Tampere – development into a hockey city
Tampere is known as the cradle of Finnish ice hockey. Its development into a hockey city happened for very practical reasons. Maintaining a skating rink cost quite a lot, and Yrjö Salminen, a factory owner from Tampere, calculated that ice hockey required a smaller playing area than bandy, and it would also be possible to provide lighting for the ice rink for evening use at a reasonable cost. During his study trips to Canada, he had become familiar with ice hockey, which was very popular with the locals there, and believed that the sport would also attract enthusiastic players in Finland. So enthusiastic that they would gladly pay the fee for using an ice rink. On Boxing Day in 1926, Salminen brought ice hockey sticks and pucks to the skating rink of the local Pyrintö club on the ice of Lake Pyhäjärvi, encouraging the boys there to try the new sport.
On 5 February 1928, the first ice hockey match between two Finnish clubs was played on Lake Pyhäjärvi ice. The match was between Tampereen Palloilijat and Helsingin Palloseura, and ended in a 1–3 victory for the visiting team. The same clubs met again on 26 February 1928 at the Töölö stadium in the first ever Finnish championship match, where the Tampere team got their revenge with a score of 0–1. Olli Alkio from Tampereen Palloilijat scored the only goal of the match and became the first scorer at Finnish championship level.
Ice hockey became more popular and established during the post-war decades. During the period 1928–1975, the Tampere clubs Ilves, Tappara/TBK and KOOVEE won more than half of the Finnish championship titles. In the spring of 1951, Ilves were the first team to lift the Canada Cup, which was donated by Finnish Canadians to the Finnish ice hockey champions as a challenge trophy. All medals went to Tampere clubs in 1960, 1962 and 1964. The SM-liiga league, founded in 1975, has seen a more even distribution of medals between the various regions in Finland, but Tampere teams have still won the most titles.
Tampere also values the history of the sport. The first ice hockey museum in Europe was established in Tampere in 1979, in the Hakametsä Ice Stadium, to record, preserve and present Finnish ice hockey history and to honour the most outstanding individuals involved in the sport. Since 2001, the museum has been housed in the Vapriikki Museum Centre.
Weather conditions used to have a significant effect on the condition of the ice rinks and thus on the possibility to play ice hockey. When the first artificial ice rink in Finland was completed on Koulukatu in Tampere in November 1956, the natural conditions became less of a restraint. People came to the rink to practise, sometimes driving for hours to get there, and even practiced at night. Finnish ice hockey moved indoors for the first time when the Hakametsä Ice Stadium was completed for the 1965 home games. The circle is now complete when the ice hockey world championship tournament took place at the brand new Nokia Arena in Tampere.