On February 9th the Hungarian national team will be taking on Spartak Moskva in the László Papp Budapest Sports Arena where later in the week Hungary will be playing an Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
On April 25th in Krakow it was decided that the 2015-16 season will be great, but it can always get better. Three months before the world championships and only days before the Olympic Qualifiers the Hungarian national team will play KHL club Spartak Moskva in Budapest
The deal is only missing the final signature, according to Tibor Lak, representing the László Papp Sports Aréna, Zoltán Kovács of the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation and Georgi Kobielski vice president of the KHL said that this was just a formality.This and some other thoughts were covered at the press event for the gala match.
“A couple of years back we were able to bring a Canadian team to Budapest and the event was a success, we were talking to the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation and thought that we need to do more events like this since the name of the facility is Sports Arena. The HIHF got in touch with the KHL and now here we are. We are still working on the financial and technical aspects but everything should be finalized in the next few weeks.” Tibor Lak. Zoltán Kovács continued with “We first would like to thank the Sports Arena for being so helpful, Mr Kobielski was still in Bratislava yesterday visiting Slovan and before that he was in Zagreb, on our way in from SLovakia we talked about how would could bring the KHL closer. This game will be a great measuring stick for our national team, we will be able to see how we match up against A-Pool countries. Coming to Budapest with Spartak will be Alexei Zhamnov and Valeri Kamenski”
Georgi Kobielski who was the chairman of the skiing events at the 2014 Sochi WInter Games, answered all of the questions that were asked of him.
How strong is Spartak?
They will make the KHL playoffs, they have a lot of young players on the roster since they picked up players from Atlant which folded during the offseason, they have a great coach in German Titov.
Why Spartak instead of any other club?
SPartak is a famous brand throughout the world and this is what we wanted. Ak Bars, Admiral and Baris are all good clubs but they are not really known outside of Russia and would not draw people out to the arena. CSKA was also interested but they will have 8-9 players with the national team during the international break. Spartak has good players but they are a young team so they will only have one or two players with the Russian national team. They will be here with 45 people, players and staff included.
How long will Spartak be in Budapest for?
For two nights, they will get into town, the day before the game and leave the day after.
Could this gala match lead to a KHL team in Budapest in the future?
Of course, the level of hockey is much lower in Croatia but Medvescak plays in the KHL, for a country the first step might be for a player to play in the league then a team would be the next step.
Is the KHL expanding to towards China and Japan?
At the beginning of October I will be in Beijing, Shanghai and Harbin. Harbin has a good chance of having a professional team and they could be in the league by next season. The quality of hockey is very low in China but they have the market for it, Harbin has 9-10 thousand people at a game. We can not forget that Beijing will be teh host of the 2022 winter games. Japan also has a chance and there could be a Pacific division in the KHL which from the logistics point would be great.
What is the maximum number of teams that the KHL would like to expand to?
There is no limit but I don’t see more than 32 teams playing in the league.
What will happen with Donbas Doneck?
This is a good question, the airport is shut down, the arena burned down, the infrastructure is not great and the political situation is unclear. We can’t real do anything.
What is the relationship between the NHL and KHL like?
I am on good terms with Bill Daly, the VP of the NHL and recently we signed an agreement between the two leagues. Right now we are trying to have the winner of the Gagarin Cup to face the Stanley Cup champion each June or July for a Challenge Cup.
2015-16 National team Schedule
November 4-8: EIHC 4 Nation tournament in Norway, Opponents:Norway, Denmark and France)
February 9: Spartak Moskva in Budapest
February 12-14 Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Budapest, Opponents: Poland, Lithuania, previous round qualifier