Helsinki’s main sports and entertainment arena is expected to reopen in the spring after getting caught in a Russian sanctions drama that left it disused, without power and starting to smell.
Helsinki Halli, formerly the Hartwall Arena, has been closed since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, when its Russian oligarch owners were subjected to sanctions from the EU and US, which meant they were boycotted by the entertainment industry, and banks and insurance companies refused to provide essential services. The last events to be held at the 14,000-capacity venue were an ice hockey game and the televised Finnish sport gala in January 2022.
The closure nearly three years ago left the professional ice hockey club Jokerit without a home and Helsinki without a large-scale arena for hosting big cultural events and international music acts.
Last year, the city of Helsinki threatened the Russian-Finnish businessmen Gennady Timchenko and Roman Rotenberg, who control the company that owns Helsinki arena, with expropriation unless they volunteered to sell it.
Under the sanctions, they are allowed to sell their shares, but they are subject to approval by the EU and local authority. If they get final approval and the transaction is completed, any profits will be frozen by Finnish authorities until sanctions are lifted.
Timchenko, who amassed a fortune through oil trading, has been named by the US as a member of president Vladimir Putin’s inner circle. Timchenko has frequently been photographed playing ice hockey alongside Putin and other members of the Russian elite, including the Rotenberg family.
In September, the arena’s electricity, heating and water were cut off because of unpaid bills as the owners struggled to operate the business while under sanctions.
In November, the city said it would start a forced takeover of the venue, which after years of disuse had reportedly been left with a “bad, musty smell”. At the time, the city said the process could take several years.
But now the arena’s future appears to have been saved after a Finnish real estate and asset management company, Trevian, said it had concluded an agreement with the owners of its controlling stake that would “return the hall to its former glory”.
“We have found a solution that suited us as buyers, that suited the Russian sellers, and a solution that was also potentially acceptable to the authorities,” said Trevian’s chief executive, Reima Södervall, who described the venue as Helsinki’s Madison Square Garden.
“Now we have to remember that the deal needs final approval from the authorities both in Finland an in the EU. And that is the only thing that is still open.”
He added: “The building will become a versatile cultural, event and sports arena for international use. More information on the plans will be provided when they are finalised. But we want to return the hall to its former glory, as a centre for major events. The best time for the arena is ahead.”
The terms of the deal, he said, were largely agreed on with the lawyers and representatives of the sellers, and there has been close cooperation with Finland’s ministry of foreign affairs (MFA).
The arena, he added, was in good technical condition, and there is a team of technicians working long hours to get it ready to be returned to use.
If it gets the required licence from the MFA, which is the national competent authority under EU sanctions law, and the national enforcement agency, which is in charge of asset freeze implementation under EU sanctions law, the deal is expected to be completed within months.
The completion of the sale also requires an amendment to EU sanctions regulations, the MFA said.
Pia Sarivaara, sanctions coordinator at the MFA, said the venue had been in “standby mode” since spring 2022 when the owners of the controlling stake were listed under the Ukraine Territorial Integrity sanctions scheme.
“Given its central location and function, a number of parties have since the spring of 2022 expressed interest in seeking a way to purchase that controlling stake and take over the operation of the arena,” Sarivaara, who said the transaction could be completed in the spring, added.
“On 12 November 2024, Trevian made public that it had concluded an agreement with the owners of the controlling stake in question for the purchase of said stake”.
An estimated €400m of annual income have been lost from hotels, restaurants and other businesses as a result of the arena standing empty.
Helsinki city manager, Jukka-Pekka Ujula, said the financial impact of the loss of the arena to the city, businesses and the travel industry, had been “significant” and that the lack of utilities in the building had threatened to “compromise the building’s condition”.
“The lack of a modern and large event arena is competitive disadvantage for the city of Helsinki, but also for the whole of Finland,” he said in November. “The current situation significantly affects the ability of international sport events, for example ice hockey, and major artists’ tours to come to Finland.”
After news of the deal, he said the city’s priority was “to get the hall open as quickly as possible”.
The Guardian has contacted the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, of which Rotenberg is vice-president, and the Volga Group, which is controlled by Timchenko, for comment.
Additional reporting by Pjotr Sauer
• This article was amended on 2 January 2025. An earlier version of the text and main image incorrectly referenced the Helsinki Ice Hall, which is a separate arena to the Helsinki Halli.
