KHL to add Czech team, continuing European expansion efforts

by Dirk Hoag on Mar 8, 2010 3:47 PM EST

The KHL just released the following statement:

The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) and Czech club Lion, located in the city of Hradec Kralove, have signed a letter of intent for the club to participate in the KHL's 2010-2011 season. The letter of intent outlines the regulations and stipulations the club must meet to join the KHL, as well as the club's responsibilities in collaborating with the Czech Republic Ice Hockey Federation to gain approval for joining the KHL.

As a next step, the KHL and Lion have agreed on a deadline of April 1, 2010, for the club to provide all financial guarantees to the KHL for the club to join the league next season.

In December 2009, the feasibility of Lion joining the KHL was ratified by the Hradec Kralove city assembly. The ice arena that will host Lion's home matches has a seating capacity 7,700.

This makes for an interesting followup to their announcement in November that the league would add a Swedish team in Stockholm as well.

I am by no means an expert on Russian hockey developments, but based on their disappointing results in Vancouver, I have to think that there will be direction from the very highest levels of the country's leadership to ensure that they fare much, much better in the Sochi Games of 2014. Towards that end, I would expect the KHL to ramp up its efforts to attract more NHL talent to come and play in the KHL to elevate the level of competition in their home league.

By adding teams in Sweden and the Czech Republic, they can extend those efforts beyond Russian nationals, to draw in more European players in general. Hradec Kralove is situated about 70 miles east of Prague, the Czech Republic's capital city. Might that provide an attractive situation for young Czech players who might prefer to ply their trade closer to home?

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Just Another Step

This is just placing the KHL another step closer to a true international hockey league, kind of like the Champions League in soccer. When you broke the news about Sweden hosting a KHL team I thought it was huge news, but largely overlooked by NHL pundits. I wrote about it then, but are they going to start taking notice now?

by Nuuuuugs on Mar 8, 2010 5:20 PM EST reply actions

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by Dirk Hoag on Mar 8, 2010 6:14 PM EST up reply actions

Extremely interesting development

Hockey is unique among sports: it has widespread appeal, as evidenced by seven first-rate national teams, yet it only has one true first-division league: the NHL. Basketball is still a US first, daylight second sport, despite the presence of European leagues. Baseball has MLB and the Japanese League (which is excellent despite American propaganda). Soccer has eight or so truly top leagues throughout Europe and Latin America (and the MLS ain’t bad).

So with all the talent in Russia, Sweden, Finland, Czech, Slovakia, not to mention up-and-comers like Belarus, Latvia, Germany, Austria, Switzerland… it only makes sense to have a top European league that can compete with the NHL for talent. What’s interesting to me is how they have set the KHL up as a true league with franchises in five countries, instead of the typical “Champions League” format, where teams participate in their own domestic league as well as a few pan-European matches. The single elite league format is much more effective in building a high level of competition — compare to Eurobasket, which has hardly made European basketball better.

I’ll be interested in seeing how the KHL progresses. Will they expand to include a second division, with promotion and relegation? Will they construct a minor league like the AHL? Can they survive without petrodollars?

by WestSideDrew on Mar 8, 2010 11:52 PM EST reply actions