Multi-facility sports park opens in Helsinki

The City of Helsinki on Sunday opened a sports park with multi-facilities for people of all ages and fitness levels.

The Kruunuvuorenranta sports park, built at a cost of 4.6 million euros at Laajasalo, as a football ground, a neighbourhood sports site for young people with wall-climbing facilities, a scootering and skateboarding area, a multi-purpose arena for floorball and basketball and a playground on its south.

On the north of the woods, there is a well-equipped outdoor gym. The basketball court is full-length and has special sport court flooring.

The park represents a concept of a sports park combined with a playground and a recreational area in nature.

It is located in an area previously used for oil terminal operation, which used to be covered mainly with crushed gravel.

In addition to the activity areas, the park has comfortable places to sit and spend time amidst a wide variety of plants.

More than 2,400 seedlings have been planted in the park and about 100 of them are tree seedlings of 24 species.

The construction of the northern part of the park will continue through the autumn. The northern part will also have an outdoor chess set and a pétanque court.

Several hundred people attended the opening ceremony and participated in activities such as face painting, chair and balance exercises, DJ music and warm-up exercises.

Participants in the ceremony expressed their satisfaction about the new facilities included in the park.

“The park is great. It is necessary for the community because the neighbourhood did not have anything like this before,” said a participant.

“In this new residential area, there were no sports or youth facilities. The Kruunuvuorenranta Sports Park is the first public park to open here,” Rauna Sarrivaara, project manager of the City of Helsinki Urban Environment Division, responsible for the construction of the park, told the Daily Finland, hoping that the park would have a positive impact on young people’s health.

She said that the park would also serve as sport venue for the new Kruunuvuorenranta Central School when the school opens around 2026.

“The contractor for civil engineering, sports, playing grounds and landscaping is VRJ Etelä-Suomi Oy,” Sarrivaara said.