Tampere’s Nokia Arena has plenty of free seats for the Lions’ first match of the season.
There are a lot of free seats, especially in the end and upper stands. Riku Isokoski
The Karelian tournament, which will be played in Tampere for the first time, is not shaping up to be a crowd rush, at least based on the Switzerland-Finland match to be played on Thursday.
At the beginning of the match, there were a lot of free seats in the Nokia Arena, so the audience is becoming sparse. The capacity of the Nokia Arena for ice hockey matches is approximately 13,000.
The opening match of the Karelian tournament on Thursday has generally been a challenge in terms of ticket sales, as the full seats have remained in the heads of thousands of spectators.
For example, the opening match of the tournament played in Turku last year attracted just over 5,000 spectators.
The story continues after the pictures.
The more expensive seats in the lower stand have been filled better than the upper stand. Riku Isokoski
There is a commendable amount of audience in the lower gallery. Riku Isokoski
Normally, the Karelian tournament has been played in Helsinki at the former Hartwall arena, which has been closed since February 2022.
Before the corona pandemic and the war of aggression in Russia, Leijonat usually played its opening match of the season against Russia in Helsinki, where the audience numbers were typically between 7,000 and 10,000.
Russia was banned from EHT tournaments in the spring of 2022. At that time, Switzerland became its replacement.
The Lions will face the Czech Republic on Saturday and Sweden on Sunday in the Karelia tournament in Tampere.
Audience numbers for the opening match of the Karelian tournament
2022: 5,082 (Switzerland–Finland, Turku)
2021: 8,179 (Russia–Finland, Helsinki)
2020: 2,224, corona restrictions (Russia–Finland, Helsinki)
2019: 9,421 (Russia–Finland, Helsinki)
2018: 9,052 (Russia–Finland, Helsinki)
2017: 10,680 (Russia–Finland, Helsinki)
2016: 7,025 (Russia–Finland, Helsinki)
2015: 7,631 (Finland–Russia, Helsinki)
2014: 7,026 (Finland–Czech Republic, Helsinki)
2013: 9,883 (Russia–Finland, Helsinki)