The live experience at Elmo

The group phase of the Ice Hockey World Championships is over. Today the quarterfinals start. Most of your probably didn’t buy a ticket for the stadium. But to still get the live experience in a big group with fans around you yelling for their team and celebrating their victories together you sports bar are a good alternative. What about watching the final games at Elmo Bar next to Kamppi? Next to lots of screens showing the games – and during this time you can be sure that they will just show the ice hockey games on every screen – you have a great atmosphere in the medium sized but during the games quite small appearing place. Apart from the mandatory beer they offer quite nice snacks. The prices are average for the center of Helsinki.

If you want to watch one of the Finnish games there you should be early. Elmo gets crowded quite fast on those days.

Support for Suomi!

The Ice Hockey World Championships are still going on till Sunday. Let’s hope the Finnish team makes it as far as last year (which would mean winning the Championships). To show your support for the team you can of course get fan products now everywhere in Helsinki. For the special occasion they also put up a fan shop in front of Kammpi Shopping center. Here you get everything you need to show you are supporting the Finnish lions. Take a look but carefully consider if you really want to buy something there. The prices are really high. You barely get anything for less than 20 Euros. Rather take it to get an idea about what you want to have and try to find those things in the nearby warehouses for a few Euros less.

The dilemma with the World Cup

 

Imagine it’s ice hockey world cup and nobody is watching. That’s pretty much the case at the moment with the championships taking place in Helsinki and Stockholm at the moment. Since the broadcasting rights were too expensive the public TV station YLE doesn’t show any of the games. The private broadcasting company around MTV3 got the rights this time but will only show games of the Finnish national team on free TV (MTV3 and AVA). For everything else you have to buy a pricy subscription for Channel+ or via the online platform Katsomo.

And if you don’t plan on paying ridiculous amounts of money watching a game live in the stadium is also out of question. Prices for games in the first round start from 90 Euros. For a Finland game you have to calculate with at least 150 Euros per ticket. No wonder that the stadiums in Stockholm and Helsinki half full in best case.

The only chance to see the games is going to one of the sports bars.

It’s really a pity how the greed of the organizers made the world cup in one of the most ice hockey crazy countries in the world such a disaster.

For those who want to get at least some world cup feeling into their homes here a list of the games shown in free TV:

05/06    16:00     Finland – Slovakia           MTV3

05/08    19:55     Finland – Switzerland      AVA

05/10    19:55     France – Finland             AVA

05/11    19:55     Finland – Canada             AVA

05/13    16:00     Finland – USA                MTV3

05/14    19:55     Kazakhstan – Finland      AVA

05/17    18:10     Quarterfinal 3                 AVA

05/19    14:15     Semifinal 1                     MTV3

            18:10     Semifinal 2                     AVA

05/20    15:40     third-place game             AVA

            20:15     Final                             AVA

World Cup and buffet

Tomorrow the ice hockey world cup in Finland and Sweden begins. Did you already think about where you are going to watch the games? One pretty decent and comfortable way is to enjoy them at Virgin Oil Co. The restaurant, bar and club is located on Mannerheimintie. So it’s pretty central.

For the world cup they offer special buffet packages. You can e.g. watch the opening game on Friday between Finland and Belarus while enjoying a big buffet and listening to live music by POJU afterwards. The whole experience costs 25 Euros. Alcoholic beverages are not included of course. We are in Finland. Those offers are just available for the games of the Finnish national team. On days without live music you pay 15 Euros. It is a really nice way though to experience the world cup. For more details check their website.