Ilves fans from Tampere travel to hockey matches all over Europe. 12 different countries have already been experienced.
Heli-Maria and Ari-Pekka Hakala have fan shirts for about 50 different clubs. The picture above shows the yellow of Skellefteå and the red of Lulea. Mika Kanerva
It was 2015 when I grew up in Nummi-Pusula Heli-Maria and grew up in Urjala Ari-Pekka looking for a companion on Tinder.
Eight years later, they are perhaps the best-known couple in the Tampere hockey fan base: “Hockey fans from Finland“.
– I started saying things when I was watching the game on TV. Considering that, I am surprised that we are at this point, Ari-Pekka Hakala, 37, laughs.
Ari-Pekka, who played for Mest in Forssa Palloseura, has been a passionate lynx fan since childhood.
Heli-Maria Hakala, 31, wasn’t interested in bench sports before the game-changing Tinder encounter.
– In the first match of the 2015–16 season, Ilves–HIFK, I looked at AP through rose-colored glasses. There were yellow-green players on the field, says Heli-Maria.
In the spring and winter of 2016, Ari-Pekka bought her husband a trip to Prague as a graduation present.
– I had made sure that Sparta Praha would play during our trip. It was agreed that it would be a match day and a shopping day, Ari-Pekka recalls.
Ari-Pekka, who works as a teacher, and Heli-Mari, who operates in the special trade sector, have lived together in Tampere since the summer of 2016.
12 countries
After Finland and the Czech Republic, the couple has been to a total of ten other countries to watch the show: Sweden, Norway, Russia, Belarus, Latvia, Kazakhstan, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Hungary.
– I’m an easily excited type. At first, it was horrifying how much the man is in front of the TV. Then I realized that the game is best on the spot, Heli-Maria describes.
– AP’s enthusiasm has caught on to me and my relationship with Ilves is developing all the time. When it comes to an away game, I’m going right away. After all, this is a great growth story from me, he continues.
How do you get pleasure from sacrificing almost all of your free time to watching hockey?
– In our shared free time with AP, we get to share a common experience related to the big community we are a part of. It involves great emotions, he answers.
The memorable Jagr
Meeting Jaromir Jagr in Kladno is the Tampere couple’s most memorable hockey travel experience. Mika Kanerva
In St. Petersburg at the end of the last decade, they took the subway to the suburbs with local fans and made traditional Russian dishes in the middle of the night.
In Astana, Kazakhstan, Heli-Maria met her favorite player Pavel Datsyuk.
The people of Tampere went on a trip to Kladnon this season Jaromir Jagrin with cardboard heads. In the warm-up, they went to wave them next to the plexiglass.
– Then the orderly pointed to the place and asked to move to it, so that you could maybe meet Jagr.
The hard-to-find Czech legend got excited. He exchanged a few words with the Finns both before and after the match. Jagr even asked the Finns to the players’ corridor and gave the numbers.
– It was really sick, Heli-Maria enthuses.
– I felt that I was really lucky and thought that I would never wash my hands, he continues.
Living in the moment
Ilves is number one, announce Ari-Pekka and Heli-Maria Hakala. They follow almost all home and away matches of their favorite team on the spot. Mika Kanerva
The couple was supposed to get married in 2020, but the pandemic postponed the wedding by a year.
– We had good travel savings. Mombasa trips and safaris were booked, but they were cancelled. Vaimo-kulta agreed that the money can be used for hockey trips after the corona. That’s why, for example, a travel budget has not been calculated this season, Ari-Pekka says.
They got married in 2021.
– We are both middle-income. Our everyday life is such that travel is possible. We are frugal, says Heli-Maria.
Social media has made the world smaller. Last Wednesday, Finnish fans received a request to visit Bulgaria.
– There are no goals for the national championship or different series. Let’s enjoy this moment now, because you never know what will happen tomorrow, says Ari-Pekka.
The next trip is known as a ski vacation, when the Hakalas travel to the 1994 World Championship city, Bolzano, Italy.