Jokerit back to Liiga + finnish KHL players

[Jussi]

Pakotteet | Helsinki-halli jätti vuokran maksamatta, pormestari Juhana Vartiainen on tyytyväinen

Tyhjänä seisovan Helsinki-hallin tonttivuokra on maksamatta. Tämä voi avata mahdollisuuden hallin ottamiseksi haltuun.

www.hs.fi

Current owners of the Helsinki Arena missed a rent payment and the door is now open for the city to confiscate the arena.

 

[FINJuniors]

Pakotteet | Helsinki-halli jätti vuokran maksamatta, pormestari Juhana Vartiainen on tyytyväinen

Tyhjänä seisovan Helsinki-hallin tonttivuokra on maksamatta. Tämä voi avata mahdollisuuden hallin ottamiseksi haltuun.

www.hs.fi

Current owners of the Helsinki Arena missed a rent payment and the door is now open for the city to confiscate the arena.

I would not hold my breath yet for this one. Confiscating private property, even if Russian and based on "public good" as is the motivation, will be very difficult. If it was easy, western countries would have turned this sorts of property into cash already. The key problem is where does the cash go into: if you confiscate private property, you still need to pay for it to original owners... to whom you cannot pay in this case. But I hope that they find solution that works.

 

[FINJuniors]

Jokerit as a new organization is in a tricky spot as they are downgraded to 2nd league level (presumably for 2 seasons at minimum). Optimally they should been playing in Finnish sm-liiga already this season, profiting both sm-liiga and interest in finnish hockey in general. When you play in lower league for nothing to gain, i can see recreational fanbase which most of the fanbases consist of, might lose interest.

Good point. Also, with the projected 2023-2024 roster, Jokerit will probably not be a top 3 team in Mestis, which may diminish the interest even more for the fans and the currently excited sponsors. Liiga requires that new teams have demonstrated success in Mestis before they can enter Liiga, and to demonstrate, you really need to win like Kiekko-Espoo in 2022-2023.

 

[Jussi]

I would not hold my breath yet for this one. Confiscating private property, even if Russian and based on "public good" as is the motivation, will be very difficult. If it was easy, western countries would have turned this sorts of property into cash already. The key problem is where does the cash go into: if you confiscate private property, you still need to pay for it to original owners... to whom you cannot pay in this case. But I hope that they find solution that works.

It seems they're waiting on government to change legislature to do it for them. And the main issue here is the missed rent payment. If there's no reply from the owners to the "karhukirjeet", then the city has options. This is standard procedure.

 

[mattihp]

Puck drop tonight between Jokerit and Espoo. Sounds like old times Wrong Espoo, but still

 

[Raimo Sillanpää]

Puck drop tonight between Jokerit and Espoo. Sounds like old times Wrong Espoo, but still

If this ends up with better tv viewership than any Liiga game this weekend, expect changes in Liiga stance to adding the two..

 

[Albatros]

Mestis will surely get old eventually, but I doubt many people would have rather been playing Jukurit in Mikkeli today.

 

[karhukissa]

Was at the game today, and only Tappara-Ilves derby is on par with that atmosphere. Can only imagine what would it be on HIFK vs Jokerit.

Just makes me sick that Liiga is closed. Sport for example has zero value in comparison to Jokerit, no junior production and best players are always some Swedish mercenaries.

Puck drop tonight between Jokerit and Espoo. Sounds like old times Wrong Espoo, but still

Blues was kinda plastic team, Kiekko-Espoo is the original one.

 

[Albatros]

Blues was kinda plastic team, Kiekko-Espoo is the original one.

Kinda, but also a fusion team that was predated by Tapion Honka → Jäähonka. Jäähonka was closely affiliated with Jokerit and played with some success at this same level (I-divisioona) before the fusion in the late 1970s and the early 1980s.

 

[CPFC]

Great atmosphere in last night's game

 

[Jaska]

I was in a couple of KHL games, but the atmosphere in Mestis is 10 times better! The hardcore fans are back!

