Russian football is low level (maybe not low, but average), Russian hockey is world class. The KHL, generally speaking, is the top attended league in Europe (ok technically the Swiss one is better, but just technically) and there are no signs that things can't be even better, even in the near future. Kunlun has really dragged the av. attendance down, at least numbers-wise, there's no doubt that with a good-attended Kunlun the av. attendance can reach very good levels. All this account for a big difference in the attendance picture of hockey vs football. Unfortunately, there is little doubt that the new football stadiums will be half empty (although most of them look fantastic). The same wouldn't apply to hockey arenas. Maybe for CSKA the situation will not be optimal anyways, but let's start with the new arenas in Novosibirsk and Yekaterinburg (this latter coupled to the good budget and teams that they are having lately) and the av. attendance league wise will be absolutely better. At least fans in Novosibirsk and YKG seem to be loyal, in Russia/CIS I think that results have a more dramatic influence on the av. attendance if compared with other countries, for a number of reasons.
I read that Nizhnekamsk is installing Finnish sized ice dimensions next season. Their current boards are to be replaced due old age, the new ones will be flexible NHL style ones, that nicely absorb checks. Hope Riga also one day gets proper hockey boards, not the current concrete walls we have.
This new boards are a condition of the league for the clubs. So, all will have to replace old boards within time.
Russian Football League is ranked #6 in UEFA which is excellent. CSKA are in the 1/4 of Europa this year and the league is just a few pts behind France's Ligue 1 and in front of Holland Portugal Turkey Belgium Ukraine...
This is great, been hoping this would be done both in the KHL and the NHL. Hope the end result is good and more teams follow suit
We'll see at the World Cup how it will go. Anyways, Russian hockey is clearly better-placed in the world map than Russian football.
There's only 4-5 countries that play hockey seriously. And Russian Hockey is nowhere near what is was before. The Russian National Team in soccer at the moment isn't great but the Russian League is solid and competitive.
The arena is expected to host its first event on October 26th (a figure skating show). Here's how it looked on March 7th. Football stadium is nearly ready and is expected to host its first matches in summer.
Does anyone know what's going on here? Is Severstal getting a new arena? Both the Russian and English text are pretty horrible, and I can't find any information about a new arena...
The arena in that picture looks exactly like the Videotron Centre in Quebec City. I think they just Photoshopped some ads onto the building to show it as a concept. Of course I can't read Russian so who knows what the text says...
This isn't about the new arena, it's the opposite - the fact they are fine with an old one and people should focus on actual hockey instead of fancy buildings. #хоккейважнее From what I understood #хоккейважнее became a slogan this season when Severstal was under threat of being kicked out and their argument was/is hockey is what people should look at and not the size of arenas etc. From what I understand Leroy Merlin is close to a French IKEA and they are making an argument that you can build "IKEA building" anywhere while you can't get a good level of hockey everywhere.
Dynamo Moscow will play in Megasport till January 1st. Then they will move to the VTB Arena which looks like this right now. CSKA and Spartak will both play in VTB Ice Palace.
Torpedo also considering new arena project. Lets hope they will build it. Sibir & Avtomobilist will build new arenas as well. CSKA moved to Park Legend. Vityaz, Severstal, Neftekhimik are remaining clubs wit small arenas (under 6000). Lets hope all three are gone within a few years.
Also I posted Yekaterinburg arena renders on the previous page. Last month they presented two new variants. The will pick one out of 3. The interior has remained the same. 12k seats. 1: 2: The initial project:
Park Legend Arena (VTB Ledovy Dvorets) has been bought by Rosneft, the company that owns (among other things) CSKA
Krasnoyarsk Platinum Arena has been completed some time ago and Sokol will start playing there already in August.
Regarding Dynamo Mosocw, I thought their soccer team is bankrupt and at risk of not even playing at this new arena? SKA are really killing it as well aren't they. 20k seats. A true hockey city it seems!
Just googled for Dynamo Moscow. They played Russian Premier League in 2017-18 after one year in 2nd tier. They plan to move to new Lev Yashin Stadium when ready, likely January 2019. The same problem as hockey Dynamo has - the arena is not ready, therefore hockey team needs to start a season in Megasport.
It's not about new, but old arena, but you won't call Avangard Omsk arena too old - it was built in 2007 or 2008. But it looks like there have been cracks found in the arena's foundation, and there is a good chance, the team should found another arena to play. But there is no such an arena in Omsk...