Sports Facilities

In Jyväskylä the importance of sport is also reflected in the number of facilities on offer. The City of Jyväskylä maintains altogether 360 sports venues from multipurpose halls to nature trails.

Indoor facilities

Sports halls

The extensive Hippos Sports Park, situated right in the centre of the city, provides a venue for a wide variety of indoor and outdoor disciplines. Hippos Hall is the perfect facility for winter training in track and field, as well as racket and ball games. In Multipurpose Sports Hall numerous indoor sports from ball games to gymnastics and martial arts are practised. In addition to the main ice hockey stadium LähiTapiola Areena, the area features two practice rinks which are heavily used, particularly by junior ice hockey teams. At Hippos Sports Park the Finnish national game, Finnish baseball, is played in its own stadium equipped with an artificial all-weather surface.

The sports hall Graniitti in Kuokkala is somewhat exotic among sport facilities in Jyväskylä. It is built into a rock and, besides its use in sports, is an air-raid shelter. A multitude of indoor sports can be practised in Graniitti. There are halls for ball games, gymnastics and martial arts.

Vaajakoski Sports Hall is best suited for ball games. For example floorball games on international level can be played in the hall. In addition to the Lähitapiola Areena ice hockey stadium and the practice rinks at Hippos Sports Park, the city has one more ice hockey stadium in Tikkakoski which serves as a venue for ringette, for instance.

Besides the actual sport facilities, the physical activity premises in the city’s schools are under active use during evenings and weekends. Especially sport clubs use school gyms as they are often conveniently situated close to the young practitioners’ homes.

The Hippos hall

Completed in 1992, the Hippos Hall is a sports venue for year-round use and an ideal setting for mass events with an audience capacity of 3,480.
Thanks to the Finnish Institute of High Performance Sport KIHU connected to the Hippos Hall, a wide range of testing possibilities are available. 
The main sports in the hall are field and track, badminton, and ball games.

The facilities
A track-and-field area

• A 4-lane 200m rubber granulate track
• A 6-lane 110m straightaway
• A long jump pit
• A high jump pit
• A pole vault pit
• A throw practice circle

Ball fields

• Rubber granulate coated, used in case of need:
• Twelve badminton courts, a full-size 40mx20m floorball court, two smaller ones, or a futsal court (with futsal goals)
• Two volleyball courts

An auditorium

• An audience capacity of 73
• AV equipment: a video projector (VGA/HDMI + 3.5mm audio) and a wireless microphone

Hippos hall is also suitable for gymnastics events.

The Hippos Hall auditorium is situated close to the B7 entrance on the Rautpohjankatu street side.

Ancillary spaces

• Two large dressing rooms, four smaller dressing rooms, and a dressing room for referees
• An announcer booth
• A cafeteria
• 600 parking spaces

Hippos multipurpose sports hall

The Multipurpose Sports Hall acts as the Jyväskylä centre of indoor sports. It has a hall for ballgames, a hall for artistic gymnastics, budo rooms, squash courts, and other ancillary facilities. Audience capacity: ca. 1,500 for the Multipurpose Sports Hall.

• Multipurpose Sports Hall: 1,433m²
• Free parking lot
• 2.6km to the city centre and 3km to the Matkakeskus travel centre
• 100m to a local bus stop
• Kuntoportti 3, 40700 Jyväskylä

Kuokkalan Graniitti

Kuokkalan Graniitti is a set of rock caves initially excavated as an air-raid shelter close to the city centre in connection with the Kuokkala school centre.

Divided in four halls, it has facilities for a variety of ball games from Finnish baseball to floorball and from basketball to badminton as well as for dance, boxing, and wrestling. Training spaces have been provided for fencing and karate too. There are also a 3-lane 80m straightaway running track, a gym, a senior gym, and spaces for wall-climbing and for shooting sports.

• A total of over 8,000m², of which more than half are sports facilities
• Free parking
• 3km to the city centre and 2.9km to the Matkakeskus travel centre
• 50m to a local bus stop
• Pohjanlahdentie 12, 40520 Jyväskylä

Sport possibilities in Kuokkalan Graniitti include badminton, volleyball, basketball, crossfit, futsal, self-defence and martial arts, kettlebelling, fencing, and shooting sports such as archery.

