GDT: October 15 | Slovan Bratislava - Lev Prague

[ult]

KHL 2013/2014 Regular Season

October 15 Game Day

Highlights:
KHL.RU; Youtube.com

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Slovan Bratislava vs Lev Prague

October 15, 2013
21:00 MSK | 19:00 CET

Slovnaft Arena (10450), Bratislava

Streams:
KHL.RU; OnHockey.TV; LiveTV.ru​

Click to read more...

 

[penepi]

3-2, I feel it.

 

[Faterson]

Let's continue that nice tradition of Slovan beating Lev despite lower budget, and with Lev cast-aways in the line-up.

 

[Sokil]

subway series!

 

[FreshFruit]

I was shocked to find out that Slovnaft arena was opened in 1940. With this newest reconstruction arena is beautiful. I wouldn't give it more than 10 years.

About the game.
Slovan needs points so sry Lev but Slovakia is taking this one.

 

[penepi]

I was shocked to find out that Slovnaft arena was opened in 1940. With this newest reconstruction arena is beautiful. I wouldn't give it more than 10 years.

About the game.
Slovan needs points so sry Lev but Slovakia is taking this one.

Here we go.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Samsung_Aréna_z_druhej_strany.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Slovan_samsung_arena_interier_fotka.JPG

 

[Faterson]

They virtually tore it down and built a new one. But it's too small. (More people could go there in the old times.)

 

[penepi]

Faterson would rather have 25,000 arena with 12,000 avg att than 10,100 arena as well as avg att.

 

[Faterson]

Absolutely. But let's not exaggerate: a 21k arena would be OK, with the worse, far-away seats sold at €5 or less. I guarantee you most games would sell out just like they do now, despite Slovan being at the bottom of the (West) standings. And when Slovan was playing well, the demand was 3 times the capacity of the current small arena.

 

[penepi]

Absolutely. But let's not exaggerate: a 21k arena would be OK, with the worse, far-away seats sold at €5 or less. I guarantee you most games would sell out just like they do now, despite Slovan being at the bottom of the (West) standings. And when Slovan was playing well, the demand was 3 times the capacity of the current small arena.

Keep dreaming, buddy. A ticket for f-king basketball game on Inter cost 5€. You want to tell me that KHL game is worthy of the same price?
1. Boom of the first season is gone;
2. Bad results can always happen and it'd be hazard with such big arena;
3. Tickets' prices can't be like 5€ when the club can earn much more with 15-20€ tickets and 10k arena.
And after all, I do not like those 2 or even 3-floored arenas -- awful. And always when I see our stadium it's a nice view - a real "kotol".

Games against Magnitka & Kazan - just 9,700 spectators. I am telling you. You can't do whatever you want, we are not Montreal, therefore, you would not sell out 21k arena when having bad results. A demand was 3 times so big as the capacity of the arena is, just against Dynamo (Ovechkin) and Lev (of course), and then maybe 2 times against CSKA (Staňa, Radulov) and all games since vs. Lokomotiv one. However, that is only one half of the season.

 

[Hemsky001]

Let's continue that nice tradition of Slovan beating Lev despite lower budget, and with Lev cast-aways in the line-up.

If one season becomes a tradition for you, then you're out of mind. Sorry, but this time Lev will tear them apart.

 

[Faterson]

Of course Bratislava can be like Montreal.

And I don't know what you mean with those faulty calculations... If you have 10k more seats and sell them for €5 each, you earn €50k per game more than now, even if the prices for the existing 10k seats were kept as inflated as they are today.

And leave it up to others if they wish to pay those €5 for "bad" seats or not. No one in Montreal or Chicago or, for that matter, Madrid or Barcelona (plus/minus 100k football arenas with "very bad seats"), is complaining. I'm confident Bratislava would regularly sell out the 21k arena for hockey games if Slovan plays well and the price is right. The arena is almost always sold out even today with the inflated prices and Slovan last in the table, after all.

I'm pretty sure if the KHL is a long-term project for Slovan, Slovan will move away from the current small arena to a new, bigger one, sooner or later.

 

[swosh]

Birds (Slovan) vs cats (Lev)

 

[Faterson]

If one season becomes a tradition for you, then you're out of mind. Sorry, but this time Lev will tear them apart.

