I saw you write something along the lines of "Severstal, Vitjaz and Neftekhimik are gone", I'm paraphrasing a bit but you get the point. Is this something that is all but confirmed or is your personal feeling of which teams the league phase out? And will they all be gone by the end of this season? (and will they aswell end up in the VHL, which then would have 32 teams (closed league aswell?)
Finally how worried should we be about Slovan and Minsk, are there a risk that they will be gone after their subpar seasons?
Again, a lot of questions I know, but I find the topic really interesting and you seem to have more knowledge about the KHL than most people, cheers!
There is a couple of good questions, I will try to reply.
"Severstal, Neftekhimik & Vityaz are gone" is my opinion, nothing confirmed. Russian media are full of "that is the last Severstal´s season" recently. Why? Poor results, very poor attendance, chaos in the front-office. I believe you heard about Eronko, he mentioned in one show that Neftekhimik is close to be gone. We will see.
Vityaz is a special case, but I do not see this team in the KHL long term.
One team will leave the KHL after the current season. That is 100%, Chernyshenko said it many times, but he is not only one who decides. There might be a scenario that 2 teams will be gone. It depends on if a new team joins. The KHL Board of Directors is an only entity to decide. The formal decision will be done during play-offs.
The KHL wants to have 24 teams as an ideal scenario.
The excluded KHL teams need to apply to the VHL. A formality. They do not go to the VHL per se like it happens in European soccer leagues. The VHL can have less or more teams. There are examples every off-season that a team do not continue dues to financial situation or Chinese clubs joining. You never know how many teams the VHL will have next season. Yes, the VHL is closed league.
I would say Mink is OK. The biggest KHL arena is in Minsk, financing is there. The club is average, but should not worry.
Slovan is another case. The KHL needs Slovan due to its locality in Central Europe. On the other hand, Slovan is a weak team due to financial instability. I hope all problems will be fixed. Slovan´s owner & CEO are suspended by the league right now. That is a big problem for the club. Admiral has two suspended officials as well, one of them left the club already, another is on vacation, a new guy came (the President of the club) because Admiral did not have a person who can communicate with the league on behalf of the club.
