Superpesis

Sport	Pesäpallo
Founded	1989
Owner(s)	Superpesis Oy
No. of teams	13 (men) 12 (women)
Country	Finland
Most recent champion(s)	Sotkamon Jymy (men) Pesäkarhut (women)
Most titles	Sotkamon Jymy (19, men) Kirittäret (12, women)
TV partner(s)	Nelonen Media Yle
Relegation to	Miesten Ykköspesis [ fi]
Domestic cup(s)	Suomensarja (pesäpallo) [ fi]
Official website	Superpesis.fi

The Superpesis is the highest level of the Finnish pesäpallo league system. Contested by 13 clubs in men's league and 12 clubs in women's league, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the Ykköspesis. Seasons usually run from May to August, with each men's team plays around 30 matches and women's team 24 matches in the regular and continuation series: two against each other, one at home and one away. After the regular season, a continuation series will be played to determine the 8 teams that make the play-offs and the teams that qualify for the knockout stage and the teams that are relegated. ^[1] Games are played on weekday evenings and weekend afternoons. ^[2]

The competition was founded on 1989, following the Finnish Championship (the top-tier league from 1955 to 1989). The Superpesis takes advantage of a €100 000 television rights deal with Nelonen Media and Yle securing the broadcasting rights to all Superpesis games. ^{[3] [4] [5]} The Superpesis is run by a limited company owned by the Finnish Pesäpallo Association, with Olli Aro as a chief executive. ^[6]

The men's Superpesis is third-watched and the women's league is the most-watched sports league in Finland. In 2021, Superpesis matches were streamed more than a million times. For the 2023 season, the average of men's Superpesis match attendance was 1,381 and women's average match attendance was 661. ^{[7] [8]} Most popular in semi-urban and rural municipalities, along with some notability in larger cities like Tampere and Oulu, the pesäpallo matches gain a significant number of attendances compared to the population in the area. ^[9]

Thirty-one clubs have competed in the men's Superpesis and forty-three clubs in the women's Superpesis since its inception in 1990. Nine of them have won the men's title and eleven of them the women's title. The winners in men's league are: Sotkamon Jymy (19), Vimpelin Veto (4), Kiteen Pallo -90 (3), Joensuun Maila (2), Oulun Lippo (2), Imatran Pallo-Veikot (1), Hyvinkään Tahko (1), Pattijoen Urheilijat (1) and Manse PP (1). Sotkamon Jymy have won the most titles, with nineteen, and the most successive titles, with five. Only three clubs have played in every season to date: Hyvinkään Tahko, Kiteen Pallo -90 and Sotkamon Jymy.

The winners in women's league are: Kirittäret (12), Lapuan Virkiä (9), Pesäkarhut (3), Jyväskylän Kiri (2), Oulun Lippo (2), Ikaalisten Tarmo (1), Manse PP (1), Pattijoen Urheilijat (1), Siilinjärven Pesis (1), Vihdin Pallo (1) and Viinijärven Urheilijat (1). Kirittäret have won the most titles, with twelve, and the most successive titles, with six. Only one club, Lapuan Virkiä, have played in every season to date.

The Superpesis clubs in the 2024 season are (with their home towns in brackets):

Alajärven Ankkurit

Manse PP

Haminan Palloilijat

Hyvinkään Tahko

Imatran Pallo-Veikot

Joensuun Maila

Kempeleen Kiri

Kiteen Pallo -90

Kouvolan Pallonlyöjät

Pattijoen Urheilijat

Seinäjoen JymyJussit

Sotkamon Jymy

Vimpelin Veto

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Location of teams of the 2024 men's Superpesis season.

Teams relegated were relegated to second-tier Ykköspesis in the year shown, and are there today unless noted otherwise.

• Vaasan Maila (relegated 1992)
• Muhoksen Pallo-Salamat (relegated 1994,)
• Riihimäen Pallonlyöjät (relegated 1995)
• Haapajärven Pesä-Kiilat (relegated 1998)
• Juvan Pallo (relegated 1998, now Juvan Nuorisopesis)
• Loimaan Palloilijat (relegated 2001)
• Kinnarin Pesis (relegated 2004, now Kinnarin Pesis 2006)
• Puijon Pesis (relegated 2009
• Ulvilan Pesä-Veikot (relegated 2010)
• Jyväskylän Kiri (relegated 2016)
• Oulun Lippo (relegated 2018)
• Kankaanpään Maila (relegated 2022)
• Koskenkorvan Urheilijat (relegated 2023)

• Kaisaniemen Tiikerit (went bankrupt at the end of 1998)
• Seinäjoen Maila-Jussit (left after 2008)
• Nurmon Jymy (left after 2012)
• Siilinjärven pesis (left after 2021)

Teams relegated were relegated to second-tier Ykköspesis [ fi] in the year shown, and are there today unless noted otherwise.

• Kokemäen Kova-Väki (relegated 1991)
• Ikaalisten Tarmo (relegated 1996)
• Vähänkyrön Viesti (relegated 1997)
• Tyrnävän Tempaus (relegated 2009)
• Jyväskylän Valo (relegated 2010)
• Lappajärven Veikot (relegated 2019)
• Mynämäen Vesa (relegated 2021)
• Pesä Ysit (relegated 2021)
• Siilinjärven Pesis (relegated 2021)
• Kempeleen Kiri (relegated 2023)

• Kajaanin Hymy (left after 2001)
• Vimpelin Veto (left after 2002)
• Hämeenlinnan Paukku (left after 2003)
• Pattijoen Urheilijat (left after 2003)
• Peräseinäjoen Toive (left after 2004)
• Sotkamon Jymy (left after 2006)
• Ylihärmän Pesis-Junkkarit (left after 2012)
• PeTo-Jussit (left after 2012)
• Turku-Pesis (left after 2013)
• Vuokatin Veto (left after 2014)
• Kankaanpään Maila (left after 2015)
• Vihdin Pallo (left after 2016)
• Viinijärven Urheilijat (left after 2016)
• Kajaanin Pallokerho (left after 2017)
• Oulun Lipottaret (left after 2018)

In addition to the team's ordinary stadiums, regular season matches have also been played at Bolt Arena, Helsinki, ^[10] at Hiiu Stadium in Tallinn, Estonia, ^[11] and at Complejo Deportivo Municipal Elola in Fuengirola, Spain. ^[12]

The selected stadiums for such events have usually been association football pitches with artificial grass. In comparison, plans to play the 2022 Superpesis finals at Helsinki Olympic Stadium as best-of-1 series were scrapped in part due to teams' opposition to playing on natural grass (though with sand drizzled on) ^[13] and large portions of track and field surfacing.

Talvisuper is the main winter competition in pesäpallo. Although treated as a separate competition from Superpesis, it features many of the same teams, along with a few teams from Ykköspesis. The competition runs from December through April.

In contrast to the main Superpesis, where matches are generally held at stadiums dedicated solely to pesäpallo, Talvisuper is mostly held in indoor halls with artificial grass, with the halls being designed primarily for association football and occasionally track and field. ^[14]

The finals of Talvisuper are known as Halli-SM (Hall Finnish Championship). ^[15]

• Finnish pesäpallo match-fixing scandal

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Superpesis.

• Official website