KHL Jersey Names

[meangene]

Why do KHL jerseys use the Latin script spelling for the last names on their jerseys? Is it just to make it easier to understand for non-Russian speakers? Seems like it would get annoying if I lived in Russia and didn't speak English.

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[hansomreiste]

Why do KHL jerseys use the Latin script spelling for the last names on their jerseys? Is it just to make it easier to understand for non-Russian speakers? Seems like it would get annoying if I lived in Russia and didn't speak English.

I'd say so - KHL wants to expand and therefore to become a global league. For a non-Russian speaking KHL fan, learning Cyrillic alphabet may be challenging or pointless. However, for a Russian, learning Latin alphabet is kinda necessary if s/he is to interact with the world outside of Russia; so I would say it's a much smarter choice to use Latin on jerseys. Because, you need a special interest in order to learn Cyrillic alphabet. On the other hand, Latin nowadays is needed for almost everything.

So essentially, while Russians can easily comprehend Latin, it's not the same for Europeans or others with Cyrillic. I learnt it at a young age but I still feel like I carry a play dough for a brain while reading in Ukrainian & Russian - it's just difficult when you are not mingling with it every day.

Moreover, you don't need to speak English to read player names - learning Latin alphabet is enough...

 

[Go Donbass]

Why do KHL jerseys use the Latin script spelling for the last names on their jerseys? Is it just to make it easier to understand for non-Russian speakers? Seems like it would get annoying if I lived in Russia and didn't speak English.

The KHL has teams in several countries that don't use the Cyrillic alphabet, so unless you want to force those teams to use Cyrillic, the only other options are every team in a non-Russian speaking country uses their own alphabet, no player names on jersey's or a neutral language. They went with the latter option.

 

[SoundAndFury]

Seems like it would get annoying if I lived in Russia and didn't speak English.

95% of Russians can read Latin alphabet, you don't need to speak English or any other language for that. So it's pretty simple, most people in Russia can read Latin so it doesn't make the difference for them and most people outside Russia can't read Cyrillic so for them it does.

 

[Acallabeth]

I feel that we need to sticky this, sweet Jezus, people just keep asking the same question.

 

[Killion]

I feel that we need to sticky this, sweet Jezus, people just keep asking the same question.

Nevermind... wash, rinse, recycle & repeat. CCCP.