Djurgarden has achieved great success with its junior team in recent years, but AIK is lagging behind in terms of medals and produced players to the NHL. Something that has been partly due to the fact that clubs outside the country are attracting many of the Stockholm talents. Now Stefan Gustavson highlights a potential change in this as a positive part of the construction of new Hovet. - The most important thing with a new arena is of course the economy. We need a good economy to be able to run a good youth and junior program. Today, most juniors leave Stockholm, even though we produce the most players, because we can't afford to keep them, says Gustavson and continues. - We can't compete with the rest of Sweden in the same way as we would like. Both AIK and Djurgarden would like to have many more of their own products in their teams and be able to keep players from Stockholm. It has to do with the economy. At the same time, it gives us even better conditions to run even better junior, women's and girls' programs. - In concrete terms, where can the money go to keep the talents? - It's about economic conditions, but of course also facilities. There are fantastic offers out there that we can't quite meet. It's a combination, I'd say. It hangs very much on the economy in many parts, that we have facilities, that we can be and see to it that they develop in that way. Just like it is done in the rest of Sweden and in other countries. We want to be able to compete on equal terms. - It works on 3 arenas in football, so it should be able to work for us to find the balance, so that we can also meet more needs. That children and young people grow into this, and still can see their idols here out on the ice, at the same time as they themselves want to play and think 'this is cool, I want to be there too'. There's nothing negative about this, only positive. But of course, a sorrow the day we leave Hovet. - It's just the hope, but Stockholm is Stockholm. It's the challenge with space and finding the right balance between having an arena that is large enough to attract more, but at the same time not too large to be too expensive to run.
Club
Djurgarden takes a step forward with new Hovet -
Djurgarden hopes that new Hovet will increase interest among more target groups and provide an economic boost for both AIK and Djurgården.
Djurgarden Hub