Helsinki Halli, or Helsinki Arena (formerly Hartwall Arena), is a large multi-functional indoor

arena An arena is a large enclosed venue, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, Music, musical performances or Sport, sporting events. It comprises a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for specta ...

located in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. It was opened in April 1997. The arena is convertible for various events. The total seated capacity during

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

games is 13,349 (about 14,000 for basketball, for

concert A concert, often known informally as a gig or show, is a live performance of music in front of an audience. The performance may be carried by a single musician, in which case it is sometimes called a recital, or by a musical ensemble such as an ...

s up to 15,000) and as an

amphitheatre An amphitheatre (American English, U.S. English: amphitheater) is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ('), from ('), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and ('), meani ...

, it is significantly reduced to between 3,000 and 5,000. The formerly Russian-owned arena has been unused since March 2022 due to EU sanctions related to the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

. The main sponsor,

Hartwall Hartwall Ltd is a beverage company based in Helsinki, Finland. It was founded in 1836. Its drinks range includes Jaffa (soft drink)#Hartwall Jaffa, Jaffa, Pommac and Novelle waters. The company also owns the licence for manufacturing and sellin ...

, also ended its sponsorship and the arena's name was changed. In February 2025, the sale of the facility to new owners was concluded, with the arena scheduled to re-open in April or May.

Construction and facilities

The initiative for building the arena came from Harry "Hjallis" Harkimo in 1994. It was built to be ready for the

Ice Hockey World Championships The Ice Hockey World Championships are an annual international men's ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), first officially held at the 1920 Summer Olympics. The IIHF was created in 1908 while the I ...

in 1997, and was delivered by the constructor on 11 April 1997. The building is elliptical, 153 metres long and 123 metres wide. It also has a practice arena 37 metres underground, used by many hockey teams. It is connected to a multi-storey carpark, which has a total capacity of 1,421 vehicles. The arena is situated next to

Pasila railway station Pasila station (, ; previous Swedish name was ''Fredriksberg'' until 1990) is a railway station in Helsinki, Finland, approximately north of Helsinki Central. It is the second busiest railway station in Finland, after Helsinki Central, and take ...

, which is the second busiest railway station in Finland, 3.5 km north of the

Helsinki Central railway station Helsinki Central Station (, ) (List of IATA-indexed railway stations, HEC) is the main station for commuter rail and long-distance trains departing from Helsinki, Finland. About 200,000 people "pass through the station" every day, half of whom ar ...

Other and former names

The national broadcaster

Yle Yleisradio Oy (; ), abbreviated as Yle () (formerly styled in all uppercase until 2012), translated into English as the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is Finland's national public broadcasting company, founded in 1926. It is a joint-stock comp ...

calls the arena "Helsingin areena" or "Helsingforsarenan" ("the Helsinki Arena" in Finnish and Swedish). The newspaper ''

Helsingin Sanomat , abbreviated ''HS'' and colloquially known as , is the largest subscription newspaper in Finland and the Nordic countries, owned by Sanoma. Except after certain holidays, it is published daily. Its name derives from that of the Finnish capital ...

'' calls it "Helsinki-areena". It was branded as "Hartwall Areena" from its opening until 2014, and as "Hartwall Arena" thereafter until 2 March 2022. The beverage company

, also based in Helsinki, was its largest sponsor, and thus got the

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization where a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event (most often sports venues), typical ...

. Hartwall ended its sponsorship in March 2022, to avoid association with the then-Russian owners of the arena, Roman Rotenberg and Gennady Timchenko, in the wake of the

. In September 2024, the

Finnish government The Finnish Government (; ; ) is the executive branch and cabinet of Finland, which directs the politics of Finland and is the main source of legislation proposed to the Parliament. The Government has collective ministerial responsibility an ...

announced that it would spend €200,000 on drafting a law that would allow the seizure of the arena from Rotenberg and Timchenko. That November, Rotenberg and Timchenko sold their ownership of the arena to Finnish real estate investment company Trevian, with its CEO Reima Södervall along with Heikki Viitikko planning to have the venue reopened by early 2025. In February 2025 the deal was finalised, with the facility scheduled to re-open in April or May.