The Vaajakoski sports park

The Vaajakoski sports park is situated within easy reach right in the centre of Vaajakoski. Its Sports Hall area can be divided in three sections and is well suited for ball games such as basketball, floorball, volleyball, and badminton, and for gymnastics as well.

The wrestling and athletics room is well-suited for wresting, various forms of martial arts, and dancing.

Apart from the Sports Hall, the Vaajakoski grounds include track-and-field facilities and a machine-frozen artificial ice rink during the winter season. The surroundings are excellent for other outdoor sports too such as skiing.

Sport possibilities in the Vaajakoski Sports Hall include kettlebelling, crossfit, futsal, badminton, wrestling, martial arts, dancing, and pole dancing.

The stadium of the sport park is also used as the starting point of a number of skiing tracks, and the entire area is ideal both as the start of mass skiing events for example and as the venue of events in snow rugby, snow soccer, etc.

• An 874m2 Sports Hall, a 119m2 competition office, a 403m2 wrestling and athletics hall, and stands with a seating capacity of 288
• Street-side parking
• 8.1km to the city centre and 7.7km to the Matkakeskus travel centre
• ca. 450m to a local bus stop, lines 1 and 2
• Urheilutie 36, 40800 Jyväskylä

Sport possibilities in the Vaajakoski Sports Hall include kettlebelling, crossfit, futsal, badminton, wrestling, martial arts, dancing, and pole dancing.

The stadium of the sport park is also used as the starting point of a number of skiing tracks, and the entire area is ideal both as the start of mass skiing events for example and as the venue of events in snow rugby, snow soccer, etc.

The Palokka sports park

There are a wide variety of facilities in the grounds of the Palokka sports park. A large artificial grass field and the athletics field next to it enable many events in the wintertime too.

There is also an artificial ice rink. The sports park has lots of uncovered stands for spectators, and extra stands can be set up for added capacity.

In addition to the outdoor sport possibilities, the sport park also includes the Palokka Sports Hall with plenty of indoor facilities for many disciplines.

• A 105mx68m artificial grass, a 100mx64m lawn field + running track area, a 18mx36m (648m2) sport hall
• Free of charge
• 15min to the city centre by car/bus
• 500m to a local bus stop
• Rovastintie 6, 40270 Jyväskylä

Sport possibilities in the Palokka Sports Hall include dancing, table tennis, goalball, and power or martial arts.The outdoor grounds also enable snow rugby, snow soccer, and snow cross events among others.
 

The main ice hockey stadium - Lähitapiola Arena

Completed in 1982 and renovated in 2008.

• A 60mx28m rink
• Audience capacity: 3,000 seated and 1,612 standing

A mini hall

• 30mx15m
• A dressing room

A gym

• 17mx12m
• A dressing room

Audience capacity: 3,006 seated and 1,612 standing (4,618 total)
Size: A 60mx28m rink
Parking: Free parking lot
Distance: 2.3km to the centre, 2.7km to the Matkakeskus travel centre
Public transport connection: 300m to a local bus stop
Address: Rautpohjankatu 10, 40700 Jyväskylä

Other skating rinks

Buugi and Peurunka are privately-owned skating rinks. The Tikkakoski and Peurunka rinks have audience capacities of 500 and 350 respectively. There is also a limited audience capacity at Buugi. All of the rinks also have good dressing room facilities available.

The skateboard and trial hall

A new skateboard and trial hall was completed in Jyväskylä in 2021. It has excellent training facilities for skateboarding, freestyle scootering, BMX, and trail biking too.

The hall has been divided in two parts. The bigger part features a skateboarding park with a mini-ramp and an extensive range of flats, banks, ledges, and rails in different sizes.

The smaller part hall includes a section dedicated to trail bikers with training structures made of pallets and cable reels for example.

There is a small free-of-charge parking lot, and the parking possibilities of the Seppä shopping centre are also available in the immediate vicinity.

• 3.2km to the city centre and 2.8km to the Matkakeskus travel centre
• 300m to a local bus stop
• Alasinkatu 1–3, 40320 Jyväskylä
   

Swimming halls

AaltoAlvari Aquatic Centre and the swimming hall Wellamo are also among the most popular sports venues in the city. AaltoAlvari is originally designed by the famous architect Alvar Aalto. It is a great venue for competitive and recreational swimming and other water activities. In AaltoAlvari one can also enjoy the spa section and join the instructed fitness classes. A specialty in AaltoAlvari is the senior gym, a gym equipped especially for the elderly. Wellamo is an idyllic swimming hall in the Vaajakoski district, perfect for families with children.

