From its opening in 1997 until March 2022, the building then known as Hartwall Arena hosted four IIHF World Championships, two World Junior Championships, three games in the 2004 World Cup of Hockey and seven NHL regular-season games. It was the home rink to Jokerit, which played in the KHL. It was Finland’s premier hockey venue.

But it hasn’t held an event since early 2022.

With the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 27, 2022, Jokerit faced immediate pressure to withdraw from the Russian-controlled KHL, and did not even finish the season. Facing bankruptcy and a reluctance on the part of the Finnish hockey establishment to take them back, Jokerit did not ice a professional team in the 2022-23 season.

As for the arena, it was owned by Russians Roman Rotenberg and Gennady Timchenko, who faced EU sanctions. As a result, the IIHF removed Hartwall Arena as a co-host of the 2022 World Championship, moving the games scheduled for Helsinki to the Ice Hall. Hartwall, the Finnish beverage company that lent its name to the arena, cancelled its contract, leaving the building nameless, tenantless, and essentially ownerless.

For the next two years, the arena sat in limbo, shuttered with all utilities turned off. At one point, it was reported that it had fallen into a state of disrepair and might have to be demolished. But finally, in November 2024, Rotenberg and Timchenko sold their share of the arena to a Finnish real estate company. Since then, a lot of work has been put in to make the facility usable again.

Jari Kurri – 2024 Börje Salming Courage Award Winner – Is A Controversial Figure In His Home Club On Saturday afternoon in Tampere, hours before the Dallas Stars and Florida Panthers played the second of two NHL regular-season games in the Finnish city, the NHL Alumni Association made Finnish hockey icon Jari Kurri the second recipient of the Börje Salming Courage Award.

On Wednesday, it was announced that the arena would reopen to the public in September with a new name – Veikkaus Arena, after a Finnish betting company.

After a season off the ice, Jokerit now plays in Finland’s second-tier professional league, Mestis. For the last two seasons, it has played its home games at Helsinki Ice Hall, home of Liiga club HIFK, but starting in 2025-26, it is expected that Jokerit will return to its former home rink.

Beyond Jokerit, a return to hosting high-profile international events might not be far off. Since the Helsinki arena's closure, most high-profile hockey events in Finland have gone to Nokia Arena in Tampere, which opened in late 2021. 

However, with a capacity of 13,349, Veikkaus Arena is still, by a slight margin, Finland’s largest hockey venue, meaning that Helsinki could return to the conversation when talking about World Championships, NHL games and possibly even the 2028 World Cup.

Photo: Roopeank

Valtteri Filppula Retires Finnish forward Valtteri Filppula, 41, <a href="https://www.jokerit.fi/uutiset/valtteri-filppula-paattaa-pelaajauransa">announced his retirement from playing via the website of Jokerit</a>, the club with which he started and ended is career, and the club he plans to continue working for in the future.