Käpylä Sports Park is a versatile and central sports facility, and its good location between Mäkelänkatu and Messukeskus makes the area easy to reach from different parts of the city. The City aims to redevelop the park with the aim of making it an even more appealing place for everyday exercise and various sports. In addition to this, the aim is to enable the area to serve as a venue for cultural and sporting events of different sizes in the future.
A general plan for the park is currently being drawn up, a draft of which is now open for comments on the Kerrokantasi website(Link leads to external service) until 10 June. The general plan explores the kinds of services the sports park would have and how the area could be better used all year round, for example. At the same time, the planning process has involved exploring how cultural and sporting events of different sizes could be organised in the park. The general plan will serve as the basis for a local detailed plan amendment and a park plan for the area, the drafting of which is scheduled to start in autumn 2026. The dates for the construction of the park will be specified later.
Inviting and varied sports services
The park will include several pitches for football and other sports, a number of small game fields and a variety of innovative local sports facilities for independent exercise. There are also plans to build grandstand and dressing room buildings in the park, as well as a provision for a sports hall.
The plan is to preserve the road running through the area, in addition to which appealing fitness and recreation trails will be created. A new cycle path and pedestrian pathway are also proposed along Koskelantie in the northern part of the area.
Parking spaces and spaces for drop-off and pick-up traffic are available in the northern part of the park and south of the Velodrome, in addition to which the possibility of using the parking facilities of Messukeskus e.g. during events is being looked into. Bicycle parking is planned in various parts of the area.
A functional event park
In the future, the area will be able to serve as a venue for all kinds of events, from flea markets to major urban festivals. The organisation of sporting events and matches will also become easier through the utilisation of the off-field event venues and better infrastructure.
In order to accommodate large-scale events, the event areas must have a subgrade that can bear large crowds and heavy stage structures, which is why a large proportion of the event areas will be constructed using harder surface materials such as paving stones, crushed stone fines or asphalt. For festival-type events, the design of the area’s music stages takes into account the direction of music propagation to minimise noise impacts on the environment. The safe movement of people in the event area and emergency escape routes are also taken into account in the plans.