[News] KHL to expand to London, England

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

Also, flights to London are substantially cheaper than flights to Moscow or Magnitogorsk, so Backlund can rest a little easier.

Also, what?

[FlameZilla]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Also, what?

Referencing a poster (WhereAreYouChrisOSullivan) who hated Backlund & was adamant he would be in the KHL by like 2014 or something stupid along those lines.

[Barnet Flame]

Originally Posted by TheScorpion

Let's hope they can figure out how to power on the lights this time.

Haha, I was at the game. Got interviewed on HNIC before the game, went home and NASN as they were back then carried the US feed. I never did see myself on TV predicting the Flames would go one better and win the Cup.

As for the expansion into London, it will be a money pit, no way this works. We can't even sustain an EIHL franchise.

[Kipper is King]

London is my favourite city on earth, so I'm excited to see some good hockey there. Also, the nearby Guildford Flames have a logo that looks oddly familiar,

[calgarygeologist]

Originally Posted by blankall

An all Europe league would be really cool. Seems strange to have a league that stretches from England to China though. Travel times would be insane. Although, I guess you could structure the league so that those two teams would rarely play against eachother. You'd also have to have playoff games in a neutral space in the middle somewhere.

A Euro league to rival the NHL would be awesome. Something stretching from Moscow to London with a couple dozen teams could be fun to watch.

[KootenayFlamesFan]

Okay, I deleted a bunch of nonsense. Please just keep the thread on topic. Thanks.

[shogged]

would be cool to see a KHL game in London one day. it would also result in a new source of english KHL news which would be great for everybody

[Alpha_Q]

If the KHL were to grow and be successful, would people be interested in some kind of global championship between the Gagarin Cup winner and Stanley Cup winner? If the NHL lost high end Russian or middling Euro/North American talent to make this a possibility, I'd be alright with it.

[icarus]

Lots of NHL support in the UK. I wish the NHL did some more games there in the past 7.5 years I was living there; if so, I doubt the KHL moves in. I don't know why the NBA and the NFL plays games in the UK every season but the NHL has basically done nothing to promote the league there since the Ducks-Kings match a decade ago.

Will be interesting to see how successful the KHL does. I loved going to the elite league finals every year in Nottingham, lots of rabid hockey fans in the UK.

[LTH]

Avg. attendance for 14-15 season was 6400...I'm sure London can put up those numbers.

A champions league for hockey would be frickin awesome...although the Stanley cup champion would probably win every time (for several years to come)...I'd imagine.

NHL/Bettman wouldn't play ball though =(

[FireGilbert]

It would be great to see hockey take off in the UK. Interestingly it is their most popular indoor sport and there should be enough hockey loving ex-pats in London to get a decent crowd.

Also, anyone saying the KHL has crazy travel has never heard of Super Rugby.

[vennegoor of hesselink]

Originally Posted by sharkov

Imagine a Beijing-London Gagarin cup final. The jet lag factor would just be atrocius

There are 2 KHL teams that are farther east than Beijing in Khabarovsk and Vladivostok.

[Reggie Dunlop]

From an outsider's casual glance, Manchester might be the stronger hockey market (who also happen to have a similar, large-capacity arena).

I would build from strength. Maybe a team or two in Sweden jumping leagues similar to what Jokerit did.

[Cleveland Steam Whistle]

You sound like your from London.

[Rhettzky]

Bet they make the playoffs before the Oilers.

[McG]

how long before bicycle Bruce pops up to tell us that this was his idea all along?

remember during the lockout, how all of those 6,000 capacity rinks would take the NHL out?

[カナダ人です]

Originally Posted by Vulcan

They have 8 arenas sitting less than 6,000. It will be a while before they'll be considered major league.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o..._League_arenas

European leagues tend to have less parity than North American ones. The top soccer league in Spain, La Liga, is arguably the best in the world; yet in the same league as teams with 80,000+ seat stadiums was a team with a stadium that seated 6,300. Another team had a 14k stadium...

[Hockey Fan #751]

I'm starting to get the same vibe as when the CFL decided to expand to the U.S. Don't think it'll go really well in either London or China.

Also, London to China is a 10-12 hour flight. Hope they don't have to play each other in the finals!

I wonder if this will cause the NHL to restart their European series where they open the season with some games in Europe? Or maybe they just see this like I do, a complete non-factor and probably likely to fail.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by LTH

Avg. attendance for 14-15 season was 6400...I'm sure London can put up those numbers.

A champions league for hockey would be frickin awesome...although the Stanley cup champion would probably win every time (for several years to come)...I'd imagine.

NHL/Bettman wouldn't play ball though =(

The NHL wouldn't play ball because the players largely would want nothing to do with it. The summer is short enough as it is when you win the cup, never mind taking another 2-3 weeks to play some silly exhibition in Europe.

[sureLoss]

Speaking of KHL expansion. The Beijing team seems to be a disaster so far:

@jhiitela: You think some NHL teams are in trouble with their low attendance? Official number for KHL Chinese team: 721 spectators.

@jhiitela: I think the lowest number this year for Kunlun Red Star is 520. They're temporarily playing in Shanghai, population 25 MILLION.