Is the KHL an established league?

[stars33]

I believe all playoffs game from the 1st round were sellouts or near sellouts. The atomsphere at games were filled with passionate fans.

The expansion of Beijing next season along with interest coming from many different countries.

CSKA, Torpedo, and Automobilist all close to getting new modern arenas.

The games are shown in the US with very good tv presentation. Arenas have proper lighting and I believe there is all but a few teams show there games in HD.

Excellent website with highlights and updated stats.

I do not look at the KHL as a NHL competitor. I feel with the games on in the daytime and played on the other side of the world. It is a welcome edition to the hockey world. I consider myself a fan.

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[stars33]

What I am saying is the league should get some respect from North American hockey fans.

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

I like the KHL. I don't follow it closely, I just watch highlights from Magnitogorsk to see Semin. Last year, I watched Panarin and Kovalchuk's highlights for SKA, along with a few games featuring Radulov with CSKA.

 

[Finnpin]

Some critique too.

If they want more western teams they should stop being biased for the russian teams. Many refs are still dolls for the puppet masters and head office makes very odd decisions.

Website is a mess with mixed english and russian and the videos dont even work in all countries if they happen to have tv deal in that current country. You cant even watch short videos in the website.

KHL international iOS app used to be called KHL, now it's written cyrillic KXN.

Hockey level is good though and the league has amazing individuals with talents.

 

[hansomreiste]

I believe all playoffs game from the 1st round were sellouts or near sellouts. The atomsphere at games were filled with passionate fans.

The expansion of Beijing next season along with interest coming from many different countries.

CSKA, Torpedo, and Automobilist all close to getting new modern arenas.

The games are shown in the US with very good tv presentation. Arenas have proper lighting and I believe there is all but a few teams show there games in HD.

Excellent website with highlights and updated stats.

I do not look at the KHL as a NHL competitor. I feel with the games on in the daytime and played on the other side of the world. It is a welcome edition to the hockey world. I consider myself a fan.

Are there any sources for that? There has been talks, even in this forum, but I saw nothing concrete.

KHL is obviously getting better day by day but there is still a long way to go if we are to talk about an established league. First of all, refereeing must improve in general. Not only Jokerit but every team suffers from weird decisions from time to time. Secondly, the rules have to be set properly. When you know that there is a salary cap but it does nothing, you don't like that. Maybe this is not a sign of an established league, or let's say, it's a minor detail; but I strongly believe there should be PLAY-OFF signs on ice during post-season. Having said that, I also believe KHL should get better about advertising. Some videos released by clubs or KHL themselves are just too "funny" to make people excited or hyped.

Sadly, as a huge KHL fan, I do not believe this league as we know it will last long unless the financial crisis and the war in Donbass & Syria is over. We all know this league runs on oligarch money completely; there is no profit generated by fans or any person buying stuff. When the money runs out, KHL will also fall. I hope this never happens, but you simply cannot have an "established league" which totally depends on rich guys' money.

 

[Killion]

Sadly, as a huge KHL fan, I do not believe this league as we know it will last long unless the financial crisis and the war in Donbass & Syria is over. We all know this league runs on oligarch money completely; there is no profit generated by fans or any person buying stuff. When the money runs out, KHL will also fall. I hope this never happens, but you simply cannot have an "established league" which totally depends on rich guys' money.

all very true unfortunately. Terrific brand of hockey but for now, a hobby, a plaything, soft diplomacy for Putin & Friends. It needs to be professionalized, needs to grow up, become practicable. The current business model is untenable.

 

[Exarz]

Although the league has come a long way, it has a long road ahead. They need to get more bilingual, work out better TV deals, improve the infrastructure, have a working salary cap, either remove the foreign restrictions completely or make all KHL nation players count as domestic players, get better referees and lower the amount of teams/put the "unwanted" teams in a farm league and continue the expansion westwards (this farm league should be the one that contributes with depth, as the KHL is suppose to be a top league), remove the ridiculous geographical restrictions on YouTube and KHL TV (why on Earth can't we even watch highlights? It's stupid!) etc.

 

[Acallabeth]

I do not believe this league as we know it will last long unless the financial crisis and the war in Donbass & Syria is over. We all know this league runs on oligarch money completely; there is no profit generated by fans or any person buying stuff. When the money runs out, KHL will also fall. I hope this never happens, but you simply cannot have an "established league" which totally depends on rich guys' money.

The Chinese are already loading railway wagons of money though

I definitely think the KHL is an estabilished league already. Then again, it obviously doesn't mean that the KHL shouldn't plow ground to become better and more stable. They obviously need to improve parity, work with the fans better, have open payrolls and a hard salary cap with no exceptions.