Sports Services organizes swimming school for adults during the period from autumn to spring. There are basic-, follow-up- and technique swimming courses and short courses in backstroke, front crawl freestyle, and breaststroke are also available. It is possible to organize tailored swimming technique courses and private lessons for adults as well, according to demand.

Check out the rules of the indoor swimming pools 

The AaltoAlvari Aquatic Centre

The AaltoAlvari Aquatic Centre provides excellent opportunities for many kinds of water sports, relaxing spa services, and competitive swimming.

The 50m pool is suited for both exercise and competitive swimming.
The 25m pool and its jumping tower on the older Alvar Aalto-designed side are also in use.
A big children’s pool, wave and lap pools, waterslides, and massaging showers are all included in the service range of the modern spa.

AaltoAlvari also has a well-lit gym, a senior gym, a wave room, a bookable sauna/fireplace room, and cafeteria services.

AaltoAlvari is currently under renovation whereby the entire spa section is modernized.
 In the course of the renovation, a new extension with a new adaptable 25m pool with variable bottom will also be built.

• Audience capacity of 1,200,
• 9,136m²
• Free parking lot
• 2.6km to the city centre and 3km to the Matkakeskus travel centre
• 100m to a local bus stop
• Pitkäkatu 2, 40700 Jyväskylä

Water sport possibilities in the AaltoAlvari Aquatic Centre include swimming, synchronized swimming, canoe polo, underwater rugby, water polo, and rescue swimming.

 

Outdoor facilities

The Harju athletics field

Harju, an IAAF Class 2 stadium and the first athletics field built in the city of Jyväskylä, has been in use since 1926 already. The stadium and its naturally beautiful 1.6km fitness track in the very centre of the city are excellent settings for track and field events and for soccer too.

There is a good range of sports gear there: full sets of equipment for throwing events, hurdles from 68.6cm to 106.7cm, high jump and pole vault mattresses, two discus and hammer circles (one of them fixed), starting blocks, starting cubes, and a tachymeter measuring space in the stands.

Harju has an attendance capacity of around 4,000, with covered seats for 2,500–2,800 spectators. The Harju field records can be seen on the Jyväskylän kenttäurheilijat website.

The Korpilahti athletics field

• A 5-lane 100m straightaway
• A high jump pit
• A long jump pit
• A shot put place

The Palokka athletics field

• The field has 6/4 tracks with flexible coating
• and a grass field with a 100mx64m playing area in the middle.
• Athletics equipment with the exception of discus and hammer throw, pole vaulting, and 3,000m steeplechase is available.

The Säynätsalo athletics field

• A 5-lane straight running track
• A shot-put circle
• A long jump pit
• A high jump pit
• A Novota coating and efficient lighting
• A stand for 200 and two movable stand structures

The Vaajakoski athletics field

• The Vaajakoski athletics field has 8/6 running tracks with flexible Spurtan coating. 
• Equipment for track-and-field athletics excluding discus and hammer throw, pole vaulting, and 3,000m steeplechase is available.
• The grounds are equally suited for events and matches and have covered stands with a seating capacity of 1,000.
   

Laajavuori

Laajavuori has a wide variety of arenas for summer and winter events alike at a few kilometres from the city centre. It is ideal not only for traditional winter sports but for many other disciplines too including cycling, frisbee golf, and ice cross downhill. Traditionally known as a skiing resort, Laajavuori has activities for every day all through the year.

Its Adventure Park has over 2kms of breathtaking ziplines and challenges for the entire family from spring to autumn.

Youthful and urbane, Laajavuori is a year-round setting for a wide variety of events. Its Laajis ski resort has good slopes for various winter sport events. All told, there are 12 slopes, a sledding hill, and 6 lifts at Laajis – plus 4 snowparks as the season unfolds. Laajavuori has many kinds of grounds for alpine and freestyle skiers and for snowboarders alike. There are a total of almost 30 slopes in Laajis for the park team to build setups from during the season.

