VHL celebrates another successful season

During the traditional pre-playoffs press conference, VHL Chairman German Skorupupov, along with KHL Vice-President Vladimir Shalaev, takes stock of the situation and clarifies some open questions for the future: "I am glad that we have crossed a million spectators. - said Shalaev - The games of the regular season were watched by 1.25 million people, which is 18 percent more than last season. This is a very good performance. We are glad that in many of our games the level isn't inferior to a KHL game. The icing on the season's cake was the "Russian Classics" in Krasnoyarsk, where we set a new attendance record for Russian hockey matches. Recently, I visited many cities, not only in the KHL, but also in VHL. I've seen Interest in hockey is growing very rapidly. In every city people want to build teams, to build arenas. We are really watching an hockey boom"
" The attendance's rise is not a surprise for me" - added Skoropupov. "This season two new arenas - in Penza and Krasnoyarsk - were opened and a third is about to be completed in Togliatti. And in other cities, clubs' board are trying to improve the existing infrastructures."

About the possible entry in KHL of Rubin Tyumen and Donbas Donets'k (both club repeatedly expressed interest to join KHL), Shalaev pours oil on troubled waters: "First we said that Donbas, most likely, will not go in KHL in the next season. Also the club owners announced that they will need two or three years in VHL before to jump in KHL. But if they win the VHL or arrive in the final, the situation could be reviewed. About Tyumen, we said some time ago: "Welcome to the KHL" but on one condition: the construction of a new arena. In the meantime, nothing happens, and the arena is built only in words"

With the new arena, many fans expect the return in KHL of a very traditional team as Lada Togliatti, but also in this case Shalaev is severe: "The return of Lada? This will depend. A criterion for joining the KHL is not only the arena. The first is financial security. If Togliatti is able to convince us that they are secured, that the infrastructure is ready for the KHL and if they assemble a team under the KHL, then we will consider this issue. While there is no prerequisite for this."

Finally, Shalaev comments the rumour that Lokomotiv Yaroslavl may remain in the VHL also the next season. "There is no doubt that Lokomotiv will return to the KHL. We are talking about the creation of another team in Yaroslavl playing in VHL. So very likely VHL will remain in Yaroslavl. And it's great, because all the league clubs who have visited the local "Arena 2000", told that they were shown how to organize any match at the highest - global - level. And even if the club wants to move the team to Rybinsk or Pereyaslavl, nothing will change."

About the presence of another Yaroslav team in VHL, German Skorupupov can speak as Chairman of the organization: "Yes, I can confirm, Lokomotiv is considering this possibility. They are now calculating all the options. It's clear that now for objective reasons, not all the current Lokomotiv players will be able to play in the KHL. At the same time, Yaroslavl has a good juniors department, so keeping a team in VHL should be a perfect idea."

But Skoropupov comments also the possibility of new entries: "We have a lot of candidates. Some team can join us from the KHL, if it can fulfill the requirements of regulations. In addition, three KHL teams (Dinamo Riga and Atlant already declared interest) want to follow the example of Dynamo Moscow, adding their youth team as farm club in VHL. Finally I received documents from the Sary Arka Karaganda and I had a meeting in last days with Buran Voronezh board. They have the arena and recently the city governor has openly declared the intention to join the VHL. Another candidate is Tver. They asked me to give them step by step list of conditions that need to do to get into the league.Until now I've never talked with someone in Vilnius but I know Lithuania, like Latvia, wants to become a VHL member and Krasnodar also. I would like to take all the clubs, but slip all in the calendar is not possible. For the calendar to be balanced, we can have a maximum of 24 clubs. Today we have 23 with Lokomotiv. So there are only two places, and a great contest. And each candidate must meet certain requirements, to do some serious work to get to the short list of candidates.

Skoropupov wants to answer also to Belarussian Hockey Federation President Evgeny Vorsin about his idea to "transfer" all Belarussian clubs in to a VHL conference: "Mr. Vorsin told the press that he has agreed with us about the creation of the VHL Belarusian conference. But it is not true. Belarusians will join the league along with all the candidates. Each club from Belarus may enter in the league on the same basis, but the new conference is only possible if all the teams will play twice with the other conference. However Vorsin says something quite different. He also said the winner of Belarusian conference will meet the winner of the other conference. I've already answered that such arrangements is not possible. Also it is unclear: who will be the winner? We will have a Champion in two championships?"

 

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