Rink of dreams

“If you build it, he will come.” That was what the Voice told Ray Kinsella in “Field of Dreams.” That was also what the Swedish Elite League teams realized sometime in the beginning of the decade. And they got to work:

Kinnarps Arena: 2000
Löfbergs Lila Arena: 2001
Coop Arena: 2002
E.On Arena: 2003
Cloetta Center: 2004
Ejendals Arena: 2005
AXA Sports Center: 2005
Läkerol Arena: 2006
Swedbank Arena: 2006

Some are completely new, but many of the arenas simply got a facelift, adding capacity and luxury boxes. But when they were built, the people did come. Here’s a little graph about the attendance figures in the Swedish and Finnish Elite Leagues.

Attendances in Sweden and Finland (Fig 1.)

2 thoughts on “Rink of dreams

  1. Interesting. Interesting also to see that the attendances are quite low in both countries. I thought hockey was a major sport in Scandinavia.

  2. Hockey is a major sport in Scandinavia. But why the attendances are that low is a bit trickier question. In Sweden they’d be higher if the arenas were bigger.

    But in Finland, it’s the quality of the players that reduce the crowd. Bigger names bring bigger audiences.

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