Climate | Tappara traveled on a private flight – MP Oras Tynkkynen wonders: “Everyone can ask tough questions.”

Poleaxe flew from Tampere to Kuopio on a private Air Baltic flight on Friday after the first leg of the SM league semi-final series and back to Tampere on Saturday after the second leg.

The distance between Tampere and Kuopio's hockey arenas is only 300 kilometers, so Tappara's decision to make the trip by air has stirred up social media.

Tappara declares on its website that it strives to take environmental issues into account “in all its activities” and that it is committed to maintaining environmental issues in its communications.

At the weekend, however, Tappara shared photo and video footage from the flight to Kuopio and back on social media.

This contradiction was criticized by a member of parliament (green) and a Tampere city councilor Oras Tynkkynen. He is known as an advocate of public transport.

“It is valuable that clubs prepare environmental programs and set goals, but actions are decisive. This is not only a problem in sports, but in every organization it is easier to prepare a strategy that sounds nice than to actually make choices that affect climate emissions,” Tynkkynen says.

“The good thing is that now that the program has been drawn up, everyone can ask tough questions about how well the promises now fit in with the fact that you are flying to Kuopio? I don't want to be the moral police or tell how people should act, but it's good that a discussion about this kind of thing arises.”

I like it also reminds us of Tappara's role as an influencer by example.

“If people notice ice hockey players flying around carelessly, many people will probably think why should I be concerned about the climate”, Tynkkynen thinks.

In this sense, Tappara's social media posts about air travel were abysmal.

“If people in influential positions communicate that traveling such short distances by plane is even desirable or ideal, it affects people's attitudes. On the other hand, if the club traveled by bus and conveyed a positive message about it, it would be a completely different message,” Tynkkynen says.

“It's good for Tapparank to think about what kind of message it sends, for example, to its young fans, of which there are a lot.”

In Tynkkynen's opinion, there is also no policy in Finland that would make “making sustainable choices attractive”. He refers, for example, to the absence of an air tax.

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If people in influential positions communicate that traveling such short distances by plane is even desirable or ideal, it affects people's attitudes.

Tapparan CEO Mika Aron according to the club deviated from its practices on the weekend by resorting to an airplane.

“During the regular season in Finland, we didn't travel to a match by plane, we went either by train or bus. In the playoffs, the differences are so small that after careful consideration we made this decision,” says Aro.

“Recovery is very important, and in back-to-back games you never know how long the first game will last.”

According to Aro, Air Baltic's plane was ready in Pirkkala, and there was no need to fly it from Latvia to Finland for the trip to Tappara.

What about Do you see a contradiction between your environmental program and practical actions when you decided to fly to Kuopio?

“I don't see a contradiction. We take the environment seriously. This season, for example, we have included a free public transport ticket in each of our match tickets. That's how we aim to limit large traffic emissions. This time we decided to fly on the terms of sport.”

How do you respond to the criticism that Tappara should act as a role model in environmental matters?

“If we constantly flew from Tampere all over Finland, criticism would be right. But this was really about a playoff match. We have to think about how the players can cope and also that the spectators who bought expensive tickets will see good hockey.”

Poleaxe leads the match series against KalPa with a 2–0 win. The third match will be played on Tuesday in Tampere.

If the series stretches to a fifth game, Aro does not rule out the possibility that Tappara will resort to air travel again. The fourth match of the semi-final series will be played on Friday in Kuopio and a possible fifth match in Tampere on Saturday.