The Laajavuori resort has 48km of well-maintained skiing tracks almost in the heart of Jyväskylä. 15km of these are lit. The tracks are well-connected with the other skiing and hiking routes of the Jyväskylä region.

There are also a hostel, a caravan site, and a Scandic Laajavuori hotel with spa services on the grounds. 

The Paviljonki event centre and the Lutakonaukio square

Apart from the actual sports sites, the city is home to the versatile event centre of Jyväskylän Paviljonki. Along with fairs, meetings, and exhibitions, its hall facilities enable special sports events too.

Situated in the middle of the city a short walk from the Matkakeskus travel centre and from the services in the city centre, the Paviljonki has 18,000m2 of hall facilities available for use in seven different halls or as a single space.

The biggest single hall has a surface of approx. 8,000m2. The hall spaces can also be limited to a desired size and shape. The Paviljonki also has full-service lighting and structure solutions available.

Together with the 21,700m2 Lutakonaukio event square built next to it, the Paviljonki is a splendid whole. Besides various festivals and exhibitions, the square has served as the venue of e.g. a Snowcross World Championships event in the middle of the city.

• Capacity of 15,000
• 21,700 m2 (the Lutakonaukio square + the port)
• Two parking halls and a parking area
• 900m to the city centre (by foot), 400m to the Matkakeskus travel centre
• 100m to a local bus stop
• Satamakatu 3, 40100 Jyväskylä

Event possibilities at the Tapahtumakeskus Paviljonki and at the Lutakonaukio square include archery, kettleballing, darts, pools, snooker, bridge, dancing, pole dancing, crossfit, armlifting, armwrestling, weightlifting, fitness, pull-ups, chess, snowcross, snow rugby, snow soccer, and supersprint cross-country skiing.

The Finnish baseball stadium at Hippos

A brand-new Finnish baseball stadium built at the Hippos area in Jyväskylä will be completed in the summer of 2023.

Its artificial sand-grass lawn will provide an equally excellent setting for Finnish baseball and for other major events too.

The new stadium will have modern dressing-room, washing, media, and VIP facilities and a covered audience capacity of around 1,800, of which 1,500 will be seated.
 It will be a multi-use stadium that serves the users of the Hippos Sports Park in many ways both in summer and in winter.

• Covered stands for an audience of 1,800 including 1,500 seats with a possibility to significantly increase audience capacity
• Free parking lot
• 2.6km to the city centre and 3km to the Matkakeskus travel centre
• 100m to a local bus stop
• Kuntoportti 2, 40700 Jyväskylä

The Viitaniemi sports park

The Viitaniemi sports park is one of the most popular sports sites in Jyväskylä. Its location in the immediate vicinity of the city centre is an added attraction and serves several schools and institutions of learning. Its new service spaces and a covered stand for 500 spectators were completed in 2019. The new main building completed in 2021 houses modern dressing room and washing facilities, storage and office areas, a cafeteria, and a multi-use space. It also has two separate WCs for disabled people.
In the wintertime, the park features a big space of artificial ice, a bandy rink, and a 333m speed skating rink.
The artificial ice rink is usually in use from November to March. The big ice arena is where JPS, a staple in the Finnish Bandyliiga series, plays home.

• A covered main stand for 500 people plus a possibility to increase audience capacity to 3,000 with uncovered spaces and extra stands
• A big 110x65m rink with a 65mx40m artificial lawn area at one end
• The parking areas of the Viitaniemi sports park, street parking, and the parking houses in the city centre
• 1.1km to the city centre and 1.4km to the Matkakeskus travel centre
• 50m to a local bus stop
• Kisakatu 18, 40720 Jyväskylä

Sport possibilities in the Viitaniemi sports park include bandy and speed skating in the winter and soccer in the summer.

Other Facilities

Besides the sports sites administered by the City of Jyväskylä, there are facilities that, maintained by institutions of learning and by private entrepreneurs, are equally well suited for organizing events in several disciplines if needed.

These include the halls of Gradia, the Finnish Music Campus, the Buugi Sport and Wellbeing centre in Killeri, the Peurunka Areena and ice rink, the Hutunki sport centre in Vaajakoski, the pool halls, the bowling alleys, and the numerous padel courts all around Jyväskylä.

Jyväskylä as a well-known rally city and Central Finland around it have excellent settings and extensive know-how for organizing rally events too.