Floorball | The league club from Helsinki is moving to a new home hall, even though it is too small

from Helsinki The Eräviikki men’s league team returns to their hometown and to Mosahalli in Tapanila.

The flagship of the fusion club founded in 2016 has played some matches in Mosahalli in previous years, but most of its home games are in the Energia-arena located in Myyrmäki, Vantaa.

In the league season that starts on Friday, Eräviikingit plays almost all of its home games at “Mosa”.

The club was driven to Vantaa by the poor hall situation in Helsinki. Mosahalli – where the club’s office is located and where almost all the other teams play – has been too small for the men’s league.

Now Eräviikingi can get to their heartlands with an exception.

Wild Vikings marketing and leading the F-League teams Olli Lähdesmäki says that the club initially applied for an exemption permit, with which it would have played part of its home games in Vantaa and part in Mosahalli. However, the series organizer’s decision made it possible to play the entire season in Tapanila.

The series regulations specify a minimum capacity of 800 spectators. Previously, Mosahalli could accommodate 500 spectators, after the changes made in the summer, 600.

Based on the past seasons, it is quite good enough for the Eräviikings. Last season, the team that finished second last in the regular season had an average of 276 spectators at their home games, compared to 346 a year earlier.

Lähdesmäki lists audience numbers as one of the reasons behind the move.

Myyrmäki’s Energia arena is one of the best indoor ball sports halls in Finland, but with its capacity of 2,500 spectators, it is too big for the Eräviikings.

Lähdesmäki says that in the big picture, the income from home matches in Energia-arena was zero.

“In the Energia arena, the audience average should have been close to a thousand spectators, so that it would have been a financially more reasonable solution than Mosahalli,” Lähdesmäki explains.

He does not yet dare to estimate how much the match events in Mosahalli generate, but says: “The stable view is that the financial impact is quite significant.”

Returning to Tapanila also cuts costs and saves the club’s employees time. The Myyrmäki match event had to be built from scratch every time: install the carpet and advertisements, set up the ticket office, and more. These are ready at Mosahalli.

Wild Vikings captain Tuomas Aho says that moving the home games from Vantaa to Tapanila has been well received among the team. Aho says that he himself prefers to play in Mosahalli, where the team also trains.

“First of all, Mosa is in Helsinki, and secondly, it is the home of the entire club. The team has many of our own graduates who have grown up in Mosa and played there throughout their junior career.”

In the gigantic Energia arena, the atmosphere of Eräviikkinki’s home games often remained eerie.

“The energy arena was too big. It’s a really nice hall, but there the needs of the hall and the user didn’t meet. With these audience numbers, it is possible for Mosa to build matches with a close atmosphere,” says Aho.

In terms of the atmosphere, a more important measure than the absolute number of people is often precisely the occupancy rate.

The possibility of building more atmospheric matches was one of the factors in favor of moving to Mosahalli, Lähdesmäki explains.

“Even from the opponent’s camp, the question has become whether it would be harder for Mosa to play.”

F League has been on the decline in recent years, which is reflected in the number of audiences, for example. Before the corona pandemic, the average audience for the regular season was more than 600 spectators in several seasons. 514 and 475 in the last two seasons.

Now Eräviikingit will move to a home hall that is too small within the series regulations, which can be seen as symbolizing the bottom of the league.

“There will be different trends, whatever the business, and you have to be able to react to them. Things need to be recognized on a league-wide scale (a drop in overall numbers). It’s pointless to bang your head against the wall, when it would be good to stop and feel how to find routes to growth.”

Lähdesmäki emphasizes that Eräviikingit has not lowered its goals regarding the development of audience numbers.

“As a club, one of our priorities is investing in community and the feeling the club evokes. We can best implement that within the framework of Mosahalli. It’s the feeling that makes people come and turns the audience into growth.”

In their series opener, the Ärävikings will face Jyväskylä Happe on Friday in Mosahalli. The match starts at 18:30.