Veikkaus Arena

The arena sits in the Pasila district of Helsinki. It stands adjacent to a railway station. The surface inside is ice, maintained by a refrigeration system, and the place has hosted everything from ice hockey to basketball and concerts.

Hartwall Arena is the name most people remember, though that ended in 2022. Following the invasion of Ukraine, EU sanctions brought the venue to a halt in March that year, the sponsorship dissolved, and it was renamed Helsinki Halli. It remained closed for three years before reopening in October 2025, sold to a Finnish consortium and renamed Veikkaus Arena. The primary tenant, Jokerit, returned after a long hiatus.

The building has changed hands more than once. It was originally built for 300 million Finnish markka, later sold to a group linked to Russian oligarchs, then put back on the market. It hosted the 2012 IIHF World Championship Final and the first-ever NHL regular-season game in Finland, a match between Chicago and Florida. Metallica played there in 2018, drawing a crowd larger than the 2009 attendance record. The highest recorded number remains the concert figure, not a sports match. The place has seen Madonna, Whitney Houston, and Queen + Adam Lambert pass through its doors, though the ice surface is what keeps it alive for local teams.