Porin Ässät ry is a sports club based in

Pori ) , website www.pori.fi Pori (; sv, Björneborg ) is a city and municipality on the west coast of Finland. The city is located some from the Gulf of Bothnia, on the estuary of the Kokemäki River, west of Tampere, north of Turku and north-w ...

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 ...

. The club's only programs are

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

esports Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...

, but it used to have an association football program. Porin Ässät ry operates an ice hockey team in the

Finnish Elite League 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 ...

. Porin Ässät ry also has junior teams for all age groups from U7 to U20. Porin Ässät ry also operate a women's ice hockey school and the girl's junior ice hockey department while also operating a skating school.

Sports

Men's ice hockey

Ässät's ice hockey department started in 1967 when two local clubs, RU-38 and Karhut, merged. Since 1967, Ässät has won three Finnish Championships (1971, 1978 and 2013) and one

Finnish Cup The Finnish Cup ( fi, Suomen cup; sv, Finlands cup) is Finland's main national cup competition in football. This yearly competition is open for all member clubs of the FA of Finland and has been played since 1955. The winner qualifies for the ...

(''Suomen Cup'' in Finnish) For the 2022–23 season, Ässät plays in 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 ...

, the top-tier of ice hockey in Finland.

Women's ice hockey

Ässät women's ice hockey department was established in 1981 and it was one of the ten teams that formed the Naisten SM-sarja (now ''Naisten Liiga''). The team was disestablished in 2003, but was re-established as an ice hockey school in 2020.

Men's football

Ässät men's football section was formed in 1967. Ässät inherited RU-38's place in the

Mestaruussarja Mestaruussarja (Championship series) was the top division of Finland, Finnish association football, football from 1930 to 1989. It was replaced by Veikkausliiga in 1990. In 1930 league format was used for the first time to decide the Finnish cham ...

, where they played for two seasons before being relegated. The football club folded in 1981. Ässät managed to win one U19 championship in 1970.

Companies Porin Ässät ry operates

HC Ässät Pori Oy

HC Ässät Pori Oy was made into a separate organization from Porin Ässät ry in 2000. Porin Ässät ry owns 75,6% of HC Ässät Pori Oy. HC Ässät Pori Oy owns the Porin Ässät men's ice hockey team and the Porin Ässät U20 team. HC Ässät Pori Oy previously owned parts of the

Isomäki Areena Isomäki Areena (also known as West Areena for sponsorship reasons) is an ice hockey arena located in Pori, Finland. The arena is used by Porin Ässät and Karhu HT. The arena was opened in 1971 and the capacity for hockey games is 6 350. His ...

, an ice hockey arena in Pori, but sold it to the City of Pori because of financial troubles.

Patajunnuareena Oy

Patajunnuareena Oy is a company that Porin Ässät ry owns. Patajunnuareena Oy was founded in 2007 for the building and upkeeping of the Astora Areena, an ice hockey arena located next to the

in Pori.

Pata Production Oy

Pata Productions Oy is a company owned by Porin Ässät ry. Its purpose is to support Ässät's ice hockey junior teams. Pata Production Oy rents metal fence elements to event organizers of different sizes. In addition, the company rents metallic ladder elements. The money the company produces goes towards the junior teams. Pata Production Oy was founded in 2012.

References

{{Porin Ässät