The hill jumping world cups start at the beginning of November. The athletes of the national team still haven’t received the athlete contract to read.
Julia Kykkänen at the World Championships in Lahti in January. Jumpers are no longer allowed to sell the advertising space visible on the ski to their partners. The place went to the team supporter. KIMMO BRANDT / AOP
- The money is in tight ski jumping.
- The new sponsor of the national team took away the valuable advertising space already promised to the athletes.
- Where is the athlete contract, the hill jumpers ask.
The national hill jumping teams are preparing for the season in a slightly confused mood. None of the athletes of the hill country team has yet received an important athlete contract to be read and approved.
The World Cup season starts in Poland’s Wisla in 16 days.
– If I don’t have a pair in a good two weeks when the season starts, I won’t start, he says Julia Kykkänen For Iltalehti.
– Usually, the athlete contract is approved in the summer. The old one ends at the end of May. This is a special situation.
Why has it taken so long now?
– I can not say. Kykkänen, who has been in the national team since the 2007–2008 season, is thinking about time wasting from the federation’s direction.
The men pondered
The athlete’s contract defines, among other things, the athlete’s possible co-responsibility for camps, the number of the athlete’s own advertising spots in the national team’s uniforms, as well as the doping clauses and the amounts of possible contract violations.
On the men’s side, the athletes are thinking about participating in the opening weekend of the World Cup.
– Men also want to jump in Wisla. On the other hand, the season won’t fall into it if the opening race is missed, thinks one person who is well-versed in the affairs of the men’s hill country team.
Deductible coming?
Antti Aalto’s style sample from Oberstdorf from last March. The Men’s and Women’s Ski Jumping World Cup starts on the 4th-5th. November in Poland. PDO
Last season, the deductible for the Mäkimaa team’s athletes was zero euros. Now some kind of deductible amount may be coming to the athlete contract.
– I have read in an email, which I didn’t even receive myself, that the situation with the deductible will be resolved when the negotiations are finished. I don’t know which negotiations, Kykkänen says.
– I don’t know if the athletes have a deductible this season. I wouldn’t be surprised if it were there, another party thinks.
The ski advertising spot left
The dispute between Eripura jumpers and the Ski Association has involved advertising spots in jump suits, tracksuits and skis.
The most visible and financially valuable advertising space is in the front. After last season, the athletes were promised by the federation that they would be allowed to sell ski advertising space themselves.
– That’s how it’s been as long as I’ve been jumping, Kykkänen times.
However, the ski advertising spot went to a new Austrian partner, IDM.
Several jumpers had already sold an advertising spot to their own partner, but the athletes had to cancel the already concluded advertising contract due to the union’s change of heart.
Understandably, it was quite embarrassing.
Vaisu compensation
After that, the Ski Federation promised compensation for the lost advertising space. It is finally being compensated for the athletes. But not with direct money, but with new, less prominent advertising spots.
The jumpers themselves now have a collar place for sale, 150 square cents in the jump suit and 100 square cents in the team uniform.
It is still challenging to get partners, i.e. income, for ski jumping today. That’s why athletes are upset about the loss of ski advertising space.
– I can’t talk about sums. But the ski resort is a big visibility place and it has been easy to sell. It has also become the biggest money, Kykkänen says.
Kykänen’s path
Julia Kykkänen was the first Finnish woman to participate in ski jumping competitions when she competed in the World Junior Championships in 2008. KIMMO BRANDT / AOP
Kykkänen has been following his own path in financial matters for a few years now.
– I haven’t actually been part of the association’s program in recent years. I myself have paid the costs of training camps, as well as my coach’s trips to camps and competitions.
– The Ski Federation has paid the costs of my World Cup trips. This summer, I haven’t used money from the Lat Lat Union, the Lahti resident reminds.
Kykkänen has mainly covered the costs with the money he received from his partners.
– Ski advertising spot gone. This season I can jump, but we will probably be in the same situation again next spring when this future contract ends.
– But the fact is that we have not been able to read the athlete contract, says Kykkänen, who has represented Finland three times at the Olympics.
Where does the money go?
Mika Kojonkoski is the sport director of ski jumping and combined national teams. The men’s head coach is Janne Väätäinen and the women’s is Ossi-Pekka Valta. PDO
The action of the ski association is a bit strange against the background that the hill team got a new and wealthy partner from Austria.
IDM Energysystems is the new main partner of the Finnish ski jumping national teams.
The contract is for four years and the total value may be up to one million euros.
– Financially, this is the biggest contract in Finnish ski jumping in 15 years. The last time the amounts were at this level was in 2006, said Nordic Ski Finland Oy’s commercial director Jari-Pekka Jouppi For Iltalehti in September.
The hill team got another partner from Germany. They are very good news and good work from the sales team of the Swedish Ski Federation.
However, the money seems to be going somewhere other than the athletes – possibly for structures and personnel costs.
Iltalehti sought the executive director of the Ski Association Ismo from Hämälä around the issue without success.