Jokerit-HIFK ”Winter Classic” outdoor ice hockey game in Olympic Stadium expected to sell out before Christmas

34,000-strong audience anticipated for February game; Jokerit coach Hannu Jortikka dismissed on Wednesday after poor start to season

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Yesterday’s ice hockey game in the Hartwall Arena was the first and last Jokerit-HIFK local derby in the SM-liiga (Finland’s premier ice hockey league) regular season to be played indoors.
      Helsinki Jokerit will host its second regular season match against the other local SM-liiga team HIFK in a rather larger arean in the open air early next year.
      The match named as “the Winter Classic” will be played at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium on February 5th.
      A record number of 34,000 spectators are expected to attend the event.
     
"Tickets to the game are being sold at the rate of 1,000 per week”, says Jokerit managing director Jarmo Kekäläinen.
      “It looks like it will be sold out by Christmas. At the moment we only have 4,000 tickets left.”
      To accommodate the demand that has exceeded expectations Jokerit have started considering introducing additional seating at the Olympic Stadium.
     
”At the moment all the seats with an unrestricted view of the rink that will be set up in the middle of the stadium’s football pitch are already on sale or sold”, says Olympic Stadium marketing manager Pekka Hurme.
      At present the Olympic Stadium’s maximum capacity in this configuration is 40,000 people.
      All the tickets currently for sale are for the stadium’s permanent seats. Some places very low down in the grandstands have been left unsold on the grounds that visibility will be hampered by the sides of the rink. No additional seating areas were originally intended to be erected for the game.
      “For the concerts organised at the stadium we also normally sell tickets for seats with restricted view. With this principle we could sell additional tickets for people who mainly just want to come in to enjoy the atmosphere”, Hurme says.
     
”If a normal concert ticket is EUR 80, then the restricted view seats sell at EUR 30. The same principle could be applied to the hockey game as well.”
      The early snow and frosts benefit the stadium’s grass infield, which will take a pounding when the hockey rink is erected on top of it.
      The first visible works to convert the stadium, normally the venue for athletics, football, or concerts, will commence at the beginning of January.
     
Jokerit sack coach despite 4-3 overtime win

Just by way of a heads-up, Jokerit beat HIFK last night 4-3 in overtime. The first of two reverse fixtures in the regular season saw HIFK beat Jokerit 5-3 at home in September. HIFK play Jokerit in the Helsinki Ice Hall again on December 7th. At present HIFK are lying third in the SM-Liiga table, while Jokerit are 8th.
     
Jokerit's win on Tuesday came too late to save their coach Hannu Jortikka, who has been replaced by Erkka Westerlund. Jokerit's performances so far this season have not exactly been inspiring, and surrendering a 3-0 lead in the final period against HIFK appears to have been the final straw, despite the eventual victory.
      Although the Helsinki club have a couple of games in hand, they are six points behind Espoo Blues and eight points shy of securing a place in the top six of the table that would guarantee a berth in the first round proper of the play-offs.
     
It has been a windy week so far for SM-Liiga coaches: on Sunday Oulu Kärpät (languishing in 11th place) said goodbye to Mikko Haapakoski. He was replaced by Hannu Aravirta, but the change at the helm did little good, as Kärpät went down 6-2 to KalPa of Kuopio on Tuesday.
      Jortikka is the fourth coach to lose his seat this season. Earlier on, TPS Turku dismissed Heikki Leime (TPS are still bottom of the table, though their fortunes have improved after a catastrophic start) and Lahti Pelicans parted company with Mika Toivola. Pelicans are 12th in the table.
     
JYP Jyväskylä are flying: they head the league standings with 61 points from 25 games, including 19 wins and just three normal-time defeats. One of those losses came on Tuesday, however, as HPK Hämeenlinna upset them 5-4. JYP are nevertheless eight points clear of their nearest rivals Pori Ässät, and twelve clear of HIFK.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Olympic Stadium gearing up for SM-Liiga fixture in February (26.10.2010)

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  SM-Liiga (mostly in Finnish)

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