to the league place Kiekko-Espoon there was no representative in the studio either.
Irresponsible decisions
The Jokerit, predicted to be the second fastest major league winner, recently surprised by announcing that it will not apply for a major league place at least for the 2025-2026 season.
– In any case, the League is not open to Jokers. With these financial conditions, it is not possible to rise or strive for a rise without making irresponsible decisions in terms of the future of the club, chairman Mikko Saarni justifies.
The Jokers have been told the price of the league license is 3.8 million euros. Jokerit does not know the reasons for the price tag. In addition to this, the increase would require investments in the operation and the team, with which, according to Saarni’s estimate, the price of the project would be 7-9 million euros. The risks would be enormous.
– There would be one match ball in use.
In the new system, the winner of Mestis gets to try to move up the league through the qualifiers from spring 2025 onwards. The league qualifiers were last played in 2008-2013, after which the license procedure was moved. With its help, Jukurit, Sport and KooKoo have entered the League.
A light year apart
Above all, Saarni, Haanpää and Ramstedt spoke in the studio in favor of playing a professional series divided into two levels, with 20-24 teams, in Finland in the future. Today, Liiga and Mestista are separated by a light year at every level of operation.
Jokeri’s player budget of 300,000 euros is significant in Mestis, but only about one-sixth of the player budgets of the smallest league clubs.
– At the moment, the league’s opening means, at best, that the amateur team has to beat a full professional organization in the match series, says Saarni.