Santerinassa goes icehockey!

Santerinassa goes icehockey!

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Ticket prize well out of control in Finland

In Finland the biggest issue and part of every discussion has been those high ticket prizes. The cheapest ticket in Finland's game costs over 140 euros, and in other games over 70.

An average Finn usually earns c.a 2500 euros per month. They have to pay bills and taxes, buy food etc, like we all have to, and after that we could assume that an average Finn will still have about 200-300 euros for other purposes. One ticket to the game costs 140euros, and average hockey-father takes 2-3 family members with him to a game. So, in total, for the worst places, the game will cost 420euros-560 euros. If they want actually see the game, ticket costs c.a. 200euros, in total 600-800euros. That's just discusting amount of money, to be honest. And if you would want to see two games, you would have to pay almost one month's salary for that. It's sick.

In an original Finnish league (SM-liiga) game, the tickets for the best places are about 20-30 euros, in some places a bit more. In Play-offs you could see a game from ice level with 30euros. The finals were under 50 euros. Now, in Finland, the finals are at least 500euros for the worst positions. 500! That's just amazingly expensive and prevents every regular citizen from watching these games at all.

Kalervo Kummola
Of course, Finnish Ice Hockey Federation doesn't see a problem here. They think, that these games are expensive to hold and Finland has won the games last year, so it's more than reasonable to ask these prizes. The truth is actually quite different, according to the Finnish people. Halls have been quite empty so far, and even Finland's games haven't filled stadium totally. FIHF announces other way, of course, because they are telling us very high viewers rate. For instance, the first games have attracted only 1000 spectators, but officially there were 8000 people there. Most of them were school kids, who had had free tickets and were seated in the worst places.

The scandal had became a disaster due to the actions of hockey federation. They have refused to lower the prizes for the games, and they have even declined selling tickets with any sales. In Sweden, the prizes were lowered dramatically after first games disastrous spectators rate, and after that, people have been very satisfied on their federations actions. In Finland, the organizators were quiet, and actually asked Swedish federation to be quiet about ticket sales. They asked them to talk about rearrangements with prizes. Swedish federation didn't accept that, which saved their credibility and skin.

The worst is yet to come. In Finland, the communism has started to arise among the federation. Any flags, canvas or something, that says something negative about the ticket prizes or criticizes the federation's acts or Kalervo Kummola, are removed from the audience. They are strictly forbidden, and officially it is about fire safety in the games. Those flags might cause dangerous situations. Yeah, right. Who truly believes that?

This scandal has arisen a kind of a insurgency in Finland. People are looking for free broadcasts on the web, refusing to buy tickets and are taking their opinions to the games. We were taken away the free wc last year, when Mtv3 took the rights for these games. Now we can't see the games live nor from TV(for free, to say), which pisses us off.

This communist system should be brought down. Once for all.

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