HELSINKI – The Finnish half of the 2012 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship organizing committee announced it made a profit of €8,238,162 for the Finnish Ice Hockey Association, which will be invested in youth hockey.

The organization had €27.3m income and cost over €19.1m in the first year of the co-hosting agreement with Sweden. In 2013 Stockholm will be the main venue hosting the semi-finals and medal games, while Helsinki will host one of the two preliminary-round groups and two quarter-final games played within the group before the two winners fly to Stockholm.

The profit from this and next year will be used for youth hockey over a period of 10 years with the goal to increase the number of registered players from currently 56,626 to 70,000.

The breakdown:

• €750,000 per year over the ten-year period will be used for skills coaches in a program that will include 25 clubs and at least three additional partner clubs for each coach.
• €125,000 per year will be distributed to clubs that produce national team players.
• €60,000 per year will be used for another fund for special projects, smaller clubs and girls’ hockey.
• €30,000 per year goes to regional funds.
• The International Ice Hockey Development Centre in Vierumäki will be supported with €85,000 annually.
• €30,000 annually will be used to improve goalie coaching for a period of three years.
• Part of the profit will be used for goal cameras in league locations.
• €100,000 per year from the profit and other funds will be used to support low-income families.

In total 90 per cent of the profit goes into youth hockey while 10 per cent will be used for infrastructure projects in Vierumäki and in other regional funds.

The skills coaches will work with various teams in their region in close co-operation with the clubs and their coaches and schools, and also educate part-time coaches and parents. They will participate in two seminars per year organized by the Finnish Ice Hockey Association, which has named 25 potential clubs that can name skills coaches paid for through the fund.

It was also announced that ticket sales for the 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship games in Helsinki will start on 15th October. Finland will host Russia, Slovakia, the United States, Germany, Latvia, France and Austria in its preliminary-round group.

The Czech Republic, Sweden, Canada, Norway, Switzerland, Denmark, Belarus and Slovenia will play in Stockholm.