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 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 ...

in the Tapiola District of

Espoo Espoo (, ; ) is a city in Finland. It is located to the west of the capital, Helsinki, in southern Uusimaa. The population is approximately . It is the most populous Municipalities of Finland, municipality in Finland. Espoo is part of the Helsi ...

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, ...

. The arena is part of the '' Tapiolan Urheilupuisto'' (Tapiola Sports Park). It was inaugurated in 1999 and holds 6,982 people for ice-hockey games or up to 8,000 for concerts.

Events

Espoo Metro Areena has been primarily used for

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 ...

and it was the home arena of

Liiga The Liiga, colloquially called the Finnish Elite League in English or FM-ligan in Swedish, is the top professional ice hockey league in Finland. The league comprises 16 teams from all around Finland with relegation and promotion between the Mesti ...

team Espoo Blues from 1999 to 2016 and of Espoo United of the Mestis from 2016 until the franchise was dissolved in 2018.

Kiekko-Espoo Kiekko-Espoo is a Finnish professional ice hockey club founded in 2018 as a continuation of the Kiekko-Espoo team originally founded in 1984. Kiekko-Espoo men's team plays in the Liiga, where they were promoted for the 2024–25 Liiga season, 20 ...

moved to the arena in 2019. The

2019 IIHF Women's World Championship The 2019 IIHF Women's World Championship was an international Ice hockey tournament run by the International Ice Hockey Federation. It was contested in Espoo, Finland from 4 to 14 April 2019 at the Espoo Metro Areena. The United States won the ...

of ice hockey took place at the arena. The arena hosted ''

Uuden Musiikin Kilpailu (; abbreviated UMK; ; ) is an annual music contest organised by the Finnish public broadcaster Yle. It made its debut in 2012 as the format for the Eurovision Song Contest, replacing the previous Finnish Eurovision selection which had been he ...

'', Finland's national selection process for the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

, in 2013, 2014, 2017 and 2018. The arena served as the leading venue for the

2022 World Ringette Championships The 2022 World Ringette Championships (''2022 WRC'') was an international ringette tournament and the 14th (XIV) World Ringette Championships. The tournament was organized by the International Ringette Federation (IRF) and was contested in Espoo ...

. The 2023 European Figure Skating Championships were hosted at the arena in January 2023. The arena also hosted an

ISU Grand Prix of figure skating The ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating (known as ISU Champions Series from 1995 to 1997) is a series of senior international figure skating competitions organized by the International Skating Union. The invitational series was inaugurated in 1995, in ...

event in

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

and

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

. Various concerts 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, played individually or as teams. ...

events have also been held at the arena.

Counter-Strike ''Counter-Strike'' (''CS'') is a series of multiplayer tactical first-person shooter video games, in which opposing teams attempt to complete various objectives. The series began on Windows in 1999 with the release of the first game, '' Counte ...

tournament

Elisa The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (, ) is a commonly used analytical biochemistry assay, first described by Eva Engvall and Peter Perlmann in 1971. The assay is a solid-phase type of enzyme immunoassay (EIA) to detect the presence of ...

Masters Espoo took place at the arena in 2022 and 2023. In 2027, it is set to be one of the venues for FIBA Women's EuroBasket jointly held by Belgium, Finland, Sweden and Lithuania.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Indoor arenas in Finland Ice hockey venues in Finland Buildings and structures in Espoo Sport in Espoo Sports venues completed in 1999 1999 establishments in Finland Kiekko-Espoo Basketball venues in Finland

Events

See also

References

External links