Skellefteå AIK celebrate their SM Gold win earlier this year.
Skellefteå AIK aren't just the current champions of Sweden. The club also has a nationally-renowned youth system for both boys and girls, which doesn’t insist that all the players must become future superstars. AIK can be just a place to play hockey and hang out with new friends.
Also, many mums and dads have made lifelong friends through AIK’s sporting and social events. It’s an ideal place to meet new people when you first move to Skellefteå. And who doesn’t need great new friends when you move to a new city?
Håkan Billing is the club's sales and marketing manager and is very keen indeed to welcome more newcomers to the Skellefteå Kraft arena.
– We really want to attract more newcomers, although we do now have quite a few at most matches. It’s important for us to know what they want in the arena, so we want to start a focus group. We’ll meet for coffee and just talk about the sport and our arena. For example, what would make you more comfortable here? Is the signage in the arena easy to understand? What about the food on offer? We’re open to discussing everything.
What's so important about Skellefteå AIK?
– AIK is a central part of Skellefteå life. This is real Skellefteå culture. I love Sara kulturhus and what they’re doing, but if you move here and want to know what makes this town tick, you need to experience the real culture of AIK. Skellefteå people live and breathe AIK.
You mentioned that there are already quite a few newcomers attending games. How has their experience been so far?
– We notice that a lot of the newcomers that already come to matches buy lots of hockey shirts and caps, which I find fascinating. I think it shows that being part of hockey here is like a shortcut to integration.
Fans go crazy at AIK's SM Gold.
What else do you offer newcomers apart from a very good hockey team?
– It's not just about coming to the matches. We offer an even faster route to integration, and that’s at 8am on Sunday mornings, when we have lots of children and parents coming here to play hockey. The kids find new friends really quickly and so do the parents. It’s not like soccer, when you just leave the kid and go, here parents are encouraged to be active in the kids’ teams - they run activities, sort out the skates, all sorts of things.
Do kids and parents need to be able to skate to join in?
Håkan Billing of Skellefteå AIK
Absolutely not! Kids and parents who have never skated are very welcome, too. We work with Fritidsbanken who allow you to borrow skates, hockey sticks, pretty much everything for free. So you can see if you like playing hockey without spending a fortune on equipment. Just come along on Sunday mornings - you might even be able to play with some of the AIK players, once you’ve learned how to skate.
And could a newcomer child ever be good enough to actually play for AIK?
Yes, of course! We’re very aware and proud of the fact that most of the Skellefteå newcomers are highly educated. These parents will want to see possibilities for their kids to succeed in life - one amazing path could be as an SHL or NHL player. That would absolutely be a possibility if the children have the talent and drive. Imagine!