 

[Killion]

The Chinese are already loading railway wagons of money though

I definitely think the KHL is an estabilished league already. Then again, it obviously doesn't mean that the KHL shouldn't plow ground to become better and more stable. They obviously need to improve parity, work with the fans better, have open payrolls and a hard salary cap with no exceptions.

Yes, absolutely, agree. Pragmatism so far absent from the equation. All very decadent really and in fact, that an endearing quality of the Russian oligarchy, at least from my perspective. I appreciate that.... but.... they do need to evolve, concern themselves with the customers, the fans... accessibility via broadcast & new media etc. Im seriously hoping they can pull it off. I want them to succeed, live long & prosper.

 

[stars33]

Great discussion.

Yes, I do agree the KHL needs to remove foreign limit rule. This rule drive up cost of players. Because it limits supply.

I was not aware of fans in some countries can not access highlights. I am in the US and we have highlights and two games a week on tv.

And finally, they need to work with western Europe. Either champions league or expansion.

As far as geopolitics, that is not in Cherynesko hands. I feel he had done a fine job.

 

[kabidjan18]

Great discussion.

Yes, I do agree the KHL needs to remove foreign limit rule. This rule drive up cost of players. Because it limits supply.

I was not aware of fans in some countries can not access highlights. I am in the US and we have highlights and two games a week on tv.

And finally, they need to work with western Europe. Either champions league or expansion.

As far as geopolitics, that is not in Cherynesko hands. I feel he had done a fine job.

Especially if you in Texas...what tv are you talking about...

There's ESPN, Fox sports, NBC sports and CBS sports networks...none of them carry the KHL, only NBC really carries the NHL...

 

[joshyhockey26]

khl has a bit to go to really make an impact in the states but there are fans of it here.teams get brought up but the time difference and lackluster English online coverage are what kill it.it is a bit funny,as a season ticket holder for the blues I see tarasenkos khl jerseys atleast once every home game.

 

[Jussi]

Some critique too.

If they want more western teams they should stop being biased for the russian teams. Many refs are still dolls for the puppet masters and head office makes very odd decisions.

Website is a mess with mixed english and russian and the videos dont even work in all countries if they happen to have tv deal in that current country. You cant even watch short videos in the website.

KHL international iOS app used to be called KHL, now it's written cyrillic KXN.

Hockey level is good though and the league has amazing individuals with talents.

The column by Pekka Jalonen in Iltalehti last week was rather scathing and revealing about the refereeing system in KHL.

 

[vorky]

Yes, KHL has many things to do, I am positive...

refs - maybe you dont know, but one of first decisions of Chernyshenko was to reform/develop refs. Academy of refs was established, its role is to teach/develop the refs. As we know, nothing can be done within a day, we have to wait....

I recommend you to read interview of Dobrokhvalov, KHL-Marketing General Director. I translated the key notes in previous thread, so will reply here. KHL is aware of a fact that marketing must be developed.

key notes:

- KHL keeps all sponsorship money, 80% of tv money is shared with clubs.
- KHL TV money is several millions euro. Making international signal for abroad is too expensive for us. KHL pays for making signal for abroad in foreign currency. What does it mean?
- KHL is changing strategy -our main income should be tv money not sponsorship deals. Foreign leagues revenues are 60-70% (tv money), 20-30% (sponsorship deals), #KHL´s 70-80% (sponsorship). We want to change it.
- KHL has 1,6 millions fans on social media, over 62% grow for last 9 months (compared to first 6 seasons).
- Chinese tv companies are willing to pay several millions USD for #KHL rights.
- We want chinese club in next #KHL season.
- Hoping for singing deal with one more int company at the end of Jan. (CocaCola)
- KHL is negotiating with one car producer.
- 8 #KHL clubs left which are without HD.

You know that KHL has started to share TV revenues with clubs since last season (114 millions rubles). The sum will double in this season. We have introduced/made special marketing programs for clubs. If a club is not able to sell its marketing space, the league will be ready to buy out this marketing space for league´s sponsors and share revenues with the club. And vice versa, the league tries with its partners to find the regions or cities which could be interesting for our partners to invest there.

Sergei Dobrokhvalov
KHL-Marketing General Director

 

[Jussi]

refs - maybe you dont know, but one of first decisions of Chernyshenko was to reform/develop refs. Academy of refs was established, its role is to teach/develop the refs. As we know, nothing can be done within a day, we have to wait....

Completely irrelevant when the refs are being paid by tier and that tier is decided by how much the club bosses are pleased with them. In short, if you don't call the games as the club bosses want you to, you'll get paid less. This was all revealed in the column by Jalonen.

 

[Atas2000]

Some critique too.

If they want more western teams they should stop being biased for the russian teams. Many refs are still dolls for the puppet masters and head office makes very odd decisions.