Events

Entertainment

Sports

The arena was the home venue of the ice hockey team

Jokerit Helsingin Jokerit (, English: Joker (playing card), Jokers or Jesters of Helsinki) is a professional ice hockey team based in Helsinki, Finland, which competes in Mestis. Jokerit plays its home games at the Helsinki Ice Hall and Helsinki Halli in ...

. The arena has also been used for

World Figure Skating Championships The World Figure Skating Championships are an annual figure skating competition sanctioned by the International Skating Union (ISU). The first World Championships were held in 1896 in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and they have been held e ...

NHL Challenge The NHL Challenge series allows select National Hockey League, NHL teams to travel outside North America to conduct training camp and participate in exhibition games. Although the games are played on the larger European ice surface, they are off ...

, and

World Cup of Hockey The World Cup of Hockey is an international ice hockey tournament. Inaugurated in 1996 World Cup of Hockey, 1996, it is the successor to the Canada Cup, which was held every three to five years from 1976 Canada Cup, 1976 to 1991 Canada Cup, 1991 ...

. On 2 October 2009, the NHL opened its season in the arena with a matchup between the Chicago Blackhawks and the Florida Panthers, making it the first NHL game to be held in Finland. In May 2011, the arena served as the main venue of the

2012 IIHF World Championship The 2012 IIHF World Championship was the 76th IIHF World Championship, an annual international ice hockey tournament. It took place between 4–20 May 2012 in Helsinki, Finland and Stockholm, Sweden. This tournament determined the countries' s ...

. It hosted all Group A games and quarterfinals, all semifinals and the bronze and gold medal games. Group B games and quarterfinals were hosted in

Ericsson Globe Avicii Arena, originally known as the Stockholm Globe Arena and previously as the Ericsson Globe, but commonly referred to in Swedish language, Swedish simply as Globen (; ), is an indoor arena located in Stockholm Globe City, Johanneshov dist ...

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

. It also co-hosted the 2013 IIHF World Championship with Ericsson Globe, but in 2013 all games after quarterfinals were played in Stockholm. The arena was one of the host venues of the 2016 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. Its assignment included hosting the gold-medal game, in which Kasperi Kapanen scored an Overtime goal to win Gold for Finland on home ice. One of the group stages of

EuroBasket 2017 EuroBasket 2017 was the 40th edition of the EuroBasket championship that was organized by FIBA Europe and held between 31 August and 17 September 2017. Beginning from 2017, the continental championships take place every four years with a similar ...

, was also played at the arena. The arena hosted two 2018–19 regular season NHL games between the

Winnipeg Jets The Winnipeg Jets are a professional ice hockey team based in Winnipeg. The Jets compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (NHL), Central Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. The te ...

and

Florida Panthers The Florida Panthers are a professional ice hockey team based in the Miami metropolitan area. The Panthers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team initially played it ...

on Thursday, 1 November 2018 and Friday, 2 November 2018 as part of the 2018 NHL Global Series. File:Hartwallareena inside.jpg, Jokerit vs Rauman Lukko in 2007 File:Jokerit vs. Dinamo.jpeg, Jokerit vs

Dinamo Riga Dinamo Riga () is a professional ice hockey team based in Riga, Latvia. It most recently was a member of the Latvian Hockey Higher League. The club is affiliated with HK Zemgale/LBTU. The club was re-founded on 7 April 2008 as a successor of a D ...

in 2018 File:IHWC 2012 Awarding Russia, 20.05.2012, Helsinki, Finland.JPG,

Final File:EuroBasket 2017 Finland vs Iceland 93.jpg,

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 1997 establishments in Finland Indoor arenas in Finland Ice hockey venues in Finland Jokerit

Pasila Sports venues completed in 1997 Sports venues in Helsinki