Expansion for the sake of it is wrong and pointless. But saying no hockey tradition all the time isn't fair. Sure you can't just prop teams up in these random places for fun but sometimes you need to build that tradition, right? If hockey never expanded out of its comfort zone, or any sport, then it'd be stagnant and ultimately boring
KHL Expansion Part VII
- Thread starter SoupNazi
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Putting a team in Uzbekistan is just absurd. If they were to put a team in that region, it would be better to put a team in Almaty.
vorky
@vorkywh24
- Jan 23, 2010
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Agree. Uzbekistan makes no sense for me.
The news on Uzbekistan appeared when CIS summit were taking place in Russia, Uzbekistan is a member state. Coincidence?
I am sure we will see the Jokerit´s scenario. I mean, no concrete rumors about concrete club, just the final decision. If you remember, there was NO rumors about Jokerit ... only final decision was announced.
Per reports, a club from Uzbekistan is NOT in touch with the KHL. As you know, there is more interests/ideas/wishis from various clubs/countries than the league can accept. Uzbekistan is not nr.1 priority.
SoundAndFury
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- May 28, 2012
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At the start of the KHL these expansion ideas at least made sense. Like putting team in Vilnius made sense all around except that there is no such money for it. Now we are discussing teams in Tashkent, I don't know, to me, that's just sad. It would mean switching from sensible spots to placing team wherever just because you can. Just give that money for Riga.
Rcknrollkillnmachine
Registered User
Speaking of expansion, is the Tre Kroner Swedish/Nordic team still being considered for the future? I haven't read anything apart from this forum of late.
What of other western Euro teams?
What of other western Euro teams?
vorky
@vorkywh24
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Nothing new.
IMO serious news will be as early as May/June 2018 (if they use Jokerit´s example, when a team will play its last season in domestic league and then switch to the KHL) or even later. Final decision will be made in May/June 2019. Even if they use Jokerit´s example, the final FORMAL decision will be made in May/June 2019.
If you want to know which countries are serious contenders, then follow statements of Chernyshenko. He has not named concrete teams, just countries. I have follown all his statements, so I can claim that the KHL is not interested in Finland and Czech rep. right now. Sweden is questionable (money is not a problem here, Swedish fed is). Chernyshenko said (Aug 2017) that the league sees an interest from Italy, Switzerland, GB, Germany, Japan & China. If I should rank these countries, then 1.Germany, 2.Switzerland, 3.-4.China, Japan, 5.GB and 6.Italy. Maybe they have more offers, which we do not know. Crowns for example.
KHL VP will attend Hockey Forum in Stockholm during NHL game. Will he say something about expansion? I do not know. Next KHL Board of Directors will take place in Dec during EHT & Moscow´s Hockey Forum will be held at the same time. Will they say something? Who knows?
Acallabeth
Post approved by Ovechkin
Mongolia is one of the weakest hockey countries, but Ulan Bator is Toronto compared to Tashkent
Promote and support creation of local league and hockey schools then, invite children and their coaches to seminars, play exhibition games in Tashkent. There's a middle ground between being stagnant and creating a top level league team in the country that doesn't have a single club or national team.
Leif R Carlsson was in a podcast yesterday where he said that the team is dead in Sweden. However, they are currently focusing on the Baltic market and they still have plans to put "Baltic" Crowns in the KHL.
Their current project is the Crowns Baltic Challenge Cup, with the national teams of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, plus a Swedish third division team competing in three different tournaments each season.
Some fun facts he named about the "Sweden Crowns".
- The team's budget was about 145 Million SEK (15.1M €), which according to him is about half of Jokerit's budget. Most of this was financed by Russians.
- It was already a done deal that Bengt-Åke Gustafsson (former head coach for Sweden's national team) would coach the team. Bengt-Åke Gustafsson and Leif R Carlsson sat together and waited for the documents signed by FHR and Tretyak. However, the documents never showed up, because of the Swedish federation's last minute convincing on the FHR not letting Crowns join the KHL.
vorky
@vorkywh24
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Budget - similar to Vityaz, Kunlun RS (first season). Slovan has lower budget, around 10-12 million EUR.
Famous Crowns presser - if I get it, the Crowns communicated with SIHA, who replied that joining the KHL is not Federation´s bussiness because the Crowns are not a member of SIHA & the Crowns informed the KHL & the FHR that SIHA is OK with them joining the KHL. But immidiately the SIHA made pressure on FHR, sending them another letter to block Crowns joining. And then the presser came. The point of presser was to inform public that SIHA is dishonest in negotiations, they even showed some legal documents claiming the SIHA has no right in the case. That was a point of the presser, but journalists did not get it. The point of the presser was NOT to announce a joining to the KHL, like with Jokerit´s presser.
It was a bit of a mix. They informed everyone about the KHL plans (note that this was unheard of prior to this), however the situation was negative due to SIHA and FHR blocking them to join. So yes, the main goal about the press conference was to inform everyone about how awful SIHA was blocking them to join despite not having any legal rights to do so. And it was still for the best that the press conference was a disaster.
He also named that Crowns will mostly have Swedish players (despite playing in the Baltic region) and that the Swedish team would've played in the Stockholm area, Malmö, Örnsköldsvik and Örebro (iirc)
alko
Registered User
Very very bad idea. See how it is going in Slovan. They are also depending on Russians and every year they are in big troubles.