 

[mattihp]

Was at the game today, and only Tappara-Ilves derby is on par with that atmosphere. Can only imagine what would it be on HIFK vs Jokerit.

Just makes me sick that Liiga is closed. Sport for example has zero value in comparison to Jokerit, no junior production and best players are always some Swedish mercenaries.

You can't piss and shit on the rink and then get straight back when others have cleaned it up. What Jokerit did was a disgusting betrayal.

 

[Jaska]

You can't piss and shit on the rink and then get straight back when others have cleaned it up. What Jokerit did was a disgusting betrayal.

True. Harkimo did some serious damage. It was not Jokerit, it was Harkimo (and Kummola).

 

[Albatros]

Jokerit did pay among other things a new rink to every Liiga team upon departure.

 

[Jaska]

And a new Brooklyn Bridge?

 

[karhukissa]

You can't piss and shit on the rink and then get straight back when others have cleaned it up. What Jokerit did was a disgusting betrayal.

It's completely different organization. Logo, name and fans are the same rest is different. They were very strict that there can be zero connections to Harkimo.

Thing is that Liiga is closed only because quite ironically big positions in Liiga board are managed by small team affiliates. Just imagine that Liiga's current chairman is also Vaasan Sport's chairman. KooKoo's Mikko Pulkkinen is Liiga CEO. Jussi Markkanen of SaiPa is Liiga's sports director. What the F

 

[karhukissa]

Pretty nice atmosphere in 2nd tier hockey

 

[member 305909]

I wonder are there a lot of Jokerit-fans who stopped watching the team because they went to the Russian league but now have come back even though Jokerit plays mestis.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard you rub you just can't get rid of the Russian smell out of Jokerit.

 

[Albatros]

Jokerit is by no means the only team that has welcomed Russian money at some point. Or Chinese in the case of KalPa. Even Kiekko-Espoo likely wouldn't exist if not for Soviet funds back in the day.

 

[Jussi]

I wonder are there a lot of Jokerit-fans who stopped watching the team because they went to the Russian league but now have come back even though Jokerit plays mestis.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard you rub you just can't get rid of the Russian smell out of Jokerit.

\o

Didn't care how they did at KHL, zero investment in the team's success or rather lack of. I'm all in now.




Looks like Nordis will have at least 6K for tomorrow's Ketterä game.

 

[Jussi]

Look like Mestis attendance record will be broken again today.

 

[JabbaJabba]

I wonder are there a lot of Jokerit-fans who stopped watching the team because they went to the Russian league but now have come back even though Jokerit plays mestis.

Unfortunately, no matter how hard you rub you just can't get rid of the Russian smell out of Jokerit.

I read some articles couple of years ago where fans complained how their hardcore fan groups have gotten smaller in KHL era. Just no real excitement in games against the Chinese team or some Siberian club. Games against SKA had some feel to them at least. But yeah Jokerit were and are more of a thing in Finland and in Finnish leagues. Other clubs really wanted to beat them and Jokerit were one of the biggest clubs so games against Tappara, Kärpät etc. were important games. And of course the games against HIFK were huge.

Would be great to Jokerit in Liiga as soon as possible. Probably have to wait a year or two. Great that they got into Mestis already.

 

[Albatros]

The team had been in constant decline since the late 1990s though, between their last title in 2002 and joining the KHL in 2014 they had absolutely nothing going on besides vegetating as an also-ran season after season. Without their time in the KHL that might very well still continue today.

 

[Jussi]

The team had been in constant decline since the late 1990s though, between their last title in 2002 and joining the KHL in 2014 they had absolutely nothing going on besides vegetating as an also-ran season after season. Without their time in the KHL that might very well still continue today.

Finalist in 2005 and 2007 and bronze medals in 2012.

 

[Albatros]

Finalist in 2005 and 2007 and bronze medals in 2012.

And no one cared, it was a hockey club without much heart, lost its identity. Memorable moments from that era tend to have more to do with toxic behavior on and off the ice than hockey.