Russian-Finnish relations are currently marked by mutual resentment: both in sport and in politics. Roman Rotenberg and other hockey speakers constantly mention the Finns in their conversations, and Finnish politicians are closing the border with Russia. Among those now building a barbed wire fence on the “eastern border” is one of Teemu Selanne’s sons, who serves in the Finnish army.
Jokerit’s entry into the KHL at one time caused protests from local fans, which subsided against the background of a star-studded lineup and good play in the regular season. However, two years ago, the “wild cards” disbanded in the middle of the playoffs and returned home defeated; At home they were labeled as Russian agents and had several garbage cans thrown at them. Jokerit was left homeless (Hartwall Arena is owned by the suspended Rotenberg and Timchenko) and missed the entire last season, with the current one starting only in Mestis, the second-highest league.
Jari Kurri Revelations:
“They were persecuting me in a terrible way.” The Finnish hockey legend left Jokerit and spoke
The former owner of the Jokers, Harri Harkimo, has already managed to repent before the local press: “It was bad and I regret sending Jokerit to the KHL. I have nothing else in Russia. I left the club five years ago. Looking back, it was a mistake, but I didn’t think about it at the time. “All the companies cooperated with the Russians.” Now Selanne is the owner of the “wild cards”: he bought the club thanks to the mediation of Jari Kurri. The Finnish legend, during his work in the KHL, where Kurri was a member of the league’s board of directors, also ruined his reputation in his homeland, where they were ready to look for Russian agents under the pillow.
Jari Kurri
Photo: Vladimir Bezzubov, photo.khl.ru
Off-season they almost found them: red stars were found on the Jokerit uniform. The club immediately claimed that this did not mean anything like that, and the advertisers themselves usually associated themselves mainly with the red carpet and movie stars. “We apologize and now fully understand that there is a lot of negative historical and political baggage associated with the red star. We discussed this issue with representatives of Red Carpet and together we decided to change the color of the star for future matches,” the club urgently dug itself into the hole. As a result, the stars turned blue.
From a purely hockey standpoint, Jokerit isn’t flashy. There are few people in the squad who have extensive experience playing in the elite divisions: only three people have played more than a hundred games in the SM-League. There is only one former KHL player on the team: former Neftekhimik goalkeeper Ville Kolppanen, whose career took a nosedive over several years. The team will have a representative in the MFM: the great defenseman Kalle Kangas, recruited by Pittsburgh.
The team’s main asset was its fans. Jokerit plays most of its games in the distant Helsinki suburb of Kerava, where it consistently fills the small 1,240-seat stadium. The Club played several matches at the old Helsinki Ice Palace, where the worst enemy of the “wild cards”, HIFK, plays. Two of them sold out (8,200 spectators) and broke Mestis’s attendance record. Local fans interviewed by Finnish media say that the very fact of returning to the local league was important to them, even if it was Mestis, and the years in the KHL felt somehow different. We may be outraged, but it is quite natural that historical rivals excite Finns more than Siberia, Torpedo or Avtomobilist.
But in the KHL there are other points of view about that period:
“Thanks to the KHL we won the Olympic Games.” Russia’s merits are finally recognized in Finland
It is worth noting that “Jokerit” also causes an increase in tour attendance: even though the “jokers” are vilified and have no stars, people still go to see them. An indicative fact: the Jokerit match outside the KOOVEE club was attended by 4,458 people, a considerable part of which were visitors, and the next KOOVEE match was attended by only 419 spectators. The Jokers are now on a tour of provincial stadiums in Finland, which can be compared to the history of Spartak Moscow in the first football league, 1977.
A journalist from the newspaper Ilta Samonat tells how a security guard at one of the small stadiums told the fans: “drink more beer and we will make some money”: box office revenue from these matches is extremely important. Another writer from the same newspaper notes that the atmosphere at Jokerit games sometimes resembles that of a playoff game.
jokerit fans
Photo: jokerit.fi
But it is clear that everyone is waiting for Jokerit in the SM-Liga; Despite all the poison that was poured on the club (some local deputies proposed not allowing the team to enter the elite division until 2030), this is one of the most important local brands. The outdoor matches between Jokerit and HIFK attracted 35 thousand spectators; perhaps not a single signal from the local championship has such potential. In October, the SM-League announced that it would return transition matches with Mestis teams: before this decade, the Finnish elite was a closed club, new teams arrived, but not on a sporting level.
It is clear that this decision was made primarily by Jokerit: in Mestis there are now few teams that can match the capabilities of the SM-Liga. However, to everyone’s surprise, the “jokers” also rejected such happiness. “We do not consider the price to be justified or reasonable. We estimate that promotion to the league will cost at least €7 million in the first season, and total costs could reach €9 million. The budget for the players should be at least 2 million euros. Jokerit’s goal remains the same: to play at the major league level. But the conditions must be such that it is possible to carry out reasonable economic activity there. This is not possible now,” said club president Mikko Saarni.
The obstacle now is the price of admission. It is not about the 650 million dollars that the NHL asked Seattle, but to become part of the SM-Liga’s shareholders, Jokerit must disburse 3.8 million euros. It is clear why the club management is outraged by this: most of the Finnish giants, who formed the league, paid nothing and played for free from the beginning. In the second league you can’t make much money even with the name Selanne: the clubs there are mostly unprofitable.
Moment from the game “Jokerita”
Photo: jokerit.fi
The three clubs that have joined the championship in recent years (Sport, Jukurit and KooKoo) paid half: 1.7 million euros. 2 million euros in the salary budget is also a considerable amount, because now Jokerit “spends 350 euros.” thousand in players, which represents a six-fold increase. For this reason, some Finnish hockey figures oppose transition match plans: how will the smaller teams get that kind of money to advance? So far, only Kiekko-Espoo, from the second largest city in the country and with a good stadium, is definitely ready to move to a higher league, but the commission has so far found flaws in its application.
In sports, which still means little for the future, Jokerit looks good: the average age of the team is only 22.7 years, there are no foreign players, but the Jokers occupy third place in the regular season. A few days ago, Jokerit beat the underdog team FPS 12:2, becoming the team that scored so many goals in a match for the first time since 1989. But there is a feeling that the Helsinki public will no longer see a lineup as good as the “jokers” had in their last season in the KHL.
THE NAIS IS OFFICIAL EDITOR ON NAIS NEWS