If they want to have Swedish (or Baltic) team, they should also have Swedish (or Baltic) money!
vorky
@vorkywh24
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Not a suprise they would like to have Swedish players if they joined the KHL.
Did they plan to play in those Swedish cities with Swedish Crowns? Right? To be honest, I do not like this "travelling around the country."
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Please no! We already have a Batlic team, a real one! If we need any other Baltic teams it should be Estonia or Lithuania or even Kaliningrad. This 'Crowns' rubbish needs to go away!
Teams like Skellefteå and Brynäs struggle to even get over 5.000 to their games. Can we please stop talking about "Crowns" and never mention them again?
SoundAndFury
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They are also placed in towns with COMBINED population of 100 000 people. That's 1/7 population of Vilnius so your point is?
Caser
@RUSProspects
Go Donbass
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If nothing else they'd be the swarthiest team in the K...at least until Turkey gets a team.
My point is that attendance is decreasing in SHL generally and these are two of the teams who have been strong in attendance for a long time now, and when they start struggling, it's really a sign that something is fundamentally wrong in Swedish hockey right now. Crowns wont change that, on the contrary.
It's been said a hundred times and I will say it again. "Globe Trotter Crowns" is the worst idea ever. The plan is actually so bad that, for the laughs, I would want it to happen. I'm thinking around 150 people on a thursday night in Linköping.
Six classic clubs that currently play in HockeyAllsvenskan (Swe-2) have put pressure on the SHL and the Swedish hockey federation and actually threatened to pull out of the Swedish hockey system (backstory in the spoiler)
The six clubs in HockeyAllsvenskan are: Modo, AIK, Leksand, Björklöven, Södertälje, Timrå.
The clubs have threatened to start their own league with teams from other Nordic countries, however this could (note could) actually be an opening for AIK to join the KHL if they were to follow through.
The reason for this is regarding the inequality in the matter of the huge economic difference starting next season between the SHL and HockeyAllsvenskan (each SHL club will get 45M SEK, about 4.55M€ while each club in HockeyAllsvenskan will get 2.3M SEK, 232K€) from tv rights and sponsorship money.
Why this is a bigger problem is that the SHL and HockeyAllsvenskan have the same broadcaster (C More), where HockeyAllsvenskan stands for about 1/3 of the income and gets nothing compared to it. Also, each league negotiate their own tv rights instead of the Swedish hockey federation negotiating directly with the broadcaster. As an example, the Swedish football federation is in charge of broadcast negotiations (where C More also has the rights) for Allsvenskan and Superettan (Swe-2) and have decided to split the money 75/25.
They are also very unsatisfied with how the current promotion/relegation system works.
Read more about it here: Klassiska lagen i uppror mot SHL – kan lämna Hockeyallsvenskan
Why this is a bigger problem is that the SHL and HockeyAllsvenskan have the same broadcaster (C More), where HockeyAllsvenskan stands for about 1/3 of the income and gets nothing compared to it. Also, each league negotiate their own tv rights instead of the Swedish hockey federation negotiating directly with the broadcaster. As an example, the Swedish football federation is in charge of broadcast negotiations (where C More also has the rights) for Allsvenskan and Superettan (Swe-2) and have decided to split the money 75/25.
They are also very unsatisfied with how the current promotion/relegation system works.
Read more about it here: Klassiska lagen i uppror mot SHL – kan lämna Hockeyallsvenskan
The clubs have threatened to start their own league with teams from other Nordic countries, however this could (note could) actually be an opening for AIK to join the KHL if they were to follow through.
vorky
@vorkywh24
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Is Torbjörn Törnqvist still involved in AIK?
I do not believe these HA clubs leave the Swedish system. If you remember, similar threat was done by some SHL teams back in 2008 or 2009. They even negotiated with the KHL.
AIK joining the KHL is more likely than HA clubs launching new competition. But still, a small chance AIK- KHL to happen. On the other hand, does AIK have any alternative? I guess they do not want to play HA forever.
I do not believe these HA clubs leave the Swedish system. If you remember, similar threat was done by some SHL teams back in 2008 or 2009. They even negotiated with the KHL.
AIK joining the KHL is more likely than HA clubs launching new competition. But still, a small chance AIK- KHL to happen. On the other hand, does AIK have any alternative? I guess they do not want to play HA forever.
Jussi
Registered User
They should do what Malmö did. Get their act together on the ice and get promoted.
Well I think these six clubs just want to increase the numbers of teams in SHL. It is now 14, so if all of these six want in, they need to have competition for 20 teams.
I just want a team from Talinn in. Estonia needs a KHL team so much as a country and a federation. Instead of trying to force-feed teams into countries and federations that don't want them, another country like Kazakhstan or Latvia whose entire fanbase and federation would rally behind a single team. Within a few years Estonia would be in a far more desirable place.
According to YLE (finnish public broadcast company) London is one step closer to get a KHL team and it might be in as soon as next season.
RossiyaSport
Registered User
London would be a great place to expand for various reasons but I will believe it when I see it. The UK establishment is Russophobic beyond belief and will try to gum up the works in any way they can.
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