Putin is from Petersburg so its clear who his team is (and maybe why they are unstoppable... joking!)
Dynamo are basically bankrupt. Although they have a very nice new soccer/hockey arena being built so crowds will likely increase.
CSKA was mentioned how old and uncomfortable their arena is. Plus Im told traffic is so bad that moscow games usually start empty then fill up near the end
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The SKA thing has nothing to do with Putin's birthplace. Try Gazprom.
Btw nothing wrong with 2nd largest city in the country having wealthy corporate residents sponsoring sports. And if SKA just wouldn't be breaking every rule out there because "there has to be a club to build the NT around" and for that purpose they can fleece the rest of the league for Reasons and The Greater Good, then it all would work just fine. I mean they have no issues selling ticks or something(unlike the other "basic franchize for the NT" that dwells in a storied old barn that should be a museum by now and still can't get it sold out not to mention they don't have an actual modern arena.).
Look, on the off-ice-side SKA is doing a good job while the other Croesus in the league can't even provide that.
On the ice or better to say hockey operations SKA is an absurd monster that kills the competition in the league, doesn't play by the rules if it doesn't feel like it and probably does interfere with officiating(just the eye-test from each SKA game I whitnessed).
As for the traffic in Moscow it's not that big of an issue. Moscow people do get wherever they want by car if they really want to go by car and Moscow has one of the best public transportation systems in the world. I for my part would never go by car. The problem with the CSKA arena is it is inbetween 2 Metro stations. And yes, Leningradskiy Prospect is jammed at game time so one would have to walk from the Metro to the arena. Probably scares off some lazy a.. casual fans.
But the real problem is CSKA doesn't have a proper fanbase of die hard and regular fans which is mindboggling in a city that big. Usually an arena that small should be full every single game just with the utter die-hards.
Something's foul in the CSKA marketing department. For years... No better times in sight.
And Riga can't seem to find the right recipe with the roster actually. There are other teams with money issues who manage to build something.