Criticism of the World Cup organizer – saws the mood: "Like in a church on a Sunday"

Out on the town in Tampere there is a World Cup atmosphere and the Finnish games are sold out. But despite that, it was relatively quiet in the stands in the opener against the USA and partly also in the evening game against Germany last Saturday.

A major topic of discussion among both supporters and journalists has been ticket prices. Jussi Paasi, a columnist at the Finnish public broadcaster Yle, believes that the reason why there is no better pressure on the matches lies there.

Against Germany, for example, the cheapest tickets cost 85 euros (about 950 Swedish kronor) and for many of the tickets you had to pay over 100 euros.

"The prices can be high, but there must also be cheaper categories so that 'ordinary people', so to speak, can participate in this tournament. As it is now, the World Cup is exclusive to those who have money or those who come through sponsors and companies and thus do not have to buy the tickets themselves, says Paasi.

"Like in a church"

He really saws the atmosphere in the opening match.

"The atmosphere was like in a church on a Sunday. It's sad. We need a supporters' section close to the fence, as it is when Ilves or Tappara (local league teams) play. A few sections for real supporters.

But it's still sold out, what's the problem?

"To get the atmosphere, the real supporters have to come to the stadium and not just those who don't buy their tickets themselves," Paasi said.

"I think everyone who comes wants the emotions and the sound. You want to feel that the audience reacts to the game. You want to feel it because when you buy the ticket, you expect something big to happen, not for you to come to Sunday church.

Heikki Hietanen, Secretary General of the World Cup, responds to the criticism.

"We play a home World Cup and then I don't think it (85 euros) is too high," he said.

"I don't know how the prices affect the mood, but I do know that some journalists have criticized the fact that we have so many VIP tickets. But at the opening match we had 12,000 spectators here and of them around 2,000 were VIPs. They are real Finnish ice hockey fans.