SPORT & LEISURE

Teams in Pori and what you can do by yourself
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Pori has many good teams like f.e. in football and ice-hockey. Porinians are proud of following their teams but sometimes we tend to mock our own if they play badly. If you're interested in sport, there are lots of good ways of f.e. playing football, jogging, golfing etc. Take a look at Pori-sport...
Good link is also UrheiluPori (Sport-Pori) website. There you can also find sporting teams of Pori (=seurat) and latest news in the Porinian sport scene.

Team championships (22) that has gone to Pori:
Basketball (Women's league): Porin Veto (1951)
Volleyball (Men's league): Porin Pyrintö (1957)
Ice-Hockey (Men's league): Karhut (1965), Rosenlewin Urheilijat-38 (1967), Ässät (1971, 1978)
Football (Men's league): FC Jazz (1993, 1996)
Bandy: Narukerä (1999)
Water Polo (Women's league): Sentterit (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007)
Pesäpallo (Women's league): Pesäkarhut (2002)
Rinkball (Men's league): Porin Kärpät (2004, 2005, 2006, 2009)

FOOTBALL (SOCCER)

Porin Palloilijat (PoPa)

Number one team in Pori at the moment
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PoPa (team pic right) are promoted to First Division (congratulations) and I hope we see them play at Veikkausliiga some day. PoPa plays their games at Pori Stadium and their nickname is Sinimyrsky (= bluestorm).
PoPa website
My PoPa website

FC JAZZ (R.I.P.) &
FC JAZZ-J

FC Jazz: The two times champions!!
FC Jazz were two times Finnish champions (1993 & 1996) and they played at Pori stadium (at Isomäki sport centre). 1993 team is still considered as one of the best teams in Finnish football history and the final game of the season 1993 gathered almost 12 000 fans inside. Sadly, during early 2005 FC Jazz vanished from the football scene because of financial difficulties. "The King is gone but he's not forgetten..."
My FC Jazz shrine

FC Jazz-j: Rebirth of a Legend...
FC Jazz-Juniors have now taken Jazz's place in the football map of Pori. They entered the men's league in 2006 and like a rocket have moved upwards from fifth division to this season's second division. Congratulations. The Reds are back...
FC Jazz-j website

Musan Salama (MuSa) + others

Alternatives...
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MuSa are a good alternative for PoPa although and they are playing in the third division at the moment. MuSa are playing their games at Musa -district and their small "stadium" is nicknamed hilariously as Musa's Wembley. There are also other lower division teams like Toejoen veikot and Ruosniemen Visa, Karhufutis and Pihlavan TU.
MuSa (Musan Salama) website
RuosV (Ruosniemen Visa) website
PiTU (Pihlavan Työväen Urheilijat) website
Karhu-futis website
ToVe (Toejoen Veikot) website

NICEFUTIS

Gals who are into football
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Women's team Nicefutis are playing in top division at the moment (2009). The standard of women's football in Finland is rising and games are as tough as men's. And tough players Nicefutis have because f.e. Reetta Turtiainen was chosen to U18 National Team. It would be great to see more Porinians in National Team. Nicefutis play at Herralahti district and it is worthy to go and watch them play.
Nicefutis website

ICE HOCKEY

ÄSSÄT HC

Fast end to end stuff. Fire on the ice!!!
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Ice hockey is definitely the number one sport in Finland (like in Canada). Ice hockey gathers good amount of fans inside arenas (Ässät have average attendance of approx. 4500-5000). The game is fast and hard so there are only Men (with capital M) on the ice. Ässät have won the championship in 1971 & 1978. They won the silver at 2005-06 season and that gave us the reason to celebrate. Ässät play in the Ice Hockey Arena which locates at Isomäki Sport Centre.
Pori has won four times the wanted ice hockey championship: 1965 Karhut, 1967 RU-38, 1971 Ässät and 1978 Ässät.
Ässät website

BANDY

PORIN NARUKERÄ

One of the oldest ball-games in the world.
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Narukerä was founded in 1965. They were the first Finnish bandy-teams who recruited foreigners and in 1989 the best bandyplayer in the world Vladimir Plavunov with Alexander Pershin came to Pori. They also had the first (and probably still the only) heated bandystadium in Finland. They have won the league once (1999) and again now are competing for the top prize. They play at Isomäki Sport Centre.
Narukerä website

RINKBALL

PORIN KÄRPÄT

Rinkball's like mixing ice-hockey and bandy.
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Porin Kärpät were the first teams to attend Finnish Rinkball Association which was formed in 1990. They have won the title thrice in a row now (2004-2006) and once again they're fighting to win the title. They play at Isomäki Ice Hockey Arena.
Kärpät website

FLOORBALL

SBS PORI & FBT PORI

Floorball's very fast indoor hockey game.
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Pori has two main floorball teams: SBS Pori and FBT Pori. SBS play in first division and FBT were promoted to the top league last season. Both's home ground is Sport Centre (=urheilutalo). Floorball is quite popular in Finland. It is fast and reminds me somehow of hockey. There are also 8 other floorball teams in Pori but they play in lower divisions.
SBS Pori website
FBT Pori website

PESÄPALLO

PORIN PESÄKARHUT

Pesäpallo is adapted from baseball and modified to suit Finnish atmosphere
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Pori has a women's pesäpallo team called Pesäkarhut. Pesäpallo is adapted from baseball with different pitch layout and different rules. Like one American once said after watching the game: "Pesäpallo is smarter game than baseball". Check it out!
Pesäkarhut website

TABLE-TENNIS

PORILAISET-83

AMERICAN FOOTBALL

PORI BEARS

BASKETBALL

BC SISU