Vaasan Sport needs money quickly.
Vaasan Sport desperately needs money. Pasi Suokko/AOP
Vaasa Sport needs 50,000 euros by the weekend. Board member of Hockey-Team Vaasan Sport oy Tuomas Saikkonen told about it on Monday In his Linkedin post.
– We still need around 210,000 euros in new funding during the season, of which 100,000 euros in December and 50,000 euros this week, Saikkonen wrote.
Saikkonen has invested 170,000 euros in Sport this year.
– I want to be developing sports in our region and development opportunities for young people, as well as the attraction and holding power of the region. Now we need a few like-minded people within 48 hours!
According to Saikkonen, the gloomy economic situation is a continuation of the cash crisis, which the club already reported on earlier this season. In August, Sport announced that it had made a loss of more than half a million euros in the 2023–24 fiscal year with a budget of 4.9 million.
Sport started a public share issue at the end of October, the target of which was set at 200,000 euros. By the end of November, the donation had generated a good 30,000 euros.
From the beginning of November until today, the club has collected 290,000 euros in new funding, but the need for money is still acute.
– If we don’t get this funding together, I personally don’t see any other options for avoiding insolvency than potential player sales… Saikkonen wrote on Monday.
The star of the Vaasa club Atro Leppänen is fourth in the points exchange of the SM league.
Tax debt
Sport’s goal is to settle all its debts in the next few days.
The club ate its income for the current season “to a significant extent already last season”. The operating profit is currently on the plus side, but payments are coming.
– We have salaries and tax debt that must be paid this month!
If the club wanted to organize its payments without eating up its resources for next season, according to Saikkonen’s estimate, 600,000 euros would be needed by the end of the season. The team’s player budget will drop by 300,000 euros next season. Other savings of hundreds of thousands of euros are coming.
The board of the Vaasan region’s arenas, which manages Sport’s home arena, met on December 2. It appeared from the minutes that Vaasan Sport’s “increasing from year to year” debt is currently around 600,000 euros.
Sport is ninth in the series and locked in a playoff spot.
Saikkonen was the first to tell about the update Overtime.