The Hippos area in Jyväskylä is being completely renewed. New facilities are being built for more than 30 sports, and research, coaching and innovation activities in high-performance sports will also be under the same roof. This is a unique project, even on a European scale.
The Hippos area is located close to Jyväskylä city center, just 1.5 km from the well-known Compass landmark. Over 60,000 square metres of new sports facilities will be built in the area. This will provide new space for more than 30 sports – from ice hockey to gymnastics and from martial arts to basketball.
The project being implemented consists of four buildings: a Sports Center, Ice Sports Center and Competence Center. A parking facility will also be built in conjunction with the Hippos project. The area is already home to a swimming complex and Finnish baseball stadium.
- There is nothing like this anywhere else in Europe. The multi-purpose arena in the Ice Sports Center will also make it possible to organise cultural events. For example, Hippos could simultaneously host basketball games, concerts and gymnastics, says Project Manager Ville Niskakangas from the City of Jyväskylä.
In the future, the sports center will be a platform for making the leap to international arenas in both sports and business. Over the next decade, the city aims to make the Hippos area a vibrant and modern ecosystem – where cooperation produces new openings in physical activity, well-being and research.
Examples of potential new openings could be an innovative coaching app for use in several sports or a gamification solution developed in the Hippos RDI ecosystem to increase physical activity in the daily lives of young people.
The Jyväskylä way: Investment based on partnerships
The complex being built is a property development project developed jointly by public and private actors on the basis of an innovation partnership competition. Construction will be implemented using a project management service model that involves dividing a large entity into smaller contracts.
The City of Jyväskylä’s subsidiary Jyväskylän Hippoksen Kiinteistöhallinto Oy will lease the Sports Center and the Ice Sports Center from SEB Leasing Oy on a long-term leasing agreement. All of the financing for the Competence Center is private. - The total cost of the project is approximately EUR 210 million, which includes a direct investment of EUR 23 million from the city. Most of the financing is based on the leasing model, says Ville Niskakangas.
Energy efficiency will be taken into account during construction of the new building complex. - District heating is cost-effective, reliable and robust. It is a technology-neutral type of production and enables energy-efficient utilisation of different forms of heating. The local energy company Alva uses renewable fuels to produce its district heating. The ice refrigeration process at the Ice Sports Center will generate condensation heat that we can use to heat the building. We will also implement a cooling water recycling system that will significantly conserve clean water resources, explains Niskakangas.
Axonometric drawing of Hippos / PES Arkkitehdit
A meeting place for high-performance sports, research and companies
Hippos will provide a place where companies in the sports sector, researchers, coaches and athletes can work together to develop new solutions in the fields of health and physical activity. The activities are already well under way, and they are being carried out as the Hhub network, which comes from the words “Hippos Hub”. Approximately 300 companies and organisations are already involved in the ecosystem network. Network cooperation has continued for several years – regionally, nationally and internationally.
The Finnish Institute of High Performance Sport (KIHU) and the University of Jyväskylä's Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences located in the Hippos area are the only organisations of their kind in Finland. JAMK University of Applied Sciences is investing in the well-being unit at the future Competence Center. For example, the LIKES research center will move there.
The Competence Center facility will also house various functions of the Jyväskylä Sports Academy, City of Jyväskylä Sports and Recreation department, KIHU and companies in the sector. Cafés, restaurants and meeting places also play an important in creating a sense of community.
- The Hippos Competence Center is aiming for strong cooperation with higher education institutions and companies. We want to bring together start-ups and business ideas that can be developed into innovations and international success stories by linking them to the Sports
Center and Ice Sports Center. This will create an entity that supports development activities as well as commercial opportunities, says Program Manager Taija Lappeteläinen from the City of Jyväskylä’s Business Services.
The city has already established important international links with, for example, the Spanish football market. The Competence Center for physical activity, health and well-being aims to open up more pathways for international business in a similar manner.
- Bringing growth entrepreneurship and investors together will be reflected in the activities at Hippos as we look for new international connections with funding providers, says Lappeteläinen.
Data will play an important role in promoting physical activity, sports, well-being and health at Hippos. - The Hippos Data ecosystem project will model the Hippos data ecosystem, such as identifying visitor groups in the area, determining what data is collected in the area, where that data is stored, and what kind of data-related actors Hippos will have. The project will also examine regulatory issues and the benefits of data for both the user and the business operations in the region, explains Lappeteläinen.
Jyväskylä wants to be a pioneer in the area of physical activity, health promotion and well-being. - We are also working nationally in the Sport Finland network. The Sport Finland activities launched by Jyväskylä, Lahti and Kuopio started in an InnoCities lead project and have continued in the form of a network. At the end of 2025, a Slush Side Event was organised as part of Sport Finland cooperation in order to bring together Finnish start-ups and investors in the sector. The city of Rovaniemi was also involved in the cooperation, says Lappeteläinen.
This article was originally written by Innocities. Original article here.
Would you like to join the activities of the Hippos growth company ecosystem? Contact Taija Lappeteläinen: taija.lappetelainen@jyvaskyla.fi
This article is part of the innovation ecosystem work of the Business Development Services of the City of Jyväskylä. We are carrying out ecosystem work with the support of public funding and within the framework of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment's ecosystem agreement in 2021-2027, together with universities and other developers in the region. Funding is provided by the Regional Council of Central Finland (ERDF funding, Jyväskylä Growth and Sustainable Urban Development project 2022-2025).
