The mood is joyfully upbeat when the CEO of the Norwegian Hockey League Kati Kivimäki arrives for an interview. It doesn’t matter, even though there is a long drawn-out meeting below, which understandably postponed the start of the interview.
The league office is experiencing the busiest time of the year under the new season. Of course, in the spring, in the middle of the playoff frenzy, there is also enough speed. Not that the Main Series takes care of itself under its own weight, but then everyday life is smoother.
Kivimäki says that he got excited as soon as he got the first contact about the offered laundry at the end of last year. The decision to apply for a place was still not uncomplicated.
– Of course, first I thought for a long time that I haven’t worked directly in sports marketing.
– However, it turned out that I have a lot of new things to contribute to this. I come from a background in management, marketing, branding and customer experience, which are lessons that work in this world.
The lessons listed above are things that Kivimäki often brings up in interviews and that he wants to be developing in the SM league. Previously, he has, among other things, opened and developed the largest shopping center in the Nordics (in terms of number of stores), Mall of Tripla in Pasila, of which Kivimäki served as CEO from the opening year in 2019.
“There is no leap into the unknown”
At the turn of the year, Kivimäki found out that he had been chosen as the CEO of Finland’s biggest sports league, having taken care of washing since spring 2016. Riku Kallioniemi in place of.
What kind of leader did the SM league get?
– I am approachable and relaxed. When this is a business between people, people have to get along with each other and develop things together, I hope that this is reflected in my work. I am goal-oriented and results-oriented, but on the other hand, I am also values-oriented, so it is easy to act according to the league’s values.
The SM league published last fall your new strategy (you switch to another service)which listed “community, courage, responsibility and respect for traditions” as values.
Kivimäki hasn’t played ice hockey, and even his own children’s choice of sport has turned to soccer.
However, the CEO emphasizes that he is familiar with the hockey world in a professional sense. For example, last spring, during the Ice Hockey World Championships, Tripla had a large fan zone.
– This is not a leap into the unknown. Almost throughout my professional career, I have had approaches to hockey. I have done partnerships at different levels. Of course, now there is a new type of challenge on this side of the field.
“Gender doesn’t take a stand on how successful you are at your job”
At the same time, when Kivimäki became the CEO of the Finnish Championship League, he started as the CEO of the Finnish Olympic Committee, which was in turmoil Taina Susiluoto. Both the SM League and the Olympic Committee have a woman as CEO for the first time in their history.
Good brother networks, the glass ceiling phenomenon and the underrepresentation of women in management positions are phenomena identified in studies.
The report of the Ministry of Education and Culture revealed that the number of women in leadership positions in sports has not increased significantly since the beginning of the 21st century. Responsible for the report, doctoral candidate in the social sciences of exercise Kati Lehtonen found it alarming that 20 years have been stuck in place, even though the state instructs, even demands, actions to promote equality.
In Finland, almost a third of the board positions in organizations are held by women, and 16 percent of the presidents of the associations are women. The figures are clearly behind, for example, Sweden and Norway. The European Union’s equality recommendations for sports require 50 percent gender quotas in decision-making bodies.
The CEO of the Olympic Committee, Susiluoto, said in May that he supports gender quotas in administrations, even though he admitted that at the beginning of his own career, he did not want to be a quota woman under any circumstances.
Kivimäki has not come across glass ceilings in his career, but he considers talking about the topic meaningful and understands why he is asked about it in this interview as well.
– I haven’t thought about it in business life. Of course, in this task, femininity has come up more in the conversation. It’s a good thing when women leaders are talked about and I strongly encourage that women leaders also strive to move forward, whether it’s in the sports business or someone else. I feel that everyone is equal, and gender never has any bearing on how someone succeeds in their job.
“Development has taken place wildly”
Kivimäki says that at first he humbly familiarized himself with new things. Secondly, the eyes were directed to the preparation for the start of the season. The third important thing has been the strategic income angle, thinking about longer-term development projects.
