KHL: It's official - HC MVD an Dynamo merged

[MM213]

New team will be named OHC Dynamo with all management and most of players coming from HC MVD.

Meet you new OHC Dynamo president

original article (in Russian)

 

[dash]

Almost has a young Marc Crawford smugness about him...I hate it already ;-)

 

[BOSSMANPC]

I don't see how that league can make it. I've seen some clips on You Tube of some games and they seem to play in small arenas. Where do they get the money to pay some of their very over paid players?

 

[jstewismybastardson]

I don't see how that league can make it. I've seen some clips on You Tube of some games and they seem to play in small arenas. Where do they get the money to pay some of their very over paid players?

from what ive heard and read (MM can correct me) this is not a gate driven league. Its all about the tv contract and sponsorship dollars (which have disappeared)

I heard the puck daddy blog russian correspondent last saturday on the radio talk about how the KHL isnt a professional league, its a social experiment and the teams are heavily subsidized.

He also predicted that their would be a merger and predicted failure pointing out that a historic team in the russian soccer/football league did the same thing and both the bankrupt team and the team that it merged with went belly up (fill in the missing points here MM)

 

[jstewismybastardson]

found a quote from the writer in a tsn story

"Hockey in Russia is not business but is more of a social program," explained Chesnokov. "People pay between $5 and $20 to see a game. The bulk of the money comes from sponsorships. And Dynamo's sponsors decided not to invest in the team anymore. Dynamo's revenues cannot sustain the expenses the team has. As strange as it sounds, the oldest club in Russia does not even have its own arena."

 

[MM213]

from what ive heard and read (MM can correct me) this is not a gate driven league. Its all about the tv contract and sponsorship dollars (which have disappeared)

I heard the puck daddy blog russian correspondent last saturday on the radio talk about how the KHL isnt a professional league, its a social experiment and the teams are heavily subsidized.

He also predicted that their would be a merger and predicted failure pointing out that a historic team in the russian soccer/football league did the same thing and both the bankrupt team and the team that it merged with went belly up (fill in the missing points here MM)

Thanks for asking for my opinion on the subject.

You got it right - almoust all major sport teams in Russia (hockey, soccer, basketball) heavily rely on sponsorship money and proceeds from media contracts and advertisement.

Especially in hockey - where there is not much revenue coming from selling tickets (arenas are small and tickets are cheap) and star players (unlike in soccer, where big teams like CSKA, Spartak and Zenit managed to make significant money on selling homegrown talents)

Losing a general sponsor almoust inevitably means team bankruptcy. That's what happened to FC Moscow (soccer team you are referring to) and HC Dynamo. HC Lada (another KHL team that went bankrupt last season) was sponsored by local government, which ran out of money.

However, cases like these are rare. Most teams have multi-year contracts with sponsors and the worst for Russian economy seems to be behind. There is a number of teams waiting to join KHL (including Scandinavian and Czech/Slovak teams) and NHL/KHL relations seem to improve significantly.

Couple facts about Chesnokov (the guy on puckdaddy blog):
- he is a longtime Dynamo fan and seems to be bitter about what happened to his team
- he is also a major (MD-size) OV slurper
I would trust his opinions with a grain of salt.
I'm sure he is a nice guy. But again, MD must be a nice guy too when he doesn't talk about hockey.

 

[Automattic]

"Welcome back Jiri, you dumbass." (in my best Red Foreman voice)

 

[BostonAJ]

Sad day for hockey.

Sidenote - If the KHL is going thru financial struggles, are the rumors of Kovy heading back home for major dollars realistic?