Studying | Country and region | Life and leisure | Survival tips

Sports for spectators

Text and photo: Annika Lamberg

A keen sports spectator doesn’t have to stop going to matches while studying in Oulu or Raahe. There are several teams playing in Oulu and one in Raahe in the Finnish Champions league.

There are Kärpät fan products even for the new born. Kärpät means ermines in English.

It is worth going to a game or two in Finland, if you are interested in spectator sports. In Oulu region you will have hard time to choose from the top level sport teams. There is for example Ice-hockey team Oulun Kärpät in both men’s and women’s league, floorball team OLS, rinkball (kaukalopallo) team RB-Oulu and volleyball team KempeLe in the nearby town Kempele. Football club AC Oulu plays in the first division.

In the Champions League of Finnish baseball there is Oulun Lippo playing in Oulu and near to Oulu Tyrnävän Tempaus in women’s league. Pattijoen urheilijat from Raahe has a team playing in men’s league.

Peculiarities floorball and Finnish baseball

Finnish baseball is a national sport of Finland. It is a combination of American baseball and traditional ball-batting team games. The most important difference between Finnish and American baseball is the vertical pitching. Hitting the ball and controlling the power and direction of the hit is much easier in vertical pitching. That is why in the offensive game in Finnish version of baseball there is much more variety, speed and tactical dimensions.

Floorball’s popularity is expanding, though it is not yet known very widely. Besides going to see a game of OLS you probably also get a chance to try it your self while studying in Oulu. Floorball is very popular among the exercisers. It is popular game especially in Finland, Sweden and Switzerland.

For exercisers it is easy to start playing floorball, because you need only a stick in addition to basic indoor sports clothes. And it can be played in any school sports hall. Exercisers play normally a version of the game where the rules are simpler compared to floorball played in the leagues.

Floorball and Finnish baseball are interesting to get to know but ice-hockey is still a sure choice in Finland. Finnish national league of ice-hockey is said to be one of the toughest in the world.

The name of the game

The ice-hockey team Oulun Kärpät is nowadays one of the best teams playing in the men’s Finnish ice-hockey Champions league. Oulun Kärpät is not only a team for the people living in Oulu but the hockey people in whole Northern Finland support the team. There were wild celebrations in several places around Northern Finland after all the three Championships they have won in the 21st century.

Sari Pitkänen lives near to the Oulun Energia Areena, the home rink of Kärpät. She says that when the game of Kärpät begins or ends she avoids leaving or arriving home by car because of the traffic jam.caused by the many people coming by cars and charter busses from all around the Northern Finland.

Sari Pitkänen likes to do sports herself but she is a keen sport spectator as well. Mostly she follows rinkball and ice-hockey and floorball as well sometimes.

- I like to watch speedy contact sports. There is excitement in them. In the home games of Kärpät there is always a great feeling. There is a lot of crowd and people really put one's soul into the game.

Sari tells that there is an imposing show when the home team skates into the arena. There are two firelight pillars and the players skate to the arena from between them, there is explosions and smoke and the music is being played. And of course there are cheerleaders around the ice stadium.

More excitement Sari gets into watching the games by betting for the result of the game.