Nokia Arena selected as Finland’s host venue for EuroBasket 2025

Nokia Arena in Tampere has been selected as Finland’s host venue for the 2025 edition of the FIBA EuroBasket national team tournament.

Nokia Arena will be one of the four venues for the group phase of the tournament, which Finland will co-host alongside Cyprus, Latvia and Poland. It will mark the second time that Tampere has hosted EuroBasket games after it did so alongside Helsinki in 1967. Helsinki also hosted the group phase of the 2017 tournament.

Tampere joins the Latvian capital of Riga and Limassol in Cyprus as host cities for EuroBasket 2025. Poland was added as a host nation back in September and its host city will be approved by the FIBA Europe Board on March 17.

Latvia, Cyprus and Finland were announced as host countries for EuroBasket 2025 in March last year. As an act of solidarity to Ukraine following its invasion by Russia, FIBA had also decided to continue exclusive discussions with the country over its potential hosting of group-stage games, but these will now be held in Poland.

Latvia will host the final phase of EuroBasket 2025, which will mark the fourth edition in a row to be co-hosted by four countries. The most recent edition took place last year in Czech Republic, Georgia, Italy and Germany.

The 15,000-capacity Nokia Arena, also known as Tampere Deck Arena, opened in December 2021. The arena hosted the 2022 Ice Hockey World Championship and will also co-host the 2023 tournament alongside Riga after the event was stripped from the Russian city of St. Petersburg.

Nokia Arena will host the opening group of EuroBasket 2025. Specific dates for the tournament have not yet been announced.

Ari Tammivaara, event director of the EuroBasket 2025 local organising committee in Finland, said: “In recent years, Tampere has shown that it’s capable of organising high-quality international events. Tampere Deck Arena is conveniently located in the centre of the city, built basically on top of the train station; providing great logistical opportunities to set up a basketball festival for the whole of Finland.”

Tampere hosted Finland’s men’s basketball team in August 2022 as it defeated Israel in front of 11,554 supporters to qualify for the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup, which will take place in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia.