Oulun jäähalli ('Oulu Ice Hall' or 'Oulu Ice Rink'), previously known as Raksilan jäähalli and called Oulun Energia Areena since 2006 for sponsorship reasons, is an ice sport arena in the Raksila Sports Centre, located in the Raksila district of

Oulu Oulu ( , ; sv, Uleåborg ) is a city, municipality and a seaside resort of about 210,000 inhabitants in the region of North Ostrobothnia, Finland. It is the most populous city in northern Finland and the fifth most populous in the country after: ...

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 operated by the City of Oulu. The arena is best known as an

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 ...

venue and the

home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or many humans, and sometimes various companion animals. It is a fully or semi sheltered space and can have both interior and exterior aspects to it. H ...

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 ...

team

Oulun Kärpät Oulun Kärpät (Finnish for "Oulu Ermines", sometimes referred to as Kärpät Oulu) is a Finnish professional ice hockey team based in Oulu and playing in the top-tier Finnish Liiga. Kärpät have won the Finnish championship title eight times ...

History

Construction of the Oulu Ice Hall began in 1974 and the venue was opened in 1975 under the name ''Raksilan jäähalli'' ('Raksila Ice Hall'). The arena has gone through several updates and renovations, first in 1988 and again in 1994. A significant renovation was undertaken during 2003–04, which decreased the spectator capacity from the original 7,600 to 6,614. A new rinkside restaurant was opened in the hall in 2018, which further decreased the spectator capacity. As of 2021, the arena has a capacity of 6,614 spectators, of which 4,760 are seated and 1,854 are standing. In 2006, the principal tenant of the hall, Oulun Kärpät, secured a sponsorship deal with Oulun Energia, an energy company based in Oulu, and the name of the ice hall was changed to Oulun Energia Areena. The sponsorship was made possible by a 2003 decision of the City of Oulu which allowed the primary tenant of a municipal sports venue to sell the name of the venue, if they so chose.

Tenants

The arena is best known as an ice hockey venue and is home to the Liiga team Oulun Kärpät, in addition to the Oulun Kärpät teams in the

U20 SM-sarja The U20 SM-sarja ('Under-20 Finnish Championship Series') is the premier junior men’s ice hockey league in Finland. It was previously known as the A-nuorten SM-sarja ('Junior A Finnish Championship Series') during 1945 to 1991 and the Nuorten ...

and U18 SM-sarja. Other tenants include the

figure skating Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic disciplines are me ...

club Oulun Luistelukerho and the

rink bandy Rink bandy is a variant of the larger sport of bandy. Unlike bandy which is played on a large bandy field, rink bandy is played on significantly smaller ice hockey sized ice rinks. While a bandy field is about the same size as a football pitch, ...

team RB-Oulu. Energia Areena is the official home of Oulun Kärpät 46's representative women's ice hockey team,

Oulun Kärpät Naiset Oulun may refer to: *Oulun Energia Areena, arena in the Raksila district of Oulu, in Finland *Oulun Kärpät, ice hockey team in the SM-liiga based in Oulu, Finland *Oulun Luistinseura (or OLS), Finnish multi-sports club, based in Oulu *Oulun Lyseo ...

of the

Naisten Liiga The Kansallinen Liiga ('National League') is the premier division of women's football in Finland. It was previously called the Jalkapallon naisten SM-sarja ('Women's Football Finnish Championship Series') during 1974 to 2006 and the Naisten Lii ...

, however the team plays almost exclusively out of Raksila 2. Energia Areena was home to

Kiekko-Laser Kiekko-Laser were a Finnish ice hockey club from Oulu, Finland. They played in the country's second-tier league, Mestis, after winning a qualification round against RoKi in 2010. On December 5, 2011 however, the club announced its bankruptcy an ...

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'). ...

until the club went bankrupt in 2011.

Raksila 2

The ('Raksila training ice rink'), also known as Raksila 2, was constructed alongside Energia Areena during 2007–08 and opened on 6 February 2008. Raksila 2 has a spectator capacity of 150 and its ice surface measures x . The ice hockey club Oulun Kärpät 46 ry is the primary tenant, though the rink is used by a number of ice hockey and figure skating clubs as well as schools and educational institutions in the Oulu area.

Gallery

File:Oulu Ice Hall 20200607 01.jpg, Exterior side view of Oulun Energia Areena in June 2020. File:Oulun jäähalli 2.3.2016.jpg, Interior view of the arena in 2016. File:Kärpät vs Frölunda 20150120 02.JPG, Kärpät (black) face off against Frölunda (white) at Energia Areena during the 2015 CHL Playoffs semifinal. File:Raksilan harjoitusjäähalli Oulu 2016.jpg, Exterior of Raksila 2 in 2016.

References

Content in this article is translated from the existing

Finnish Wikipedia The Finnish Wikipedia ( fi, Suomenkielinen Wikipedia) is the edition of Wikipedia in the Finnish language. By article count, it is the largest Wikipedia with about articles as of . Wikipedia is the only encyclopedia in Finnish which is still up ...

article at :fi:Oulun jäähalli; see its history for attribution.

External links

Arena information
at the City of Oulu's official website (in Finnish) Indoor ice hockey venues in Finland Sports venues in Oulu Raksila {{Finland-sports-venue-stub