Helsinki cools on Bogomoloff’s €2 million ice-sports proposal

Helsinki’s cultural and leisure board has cooled on a proposal to give the city’s ice hockey and figure-skating clubs an extra €2 million in 2027, leaving the issue to be decided at a later meeting.

Veteran Helsinki politician Harry Bogomoloff of the National Coalition Party made the proposal in a budget initiative in May. He argued that ice sports carry high costs and that additional public support could make participation more affordable.

The sum would be substantial. Ice sports received €1.34 million from the city’s cultural and leisure appropriations in 2025, while the board distributed €9.17 million in sports grants overall last year. In a draft statement, the board noted that ice sports received about 14 percent of the available funds, even though active participants in the sports account for about 6 percent of the total.

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The sports-grant criteria will be revised from 2027. The separate grant for ice hockey and figure skating will then disappear.

Bogomoloff has previously called for more public funding for ice-sports training sessions. In an interview with Helsingin Sanomat last September, he said greater support was needed to reduce the cost of taking part.

Helsinki sports director Tarja Loikkanen said the proposal should not be supported because it does not meet criteria such as equality and fairness. The sports and leisure board is due to decide on the matter on Tuesday, September 8.

Loikkanen said ice sports are likely to receive more money regardless. The city’s sports-grant criteria will be revised from 2027, when the separate grant for ice hockey and figure skating will disappear. Instead, sports and clubs with above-average facility costs will receive greater consideration, a change that the city’s preliminary assessment suggests will increase funding for ice sports.

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In the future, sports and clubs with above-average facility costs will be taken into account in the distribution of grants.