Website is a mess with mixed english and russian and the videos dont even work in all countries if they happen to have tv deal in that current country. You cant even watch short videos in the website.

KHL international iOS app used to be called KHL, now it's written cyrillic KXN.

Hockey level is good though and the league has amazing individuals with talents.

The Finns shouldn't look for the Westerlund in them too much(his whining after every game is ahilarious addition to the KHL indeed). The whole idea of bias towards russian teams is so laughable. The league wants to expand, right? If anything, they are interested to be biased towards the foreign teams to keep them in the league and keep the fans interested. there is also evidence that the league actually does help foreign teams. Jokerit's schedule for example in the first year for example was, let's say very neat.

Btw Torpedo has beaten the cup favorite CSKA in the first game of series. Jokerit lost to a good team. Live with it.

The website got better, while there is a lot of room for improvement.

Can't comment on the iOs thing. I despise everything with an Apple on it.

 

[hansomreiste]

One thing I want to add is the quality of music played in arenas. This may not be something significant but I enjoy the music in almost all arenas. It's awesome. People would like to believe Russians hate USA and everything related to it, and this is actually true to some degree, but it's not a blind hate; because you can hear English songs of American bands here and there all the time. Two or three years ago, I even heard Ich Tu Dir Weh of Rammstein at Arena Metallurg. It was a huge and amazing surprise for me, to be honest. Aside from that, many great songs posing musical & artistic value are always there. This is a great plus in my opinion for the entertainment part of the league.

No offense to NHL fans and Americans but your arenas are full of "Go X go" chants with "consumable" cheap songs. It makes me wanna sleep instead of motivating and making excited to keep going. At the same time, Torpedo plays Resurrection when the lights are off. As I said, this may not be an important aspect for a regular KHL fan or someone who watches only his/her team's games; but to me, this matters. The atmosphere in arena, enriched with cool songs that are on point, is awesome and this is what makes the game even more beautiful.

By the way, I am not saying the music is good because I enjoy metal or industrial music. It's just these guys know what and when to play. Which sounds cooler: playing Katy Perry in Pittsburgh or playing Rammstein in Magnitogorsk?

Though there is something more important: the Avangard lady. I do not know whose idea she was but... It's not good. We are even worse than Sibir clap clap clap. We score a goal and then this lady announces it as though it was not a hockey game but hospital: Shaybu zabrosyl, nomer bla bla, player name. How exciting! Then this "OMSKIY - AVANGARD!" guy follows. Remove this weird and funny stuff from Arena Omsk and the league quality will soar drastically.

 

[Finnpin]

The whole idea of bias towards russian teams is so laughable.

Keep on living in that bubble of yours where you think all teams are equal. Go watch more games.

 

[Atas2000]

One thing I want to add is the quality of music played in arenas. This may not be something significant but I enjoy the music in almost all arenas. It's awesome. People would like to believe Russians hate USA and everything related to it, and this is actually true to some degree, but it's not a blind hate; because you can hear English songs of American bands here and there all the time. Two or three years ago, I even heard Ich Tu Dir Weh of Rammstein at Arena Metallurg. It was a huge and amazing surprise for me, to be honest. Aside from that, many great songs posing musical & artistic value are always there. This is a great plus in my opinion for the entertainment part of the league.

No offense to NHL fans and Americans but your arenas are full of "Go X go" chants with "consumable" cheap songs. It makes me wanna sleep instead of motivating and making excited to keep going. At the same time, Torpedo plays Resurrection when the lights are off. As I said, this may not be an important aspect for a regular KHL fan or someone who watches only his/her team's games; but to me, this matters. The atmosphere in arena, enriched with cool songs that are on point, is awesome and this is what makes the game even more beautiful.

By the way, I am not saying the music is good because I enjoy metal or industrial music. It's just these guys know what and when to play. Which sounds cooler: playing Katy Perry in Pittsburgh or playing Rammstein in Magnitogorsk?

Though there is something more important: the Avangard lady. I do not know whose idea she was but... It's not good. We are even worse than Sibir clap clap clap. We score a goal and then this lady announces it as though it was not a hockey game but hospital: Shaybu zabrosyl, nomer bla bla, player name. How exciting! Then this "OMSKIY - AVANGARD!" guy follows. Remove this weird and funny stuff from Arena Omsk and the league quality will soar drastically.

Rammstein is more popular in Russia than it is in Germany. Germans have less ears for good poetry and less eyes for real men nowadays it seems. And the whole thing about Russians hate America or Americans is just a pile a BS and I think you know who invents those stories. There is politics. And Russians have every reason to hate american politics. But his has zero bearing on their attitude towards american music, movies whatsoever.

