According to the preliminary proposal, Liiga-SaiPa Oy will remain without support from the city.
SaiPa’s fate in terms of city support will be decided on Monday. AOP/Mikko Lieri
SaiPa, which is suffering from financial difficulties, is going to be left without an aid pot of over twenty thousand euros as a result of its own mistake.
The 25,000-euro application for marketing cooperation agreement money of Liiga-SaiPa Oy, which is responsible for the operations of the men’s League club SaiPa, arrived late to the city of Lappeenranta, so it is proposed to be left unprocessed.
The matter is clear from the presentation of the city of Lappeenranta’s sports department. It says that “marketing partnerships between the city and clubs can be applied for by nationally or internationally successful local clubs whose marketing value and image bring the city of Lappeenranta to the fore in the national media and in their events.”
As far as SaiPa is concerned, the conditions are clearly fulfilled. The club’s application can be regarded mainly as a formality. The application had to be submitted on 5.5.
However, there was a change of leadership at SaiPa in the middle of the application period, when the CEO left Jussi Markkanen gave up his seat on 1.5. for the new CEO For Jani Valkeapää. The application period started on 31.3.
Therefore, SaiPa’s application is not on the list of grant recipients presented at the city council meeting.
Jussi Markkanen is the former CEO of SaiPa. Mikko Lieri / AOP
– It is understandably off the lists because it has not arrived by the deadline. There is nothing more surprising than that. Hand raised as a sign of error, Valkeapää acknowledges what happened to Iltalehte.
A stack of straw
Valkeapää says that he has been in contact with the city after the application period, and the club has not given up hope of still having the application processed.
The club’s fateful day is today, Monday. Lappeenranta’s city board decides on marketing cooperation agreements at its meeting starting at 2 p.m.
For the 2022–23 season, SaiPa received a total of 12,500 euros in support. For the 2023–24 season, the club wanted to double its support to 25,000 euros.
Valkeapää, who was impressed as an idea nigger in Superpesis, admits that the league club, which has been hit by financial hardship, must strengthen its operations so that something similar does not happen in the future.
– Of course, every euro is important. In the future, we need to be more precise as an organization and we need to learn from this. It’s pointless to explain anything here, the man admits directly.
SaiPa was jumbo in the League last season.