The coronavirus pandemic has had a "significant effect" funding for the recently renovated Helsinki Olympic Stadium.
Due to the pandemic, the turnover of major events is more than 90 percent lower than expected Ari Kuokkanen, CEO Stadium Foundation, the foundation in charge of the stadium.
Kuokkanen told Yle that, under normal circumstances, 800,000 tickets for the stadium’s major events would have been sold from its opening in August 2020 to the present day.
During a pandemic, the foundation can hope to best sell about a tenth of that figure by the end of 2021, he said, adding that even this forecast depends on further easing of coronavirus restrictions.
If the restrictions are relaxed or removed, the foundation can expect sold-out crowds in the Finnish national football team’s 2022 World Cup qualifiers against Ukraine 9. October and France. November.
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"If we can take viewers along Owls [Eagle Owls] in year-end matches, almost normally, we still only sell about 80,000 tickets during the coronavirus," Kuokkanen said.
Even this best-case scenario would still leave the foundation in a huge financial headache, he added.
"Everyone understands that a 90% drop in turnover will have a significant negative impact on the Foundation’s finances," he said, adding that the foundation had hoped the Finnish government would ease restrictions earlier this year.
"We hope, of course, that the government would have taken such measures and decisions in the summer, and that we would have been able to use the full capacity of the Olympic Stadium without restrictions, for example with the Covid passport," he said.
The renovation of the Olympic Stadium, which cost more than 300 million euros and lasted four years, was finally completed last summer.
However, the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in a smaller audience for some events at the stadium.
According to Kuokkanen, only six people participated in one event in the 39,000-capacity arena.
He added that since August last year, the stadium has been visited by 130,000 people and there have been no Covid infection chains or other problems.
"This shows that in the 90,000 square meter area of ββthe Olympic Stadium, we can host Covid-safe stadium events for a group of more than six people," Kuokkanen said.