Zoltán Kovács the secretary general of the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation and Attila Nagy the General Manager of the senior national team visited one of the two host cities of this year's world championships.
“The city is an ideal place to host a world championships like this, unlike Moscow, this is city is not as congested with traffic and people, the city has a great vibe. The city is similar to Krakow, of course it is a lot larger as well. This city is not only great to go see hockey games but also great to be a tourist in. The prices in the city are not as steep as one might think with the decline of the ruble in recent years, the use of public transportation is also cheaper than in Budapest.” said Zoltán Kovács. Attila Nagy agreed with this, “‘I was very afraid that I won’t really know what's going on since they only speak Russian, however I had a very positive experience, just about everyone that we met with spoke English, you can pay with credit card and bank card everywhere and the prices were similar to what you would find in Budapest. They have a great metro system that connects the city and the price of a metro ticket is 35 rubles with is about 140 HUF and that includes transfers as well.”
“When we started to take care of our visas the the Russian consulate visited the HIHF and we also went to the consulate office as well to work out a way to have the team and the fans have an easier way of acquiring visas.” said Nagy. The Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation is working together with the Russian Consulate to have the best way to gain the visa and to have the easiest way to travel. The IIHF will be sending information in the middle of the month to ease this process.
The Hungarians also met with the company that is dealing with selling the tickets. Based on the most recent information 1,500 tickets have been set aside for a Hungarian sector. Originally there was supposed to by tickets in three price ranges however for the arena in St.Petersburg there are only 30 tickets that fall into the 3rd price range that would be the most price friendly for Hungarians.
The general manager and the secretary general both gave a behind the scenes look at what the national team is expected to see and experience.
“The arena has just gone through a complete renovation and they really paid attention to what a hockey team may need. The arena has two practice rinks aside form the main sheet of ice.” said Nagy, Kovács was able to provide exact numbers. “Aside from the 6000 person arena the practice rinks have stands that hold 500-600 people where the local MHL team has their games, there are two more practices rink, one of which has no stands and is used exclusively for figure skating.”
It was pretty evident that they will be paying attention to the diet and the nutrition of the players as everything will be prepared according to what the IIHF regulations. The hotel staff looks to be great as well, as they will be trying to take care of everything that the players may need. There will be a gym and a wellness center for the players with a separate meeting room for the staff as well. For the length of their stay the national team will have bus, mini van and an equipment truck for their use.” said Zoltán Kovács.