Comment This is a comment, written by an editorial staff member. The commentary expresses the writer’s views.
Øystein Haugen was for years known as Mr Rema in Narvik. The jovial Narviking has won awards for its work with inclusion. And shop management.
Of all the transfers that were completed before this year’s season, the signing of Haugen the year before is probably the most important. An economic mid-season was announced after last year with more money out than money in. But Haugen has given sporting director Martin Persson good working conditions.
It has happened through his characteristics as a merchant. He has made the club more inclusive. With the help of talented people such as Kenneth Jenssen and Bertine Bjørk Akselsen in communications, we have seen a club that does not just live on the ice. But even outside the ice there is charm and people without helmets that show themselves.
And he has made a number of agreements that have secured a good basis for running the club at the top of level two in Norway. Together with a board that has worked purposefully and strategically over several years.
Now a much tougher task awaits Haugen and the rest of the organisation.
The promotion will require many more millions. That means more people at matches, more sponsors and better agreements with the partners who supply food, equipment and everything else needed to run a hockey club.
Because better players must be brought in. And they must be freed to spend more time on hockey than they need in the 1st division.
But no matter how hard Haugen works. Narvik is a small town. There is not a huge business community here. The audience potential is limited. Although Narvik Hockey has tried hard to develop talent for years, there is still no undergrowth of players who can deliver in the elite.
And should you succeed in getting everything you need from the Narvik community, it will mean that there will be considerably less in the rest of sports Narvik.
And it’s not a situation that an inclusive hockey club wants to be in either.
This means that Haugen’s job is now to introduce Narvik’s hockey heroes to a wider audience.
The story of Narvik Hockey must become a story for the whole of Northern Norway. It must be a story that a regional business community in the north must identify with.
It has to be the story of the underdog who, against all odds, fights his way up the Norwegian ladder.
Together with tourism in explosive growth, experience packages must be created where people from far and wide come to the city to experience all our attractions. And going to a hockey game.
Because tonight both Øystein and the hockey boys will get to celebrate like the kings of Narvik. But if the party is to continue in the elite, it requires that the guys are also kings of Northern Norway.