That's what you were saying last year, too... and then got destroyed on your home ice twice.

 

[penepi]

Swosh, yes very nice "lions".

Hemsky, if we could beat Magnitka, Ufa, Ak Bars - just this season - I don't see any reason why couldn't we beat weaker Lev again.

 

[Faterson]

Especially with so many Lev cast-aways and/or Czech players (6) in Slovan's line-up who will especially wish to excel against Lev.

 

[loppa*]

I don't know why but I just like the arena itself, on the outside at least.

When we look at games that sell out in North America that have some 20,000 seats... we need to keep in mind that those are in places that have multimillion populations. And high incomes on top. Bratislava on the other hand has about 500,000. It's quite different, I'd say. Now... lets see how things go. They're still new in the league, and lets see if they end up selling out most of their games in the next few years.
Quick question though - is it at all possible to expand the capacity of the current arena?

 

[Faterson]

A city of half a million is definitely capable of filling a 20+k hockey arena if the interest is there and if the ticket price is right. The current Slovan management seems to be primarily interested in attracting "middle-class" fans instead of (except for a small fan sector) "traditional blue-collar/teenage" hockey fans who simply can't afford to pay €16-20 per game. Slovan now plays 5 home games in 10 days -- a regular hockey fan can't invest €80+ into that, let alone a family.

is it at all possible to expand the capacity of the current arena?

Nope, it's completely locked in from all sides and crammed into the available space from the 1940s. There's not a single parking place directly at the arena, either. The new arena will need to be built elsewhere (as was the original proposal prior to the 2011 World Championships), perhaps on the other bank of the River Danube or close to the airport, that is: no longer as close to city center as it is now.

 

[jaco]

Birds (Slovan) vs cats (Lev)

If the birds are angry
http://www.roastbrief.com.mx/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Angry-BirdsJPG.jpg
they can blow up the pigs..... sorry, cats

 

[Faterson]

Big game in terms of standings, especially if it's going to be a 3-point win.

If Lev wins with 3 points, they will jump to 3rd place in the West, which would likely resemble their pre-season goal.

If Slovan wins with 3 points, they will move up to 12th place, but more importantly, only 4 points within the 8th play-off spot -- that would be the first time this season that they would be within a realistic shot at a play-off spot.

So even disregarding the traditional Czech vs. Slovak rivalry, the motivation for both sides in this game should be top-notch. For the crowd, too: the game has been sold out for a few days now, rather unusual for Slovan this season. (Most games so far have only sold out at the last moment.)

Slovan has now won 5 of their 6 last games. Can they make it 6 wins out of 7 games tonight? It almost sounds too good to be true, but I hope it can be done.

 

[jaco]

Slovan has now won 5 of their 6 last games. Can they make it 6 wins out of 7 games tonight? It almost sounds too good to be true, but I hope it can be done.

Their last performances make me be "cautiously optimistic"....

 

[Faterson]

Main difference tonight, I think (or hope): for Lev players, it will be their job to play well. For Slovan players, it should be job + passion because of the enormous crowd support.

 

[penepi]

Faterson, you can't think that within 10 years the interest will be the same as it is now. We would be able to sell out 20k arena for 3 years at best. That is absolutely normal, but enough of this.
Let's concentrate on today's big match. I agree with you. With 1:3 H2H and paper-stronger roster, Lev is under bigger pressure tonight, I think and hope. And I do also hope the sky-blue heart is going to win tonight.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-a-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/1383726_10152011507293974_96371275_n.jpg

Our first night with new jerseys.

 

[Faterson]

Finally sky-blue jerseys! Much better than the usual ones. I wish these could remain permanent. The ugly bird is a 1990s invention.

penepe, I believe the interest in the KHL will be even higher in 10 years from today, which is why we need a bigger arena.

 

[jaco]

Finally sky-blue jerseys! Much better than the usual ones. I wish these could remain permanent. The ugly bird is a 1990s invention.

penepe, I believe the interest in the KHL will be even higher in 10 years from today, which is why we need a bigger arena.

I'm sorry to contradict you, but this "ugly bird" is the best hockey-logo I can think of... On the other hand, I'm a neophyte to "Slovanism" and therefore accept your point of view.