Superpesis

The Superpesis ( ) is the highest level of the Finnish pesäpallo league system. Contested by 13 clubs in men's league and 12 clubs in women's league, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Ykköspesis ( ). Seasons usually run from May to August, with each men's team playing around 30 matches and women's teams 24 matches in the regular and continuation series: two against each other, one at home and one away. After the regular season, a continuation series will be played to determine the 8 teams that make the play-offs and the teams that qualify for the knockout stage and the teams that are relegated. Games are played on weekday evenings and weekend afternoons, with matches usually starting at or before 18:00. Only a few teams have permanent artificial lighting (among them Imatran Pallo-Veikot), and day/night or nighttime matches are not held. The competition was founded in 1989¹, following the Finnish Championship (the top-tier league from 1955 to 1989). The Superpesis takes advantage of a €100,000 television rights deal with Nelonen Media and Yle securing the broadcasting rights to all Superpesis games, with many matches broadcast on national television. The Superpesis is run by a limited company owned by the Finnish Pesäpallo Association, with Olli Aro as a chief executive.…

The Superpesis ( ) is the highest level of the Finnish pesäpallo league system. Contested by 13 clubs in men's league and 12 clubs in women's league, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Ykköspesis ( ). Seasons usually run from May to August, with each men's team playing around 30 matches and women's teams 24 matches in the regular and continuation series: two against each other, one at home and one away. After the regular season, a continuation series will be played to determine the 8 teams that make the play-offs and the teams that qualify for the knockout stage and the teams that are relegated. Games are played on weekday evenings and weekend afternoons, with matches usually starting at or before 18:00. Only a few teams have permanent artificial lighting (among them Imatran Pallo-Veikot), and day/night or nighttime matches are not held. The competition was founded in 1989, following the Finnish Championship (the top-tier league from 1955 to 1989). The Superpesis takes advantage of a €100,000 television rights deal with Nelonen Media and Yle securing the broadcasting rights to all Superpesis games, with many matches broadcast on national television. The Superpesis is run by a limited company owned by the Finnish Pesäpallo Association, with Olli Aro as a chief executive. In contrast to baseball tournaments like World Series and Japan Series, there is no specific name for the Superpesis finals series, instead simply being called ( ). An annual all-star game called ( ) is played annually. Thirty-one clubs have competed in the men's Superpesis and forty-three clubs in the women's Superpesis since its inception in 1990. Nine of them have won the men's title and eleven of them the women's title. The winners in men's league are: Sotkamon Jymy (19), Vimpelin Veto (4), Kiteen Pallo -90 (3), Joensuun Maila (2), Oulun Lippo (2), Imatran Pallo-Veikot (1), Hyvinkään Tahko (1), Pattijoen Urheilijat (1) and Manse PP (1). Sotkamon Jymy have won the most titles, with nineteen, and the most successive titles, with five. Only three clubs have played in every season to date: Hyvinkään Tahko, Kiteen Pallo -90 and Sotkamon Jymy. The winners in women's league are: Kirittäret (12), Lapuan Virkiä (9), Pesäkarhut (3), Jyväskylän Kiri (2), Oulun Lippo (2), Ikaalisten Tarmo (1), Manse PP (1), Pattijoen Urheilijat (1), Siilinjärven Pesis (1), Vihdin Pallo (1) and Viinijärven Urheilijat (1). Kirittäret have won the most titles, with twelve, and the most successive titles, with six. Only one club, Lapuan Virkiä, have played in every season to date.

Popularity

The men's Superpesis is third most-watched men's sports league in Finland, and the women's league is the most-watched women's one. In 2021, Superpesis matches were streamed more than a million times on Ruutu, and larger matches are broadcast on national television on the channels of Nelonen Media and in 2024 also Yle. Most popular in semi-urban and rural Finnish-speaking municipalities (most of them inland), along with some notability in larger cities like Tampere and Oulu, the pesäpallo matches gain a significant number of attendances compared to the population in the areas. The league (especially the men's league) has however had only limited presence in the largest coastal cities (e.g. Helsinki, Turku, or Pori), where either the attendances are low or where no teams have been from. In the 2023 season, the average of men's Superpesis match attendance was 1,381, and women's average match attendance was 661. This puts the league a bit behind the men's ice hockey 2023–24 Liiga (Average attendance: 4,568) and men's association football 2024 Veikkausliiga (Average attendance: 2,957). The highest known match attendance between 2 clubs in the Superpesis era is 7,640, which was a match between Hyvinkään Tahko and Sotkamon Jymy in 1992.

Clubs

The Superpesis clubs in the 2025 season are:

Men

Past participants

Women

Past participants

Alternate stadiums

In addition to the team's ordinary stadiums, regular season matches have also been played at Bolt Arena, Helsinki, at Hiiu Stadium in Tallinn, Estonia, at Complejo Deportivo Municipal Elola in Fuengirola, Spain, and at Vikingavallen in Jomala, Åland. The selected stadiums for such events have usually been association football pitches with artificial turf. In comparison, plans to play the 2022 Superpesis finals at Helsinki Olympic Stadium as best-of-1 series were scrapped in part due to teams' opposition to playing on natural grass (though with sand drizzled on) and large portions of track and field surfacing.

Competition format

During league play, the teams earn: 3 points for winning in 2 periods (8 innings; ordinary time). 2 points for winning in extra time (9th inning or shootout). 1 point for losing in extra time.

Men's Superpesis

The men's league began using a partially split league table in the 2024 season, similar to that of the Scottish Premiership in association football. After 24 matches, the top 7 teams enter a top section, while the bottom 6 teams enter a bottom section. The top section plays an additional 6 matches. Top 6 progress to the quarter-finals, while the 7th-placed team goes to the preliminary knockout round. The bottom section plays an additional 5 matches. Top 3 progress to the preliminary knockout round, the 4th-placed team finished their season, while the 5th- and 6th-placed teams play a best-of-5 relegation play-out. The play-out winner finishes their season, while the loser enters a promotion/relegation best-of-3 against the Ykköspesis winner. The loser is relegated to, or remains in, the Ykköspesis. In the knockout rounds, the preliminary round is played best-of-3, and the winners go to the quarter-finals. The quarter-finals, semi-finals, and final are played best-of-5. Additionally, a bronze match is played as best-of-3.

Women's Superpesis

As of the 2024 season, the women's league uses a similar system to the men's league, but without a split table. Instead the top 6 progress to the quarter-finals, while the 7th- through 10th-placed teams went to the preliminary knockout round.

Talvisuper

Talvisuper is the main winter competition in pesäpallo. Although treated as a separate competition from Superpesis, it features many of the same teams, along with a few teams from Ykköspesis. The competition runs from December through April. In contrast to the main Superpesis, where matches are generally held at stadiums dedicated solely to pesäpallo, Talvisuper is mostly held in indoor halls with artificial grass, with the halls being designed primarily for association football and occasionally track and field. The finals of Talvisuper are known as Halli-SM (Hall Finnish Championship).

Attendances

The men's Superpesis clubs in the table are listed by average home attendance in 2023. The average attendance was 986. 474,866 people attended the men's and women's Superpesis games in 2023. These figures include both regular season matches from the men's and women's competitions as well as the play-offs.

See also

Finnish pesäpallo match-fixing scandal

References

External links

Official website

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1360196048 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.