Timo Kunnari
During the opening week, 20 matches will be played in the league. You can pick up a maximum of five people from the crowd. That’s a little, writes journalist Timo Kunnari.
The new season of the league will begin next Tuesday, September 9th. The regular season marathon ends on 17 March.
The league opening week game program has been built unimaginably mild. Great games are low.
Of course, last spring’s finalists KalPa and SaiPa are facing the opening round, albeit especially in Lappeenranta. Thus, the defending Finnish champion KalPa will not be able to start throughout his home hall in front of his fine fans, as the master should.
According to Iltalehti’s information, starting the season in a guest is not the wishes of the KalPa organization, but the decision of the league.
KalPa will play his first home game on Saturday, September 13, against Tappara. Then the championship will rise to the ceiling of Olvi Arena-for the first time in Kuopio.
Wednesday’s Lukko -Tappara, Friday’s Kärpät -Ilves, TPS -Lukko and thus KalPa -Tappara on Wednesday’s opening week of the opening week.
Other games of interest to the big audience are quite challenging to pick up the opening week from 20 games.
The great and awesome hockey is competing for people’s free time and money like other sports, cultural and entertainment players.
That competition is fierce. Families can also stay on the couch to watch Netflix or play play.
Therefore, you would think that the league would start a new season with a rumble so that the first or early days would be the most interesting pairs of play.
These include, for example, Tampere’s local games, matches between Ace and Luko, and encounters between HIFK and Kiekko-Espoo, for example. Why not the fencing of JYP and KalPa from the dominance of Lake Finland.
The first passionate local game in Tampere will not be seen in the league until late October. Mika Kylmäniemi / AOP
The league should start so colorfully that those in the trough would also sell themselves. Everyone against hockey should immediately know that the series is running.
Ice hockey should conquer media columns and sports news, social media channels, and, of course, coffee table discussions in different urban markets and workplaces.
This is not the case now, and probably after a few rounds it is wondering when the autumn sun shines and there are no spectators in the halls.
The league could have offered its fans even a better hockey season.
The model could be taken as close as from Mestis. The second highest series regular season starts with last season’s finalists’ Jokers and IPK encounter at the Helsinki Ice Hall on Thursday, September 11, 2025.
So Mestis is able to do what the league is unable to.
HIFK and TPS are probably interesting teams this season. AOP / Matti Raivio
Of course, making a series program is quite a lot of tobacco and coffee site, a complex entity. Clubs always have their own desires and interests, the reservation situations of the halls have an impact.
But still: getting the start game program as interesting as possible would not seem to be an impossible task. It would be precisely the (financial) advantage of clubs when the people would be interested in the favorite sport even before November.
On Wednesday morning, Iltalehti sought Jussi Markka from the League to comment on this. The sports director announced that he was at the meeting and did not return.