Great. This is the way. But it have to expand to Europe. Yes, the first step is established trademark in Russia, next one maybe will be expansion.
For example, I am from traditional Euro country, but media infos about KHL are poor - only results. Missing short TV shots at news, analytics programs etc. IMO, there is a lot of people in Europe, who are boring with small domestic leages. KHL is absolutely adequate product for them - if you watch any game (yes, from Chanty-Mansijsk, or Podolsk too
you feel, that this is big league. For example yesterday Ufa - Dynamo game... I am not fan of this teams, but was pretty interesting for neutral TV viewer. There was a tone interesting moments of this game, but in TV sport news in my country only silence about KHL.
This is what KHL and to be honest most Russians in general suck at - marketing. I don't want to delve too deep into this and possibly draw wrong conclusions but I still feel like Russia has this USSR mentality where sports are generally controlled and financed by the government, which is still a common practice.It's way more different than how Americans think - for them, NHL is a
product for which, in return, you are to get revenues. How so? Make people enjoy and watch it. For this reason, it's way more shiny than KHL because they never stop pumping and waxing their product. While KHL as an organization is a step towards that direction, they still lack this whole understanding of promotion. Moreover, it doesn't seem very suitable for Russian people, either. I mean, I've seen lots of Russians who could buys thousands of tickets for a hockey game yet none of them treat a hockey game like a "fun night out". They are not programmed to spend money for a hockey game - buy tickets and that's it. No fancy drinks, no sandwiches... As your babushka would say, just eat at home and then go watch the game. Why waste money? This is not about money but mentality. I'm by no means saying the Russians filling arenas throghout the country are too poor to buy two drinks. No way. I'm just saying that they would avoid it for most of the time because sports events are just sports events, not "entertainment".
Do I have a problem with that? For the sake of KHL's growth, kinda... Personally? No, not at all. Overly commercialized NHL games make me wanna puke. The product is better than KHL, for sure. However, it's... I don't know. To be honest with you, watching NHL makes me feel like a poor and therefore useless tool. When commentators say stuff like, "Stats brought to you by Hansom Pizza, the fresh pizza with best ingredients!" or just go on to say why Toyota is the best while talking about a goalie, it's ridiculous. I know how it all works. Yeah, sponsors bring in money and therefore keep the product as good as it is but I simply don't like it.
So overall, I think the reason KHL is not as good as NHL when it comes to marketing has something to do with Russian mentality. I don't want to judge a whole nation by labeling them with something but this is how I see it personally and I totally respect & understand their attitude. I don't want to be drowned in commercials and pay half of my salary on a game. Let KHL be "lesser" product, I'm fine with it.
Unless dramatic changes occur, I am not hopeful that KHL will delve deeper into EU market for the said reasons. It has been almost 10 years and the league surely develops but I'm not sure how strong they are to make business in whole EU market. I mean, maybe this example is too personal and argument is weak but,
1) NHL.tv has a couple of free games every week. Just go to their website and enjoy them. Even my mediocre internet connection is good enough to watch them in high quality. However, I know people who can't get KHL webcast to work even with fiber connections. It's a troubled product. Moreover, for most people who can't speak Russian, even "finding the way" is difficult.
2) NHL can be watched pretty much in every country on TV. When I was at highschool, NHL was broadcast on ESPN in Turkey and my 8yo brother would wake up 2hrs earlier for school only to watch San Jose & Anaheim & Los Angeles games, since they start at 05:30 and later than East Coast games. Look, this kid had absolutely no idea what ice hockey was - nobody around me had. Yet he could access the game and therefore, in time, grew fond of it. And let me tell you that: this kid is deeply interested in Russian literature and history, just like I was as a kid. Still, he prefers American product over Russian one, because he simply finds it too troublesome to access KHL and let's be honest; few people would pick KHL instead of NHL if they were given the chance.
My point here is that KHL is still too much "localized". I understand why they don't push for Turkish market, it doesn't make any sense for them to prioritize us but you get the idea. If you are to be "something like NHL" then you need to behave like something similar to NHL in order to improve and "suck" money out of your fanbase.
As I said... Personally, I'm fine with KHL. Actually, I wouldn't even mind if they kicked all foreign teams and made it all-Russian again. I'd still watch it as my main sports event. But if we are to speak of a Eurasian league that is on par with the best league in the world, an alternative to it... KHL really needs to make much more than what it's currently doing.
My post looks more like it would be suitable for business aspect thread but anyways, it's still somehow attendance related pretty much like anything else about the league - no attendance, no game.