The Ice Hockey Association wants to organize Leijoni’s matches in the future also in the Helsinki arena.
On Tuesday, it was reported that a Finnish buyer group has been able to buy the Helsinki arena, which has been empty for almost three years, from Russian oligarchs. In the background is the real estate company Trevia, which got Helsinki Halli Oy’s voting C-series shares for itself.
The arena was closed in early 2022 shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine.
The Finnish Ice Hockey League is a co-owner of the Helsinki arena. Chairman Heikki Hietanen is delighted that the arena will return to Finnish ownership.
– The hall is needed for both sports and other event use. This is great and long-awaited news. I didn’t really believe that this could come true anymore, Hietanen is happy.
The ice hockey association has had office space in Areena, but the future is still open. The association returns to Mäkelänkatu to the old Ameri house. It has a lease there.
– We had to leave and get safe and good work spaces for the staff. Let’s see what the future brings.
Junior World Championships in Helsinki?
The Helsinki Arena has been an important venue for the Ice Hockey Federation. World championships for both adults and youth have been organized there. I remember the 2016 World Youth Championships, when Patrik Laine, Sebastian Ahon and Jesse Puljujärvi starred Young Lions are celebrating their home world championship.
The association wants to play national matches in Helsinki as well. The men’s Euro Hockey Tour tournament played last weekend was organized in the Helsinki Ice Hall.
– We want to continue to play national matches in the capital region. It (the Helsinki arena) was in good condition before the war started. Hopefully it will soon be put to such a use that EHT can be played there in the future. We have the Youth World Cup coming up and at some point the Men’s World Cup, so it’s a potential place to play major tournaments.
Hietanen believes that at the end of the 2020s, Finland will get the World Youth Championship tournament in Finland for a long time. In the last couple of years, the main home of the Lions has been the Tampere arena, completed three years ago, where two adult world championships have been organized.
There are alternatives for the Youth World Championships held in Finland.
– Then we’ll see which is the best place. This is such recent news that there is no point in getting ahead of things.
– At least you don’t have to play everything in Tampere. It is possible to spread hockey in Finland for people to watch. I think the fact that such an arena will be used is of interest to the NHL’s Global Series event.
Figure skating on a bigger stage
For the Figure Skating Association, Helsinki is an important place for organizing events. The European Championships held in 2023 moved from the Helsinki arena to Espoo.
– It is important for us to get the Helsinki arena open. We have an annual GP race at the end of the year, in addition to which we regularly have value competitions, the executive director of the association Salla Mäkelä says.
In the future, the Figure Skating Association wants to organize competitions in that arena. Formation skating competitions can also be held there.
– We have applied for various figure skating and formation skating World Championships, but it remains to be seen what will be awarded to Finland. Especially when thinking about international competitions, the Helsinki arena suits us perfectly.