The inspiration for the name came from the three alumni of the school who have subsequently become successful athletes. The name is derived from the surnames of footballer Simo Roiha who plays for FC Rovaniemi, World Ski Championship winner Pirjo Muranen (née Manninen) and her brother Hannu Manninen, a world champion in Nordic combined. The pupils chose the name Roimanni to celebrate the school’s famous alumni.
Simo Roiha, along with four other players from FC Rovaniemi, attended the arena’s opening ceremony on 20 August 2015.
According to Head Teacher Olavi Tammimies, the school has only had positive experiences of the arena. The arena complements the school’s other sports facilities, an ice hockey rink with artificial turf and a football pitch, as well as play products.
Sport park for the whole community
Thanks to the S Arena, the grounds of Saari School now make up a genuine sport park, which is always in use, including in the evenings after school. The children of the nursery school next door also use the arena.
Saari School has 300 pupils of different ages, who play football during break time throughout the year. According to Tammimies, the first and second year pupils use the S Arena during break time, while older pupils play in the ice hockey rink or on the football pitch.
The jogging track around the arena is also in constant use by the professional runners of the future. S Arenas are part of an initiative of local authorities, the Football Association of Finland and S Group to build one hundred multi-purpose arenas for Finnish primary schools. The first arenas were inaugurated in 2011. Saari School’s S Arena is the seventh within the operating area of the northern Finnish Arina Cooperative, the second in Rovaniemi and the 42nd nationwide.