Rajupaja Areena

It is a low block of dark cladding with yellow sections around the entrances, sitting quietly alongside older industrial buildings in the Kupittaa district of Turku. The building looks more like a warehouse than a sports venue, which is perhaps the point: it was designed to be functional.

It opened in 2006 on the site of the original 1973 ice rink, which had been demolished. The interior holds a standard ice rink, but the surface is artificial turf, allowing the floor to be converted for roller sports during the warmer months. This flexibility is why the venue hosts several different teams, including TUTO Hockey and the women's side of TPS, rather than serving a single club exclusively.

The exterior is unadorned, lacking the banners or flags that mark a football stadium. There is no attempt to create a landmark image. The building is situated near the railway, a detail that might explain the lack of a roofline designed to catch the eye from a distance. Inside, the capacity is tight, with just over three thousand seats packed around the ice. The sightlines are short, meaning a supporter is rarely far from the action, but the atmosphere is contained, not expansive. The heat takes the sting out of the winter evenings inside, where the floodlights reflect off the sheet rather than the sky.

It is not the home of the local football team, which plays at Veritas Stadion. This arena is strictly for winter sports, a place where the community gathers for hockey and figure skating. The sponsorship name has changed more often than the building itself, shifting from Marli Areena to its current title, but the physical structure has remained the same. It is a solid, grey box in a neighbourhood of factories and flats, holding its own against the Finnish winter. The history between the old hall and this one adds an edge to the games played here, even if the new building is young.