I won't comment on team's traditions though. People have the right to be weird in their own way, whether in Omsk or elsewhere

 

[Atas2000]

Keep on living in that bubble of yours where you think all teams are equal. Go watch more games.

Who is in a bubble here? Yeah, the ZOG is responsible for everything

 

[Salavat Yulaev]

Who is in a bubble here? Yeah, the ZOG is responsible for everything

You probably missed it but some guys on Jokerit thread absolutely seriously wrote that it was Putin. Of course they had such an irrefutable proof like "everybody knows it"

 

[Acallabeth]

You probably missed it but some guys on Jokerit thread absolutely seriously wrote that it was Putin. Of course they had such an irrefutable proof like "everybody knows it"

It reminds me of a "trustworthy source reporting" that Putin personally suggested Ovechkin, Malkin and Datsyuk $30M each to go to the KHL. Obviously "The Darkest One" isn't above fixing an outcome of KHL Western Conference quarterfinals.

Though there is something more important: the Avangard lady. I do not know whose idea she was but... It's not good. We are even worse than Sibir clap clap clap. We score a goal and then this lady announces it as though it was not a hockey game but hospital: Shaybu zabrosyl, nomer bla bla, player name. How exciting! Then this "OMSKIY - AVANGARD!" guy follows. Remove this weird and funny stuff from Arena Omsk and the league quality will soar drastically.

No need to be ridiculous, "Si-bir! clap-clap-clap" is even worse than the atmosphere in the Caps arena, when a "Let's go Caaaps!" chant is only started after some veteran fans instigates it, or an organist plays the rhytm. I used to think that "Одна жизнь! - Одна любовь!" roller between the Dynamo announcer and fans was cringeworthy, but I don't mind it now.

Avangard lady (aka Nadezhda Demicheva) may not be the best dictor ever, but far from the worst as well. She only sounds like an emotionless coldhearted android when an opposing team scores, and she was announcing for Avangard before you were born! (it's actually true). You'd do better by getting rid of that Modern Talking cover instead

Photo of Nadezhda Viktorovna for you to throw darts:

 

[SoundAndFury]

Having seen my fair share of Soviet-era broads this is exactly how I would have imagined her Classic. She reminds me of the recording which tells you the names of bus stops in the public transport ~20 years ago.

 

[hansomreiste]

It reminds me of a "trustworthy source reporting" that Putin personally suggested Ovechkin, Malkin and Datsyuk $30M each to go to the KHL. Obviously "The Darkest One" isn't above fixing an outcome of KHL Western Conference quarterfinals.


No need to be ridiculous, "Si-bir! clap-clap-clap" is even worse than the atmosphere in the Caps arena, when a "Let's go Caaaps!" chant is only started after some veteran fans instigates it, or an organist plays the rhytm. I used to think that "Одна жизнь! - Одна любовь!" roller between the Dynamo announcer and fans was cringeworthy, but I don't mind it now.

Avangard lady (aka Nadezhda Demicheva) may not be the best dictor ever, but far from the worst as well. She only sounds like an emotionless coldhearted android when an opposing team scores, and she was announcing for Avangard before you were born! (it's actually true). You'd do better by getting rid of that Modern Talking cover instead

Photo of Nadezhda Viktorovna for you to throw darts:

She sounds like a very young lady to me, I am impressed. And no, I will not throw darts because it's the concept I hate, not this particular lady. Anyways, even if I tried throwing darts at this "classical" Soviet woman as SoundAndFury duly calls, she would probably stick them up my *** so no.

 

[Yakushev72]

Are there any sources for that? There has been talks, even in this forum, but I saw nothing concrete.

KHL is obviously getting better day by day but there is still a long way to go if we are to talk about an established league. First of all, refereeing must improve in general. Not only Jokerit but every team suffers from weird decisions from time to time. Secondly, the rules have to be set properly. When you know that there is a salary cap but it does nothing, you don't like that. Maybe this is not a sign of an established league, or let's say, it's a minor detail; but I strongly believe there should be PLAY-OFF signs on ice during post-season. Having said that, I also believe KHL should get better about advertising. Some videos released by clubs or KHL themselves are just too "funny" to make people excited or hyped.

Sadly, as a huge KHL fan, I do not believe this league as we know it will last long unless the financial crisis and the war in Donbass & Syria is over. We all know this league runs on oligarch money completely; there is no profit generated by fans or any person buying stuff. When the money runs out, KHL will also fall. I hope this never happens, but you simply cannot have an "established league" which totally depends on rich guys' money.

Here is encouraging news - the most financially successful hockey league in the World is also run by oligarchs. I looked up to see who was the owner of the Dallas Stars, and guess what I found: "Tom Gagliardi, Canadian business executive and billionaire." Looks like the KHL is following the correct corporate model!