Kim Hirschovits is getting the big bucks.
Kiekko-Espoo received pleasant news on Wednesday morning, when the SM League announced that it will receive license applications from outside the league already for the 2024–25 season, contrary to what it had previously announced.
The Espoo team plans to seize the opportunity and submit a league license application in October.
The activities of the Mestis champion have been aiming for serious league promotion for a long time, and this is also reflected in the activities of the club’s background company.
The minutes of Kiekko-Espoo’s board seen by IL reveal that last December the club gave its sports director To Kim Hirschovits the right to enter into player contracts containing a league condition.
According to the decision, Hirschovits must make any contracts so that they only come into force if Kiekko-Espoo is promoted to the SM league.
Budget
In December, 1.9 million euros was decided as the team’s preliminary player budget for the SM league season 2024–25.
This season in the SM League, SaiPa has announced its initial player budget of 1.9 million euros, and Sport has a corresponding figure of 1.84 million. Other teams’ player budgets are bigger.
However, Kiekko-Espoo’s dream of a league place requires external funding. In May 2022, the club’s board of directors discussed the targeted investment of 1.5 million euros at its meeting.
Chairman of the club Amy Rubinstein stated at the time that the money pot could be withdrawn in three installments of 500,000 euros over three seasons. However, the investors were expected to commit to the subsequent tranches already in connection with the first tranche.
Director of sports Kim Hirschovits (left) and CEO Aku Kallonen (center) pilot Kiekko-Espoo towards the SM league. Operations manager Antti Manninen left the club in the summer. Petri Saarelainen