Perspective: The trade between Ilves and Kiekko-Espoo reveals a harsh truth
On Friday, a rare trade was seen in the Liiga. Ilves forward Lukas Svejkovsky moved to Kiekko-Espoo in exchange for forward Peter Quenneville.
The winner of the trade is obvious. It is Tampereen Ilves. With one move, the tupsukorvat got rid of the underperforming Svejkovsky throughout the season and acquired a strong goal scorer in Quenneville.
This trade raises one huge question: why on earth did Kiekko-Espoo agree to this?
The only reasonable option is that Ilves retained a significant portion of Svejkovsky’s salary. At the same time, Kiekko-Espoo made significant savings by letting go of the expensive Quenneville.
The financial distress of the Espoo team would not be surprising news. In their first Liiga season, Kiekko-Espoo made a loss of 717,000 euros. This season could turn out to be an even uglier financial setback.
Last season, Kiekko-Espoo’s average attendance was in the upper middle tier of the Liiga, at 4,264. This season, attendance has plummeted, with an average of 3,820. The drop is 444 spectators per game. Anyone can calculate what that means in euros, considering there are 30 home games in the regular season.
It remains to be seen whether this cost-cutting measure will bring more harm than benefit. Kiekko-Espoo is currently in tenth place, but a playoff spot is anything but certain, and the team’s performance trend has been declining for some time. With the second-best scorer having left the team, the Espoo team may face a tough time in the last quarter of the regular season.
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