Finland Announce Tidy Profits from Hosting 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship

The Finnish half of the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship organizing committee announced it made a profit of €8, look 238,162 ($10,595,26) for the Finnish Ice Hockey Association, which will be invested in youth hockey.

The organization had €27.3m ($35.1m) income and cost over €19.1m ($24.5m) in the first year of the co-hosting agreement with Sweden. In 2013 Stockholm will be the main venue hosting the semi-finals and medal games, while Helsinki will host one of the two preliminary-round groups and two quarter-final games played within the group before the two winners fly to Stockholm.

The profit from this and next year will be used for youth hockey over a period of 10 years with the goal to increase the number of registered players from currently 56,626 to 70,000.

In total 90 per cent of the profit goes into youth hockey while 10 per cent will be used for infrastructure projects in Vierumäki and in other regional funds.

The skills coaches will work with various teams in their region in close co-operation with the clubs and their coaches and schools, and also educate part-time coaches and parents. They will participate in two seminars per year organized by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association, which has named 25 potential clubs that can name skills coaches paid for through the fund.

It was also announced that ticket sales for the 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship games in Helsinki will start on 15th October.