The coronavirus pandemic has had a "significant impact" on the finances of the recently renovated Olympic Stadium in Helsinki.
Turnover from major events is more than 90 percent lower than expected because of the pandemic, according to Ari Kuokkanen, CEO of Stadion-säätiö, the foundation responsible for the stadium.
Kuokkanen told Yle that, under normal circumstances, 800,000 tickets to major events at the stadium would have been sold from the time of its re-opening in August 2020 to the present day.
During the pandemic the best the foundation can hope for is to sell about one tenth of this figure by the end of 2021, he said, adding that even this projection depends on the further easing of coronavirus restrictions.
If restrictions are relaxed or lifted, the foundation can expect sell-out crowds for the Finnish football team's 2022 World Cup qualifying games against Ukraine on 9 October and against France on 16 November.
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"If we are allowed to take spectators into the Huuhkajat [Eagle Owls] matches at the end of the year, almost as normally, we will still only have sold about 80,000 tickets during the coronavirus period," Kuokkanen said.
Even this best-case scenario would still leave the foundation facing a huge financial headache, he added.
"Everyone understands that a 90 percent drop in turnover will have significant negative effects on the foundation's finances," he said, adding that the foundation had hoped the Finnish government would have relaxed restrictions earlier this year.
"Of course, we wish that the government would have taken such measures and decisions in the summer, and we would have been able to use the full capacity of the Olympic Stadium without any restrictions, for example with the help of a Covid passport," he said.
The renovation of the Olympic Stadium, which cost more than 300 million euros and took over four years, was finally completed last summer.
However, the coronavirus pandemic has led to smaller crowds for some events at the stadium.
According to Kuokkanen, only six people attended one event in the 39,000 capacity arena.
He added that since August last year, 130,000 people have visited the stadium, and there have been no Covid infection chains or any other issues.
"This shows that in the 90,000 square metres of the Olympic Stadium, we can organise Covid-safe stadium events for a group larger than six people," Kuokkanen said.