When Kivimäki is asked what things he wants to emphasize in his job as CEO, he brings up the previously mentioned four values found in the strategy of the SM League.
– They are the red thread that moves things forward.
From the CEO’s point of view, what are the biggest strengths or biggest weaknesses that need to be solved? Kivimäki replies that the SM league has great opportunities to continue developing its operations.
– Interest in ice hockey in Finland is unprecedentedly high. We live here with a strong hockey addiction.
– Development has taken place over the last few years, Kivimäki points out, referring to both the customer experience and the sport.
“It is true that the situation is different in different places”
Jääkiekon SM-liiga Oy’s turnover last year was 24.4 million euros, which means there was a slight decrease compared to the previous year, 1.7 percent. Although still plagued by the corona pandemic, the league company made a profit of more than 300,000 euros, while the previous year there was a loss of more than 400,000.
SM-liiga Oy is a company jointly managed by 15 league clubs, which is responsible for, among other things, brand development, business growth, media contracts and match schedule.
The previous season’s key figures of the companies running the league clubs were published in the SM league on the website at the end of August (you will switch to another service).
Tappara’s Tamhockey Group’s turnover for the financial year more than doubled from the previous financial year to 12.5 million and the result was 1.4 million euros. Both readings are the best in the company’s history.
Oulun Kärpät had the largest turnover and profit, when the group’s turnover rose to 16.2 million euros and profit was 3.1 million.
On the other hand, for example, the turnover of Ässie and Sport was slightly over 5 million. Aces made a loss of more than 260,000 euros, Sport a little over 108,000 euros.
The realities vary, as the average audience for the regular season was 5,433 for Ilves and 1,530 for Äss. Of course, the coronavirus still affected the audience numbers and anyway the numbers are always indicative, when the clubs announce the number of season ticket holders with varying practices.
You could imagine that the new CEO has a strong tailwind behind him, when the Lions’ championships have kept hockey in a special spotlight, the role of the KHL has decreased and a glowing arena has been built in Tampere.
On the other hand, the increasingly strong division into big and small could cause concern.
– First of all, I am really happy that we were able to open the Nokia Arena last season. It’s a great thing for the entire Finnish hockey team to see how such a team can work. It works as a pioneer.
– All the clubs have developed their whole, customer experience and digitality in their hall environment. It is true that the situation is different in different places, but I am glad that everyone sees the development in the same way. After all, the customer experience is about how an individual person decides to enter the hall.
From the threat of bankruptcy to the historic cost budget
When the SM League published on September 10 on their website (you will switch to another service) the expenses of the starting season of the teams and the player budgets, gave the impression that the yoke of the corona pandemic has been lifted with a rush.
In the 2020–21 season, the clubs of the SM League widely talked about their plight and threats of bankruptcy. Aces development director Tommi Kerttula criticized SM league clubs in January 2021 Ilta-Sanomen in an interview (you move to another service). He saw that the communication of the league clubs is not credible and commented on it as “whining”. Kerttula was fined for his speech, which was later canceled by the SM league.
Now the player budget of every SM league club has increased. Before the start of the corona, the announced player budgets of the league clubs for the 2019–20 season totaled 32.85 million. Now they are 34.90 million.
HIFK and Kärpi have the largest salary budgets. Tappara, Lukko and Ilves also exceed the 2.5 million mark.
Relatively, JYP (+43.8%), Pelicans (+31.4%) and Ässät (+29.0%) have increased their player budget the most.
The total expenses of the teams in the 2022–23 season are estimated to be more than 114.5 million euros. That’s a record reading. In the 2019–20 season, the total amount of the expenditure budgets reached 105.1 million euros.
The story continues after the graphic and picture.
When talking about the competitive side in the rink, Kivimäki says that he is happy about the smaller clubs that sprung surprises last season. Especially Jukurit and KooKoo were like that.
– Size is no guarantee, but even a small one can be successful, which reflects how good Finnish hockey is.
There is at least confidence and faith from the new CEO. Hockey fans hope that the prediction will be true.
– The season of all time is coming.
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