Espoo Metro Areena (known from 1999 to January 2009 as LänsiAuto Areena, and from 2009 to October 2015 as Barona Areena) is an
arena
An arena is a large enclosed platform, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theatre, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators ...
in the
Tapiola District of
Espoo
Espoo (, ; sv, Esbo) is a city and municipality in the region of Uusimaa in the Republic of Finland. It is located on the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, bordering the cities of Helsinki, Vantaa, Kirkkonummi, Vihti and Nurmijärvi ...
,
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
. It is part of the ''
Tapiolan Urheilupuisto'' (Tapiola Sports Park). It was inaugurated in 1999 and holds 6,982 people for ice-hockey games or 8,582 for concerts.
In late October and early November 2022, it served as the leading venue for the
2022 World Ringette Championships.
Espoo Metro Areena has been primarily used for
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...
and it was the
home arena
In sports, home is the place and venue identified with a team sport. Most professional teams are named for, and marketed to, particular metropolitan areas; amateur teams may be drawn from a particular region, or from institutions such as sch ...
of the
Espoo Blues
The Espoo Blues were an ice hockey team in the SM-liiga. They played in Espoo, Finland, at the Espoo Metro Areena. The club went bankrupt at the end of the 2015–16 Liiga season.
History
The club was established in February 1984 as Kiekko-Espoo ...
of the
Liiga
The SM-liiga (marketed as just Liiga from 2013 on), (Finnish for ''League'') colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. It is one of the six founding leagu ...
from 1999 to 2016 and of
Espoo United of the
Mestis
Mestis (from fi, Mestaruussarja, meaning 'Championship series') is the second-highest men's ice hockey league in Finland. The league was established by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association in 2000 to replace the I-divisioona ('First Division'). ...
from 2016 until the franchise was dissolved in 2018. The arena is sponsored by
Hesburger
Hesburger (colloquially known in Finland as ''Hese'' and in Estonia as ''Hess'') is a fast food chain based in Turku, Finland. Today, it is the largest hamburger restaurant chain in Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania with a market share ...
, Finland's largest
fast food
Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredien ...
hamburger
chain
A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A c ...
.
See also
*
List of indoor arenas in Finland
The following is a list of indoor arenas in Finland with a capacity of at least 1,000 spectators, most of the arenas in this list are for multi use proposes and are used for popular sports such as individual sports like karate, judo, boxing as we ...
*
List of indoor arenas in Nordic countries
The following is an incomplete list of indoor arenas in Nordic countries whose capacity is at least 5,000.
Current arenas
{, class="wikitable sortable"
, -
!Rank
!Stadium
!Capacity
!City
!Opened
, -
, 1, , Friends Arena , , 50,000 , , Stockh ...
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Indoor arenas in Finland
Indoor ice hockey venues in Finland
Buildings and structures in Espoo
Sports venues completed in 1999
1999 establishments in Finland
Kiekko-Espoo