Wednesday, 8 August 2018

Off To Balashikha!

The arena to the left is Balashikha Arena located in the city of Balashikha. You might be wondering why I'm writing an article on an obscure arena in the middle of Russia that has no KHL team, but they actually will have a KHL team as of today. The only problem? It won't be their own team. If you recall, I wrote an article on July 24 about Avangard Omsk possibly having to move due to foundation problems at Arena Omsk. Today, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Avangard Alexander Krylov made the announcement that Avangard Omsk will indeed move to Balashikha to start the 2018-19 KHL season.

The first thing you should know about this move is that Avangard Omsk will be moving some 2700 kilometers to the west! If you're a fan of the Omsk team and live in Omsk, that's a 35-hour drive one-way to see your team play at "home" this season! Balashikha is approximately 45 minutes to the east of Moscow, so this move takes Avangard Omsk entirely out of their fanbase's reaches unless one has the means for a three-hour flight to see Omsk play. Is this is a good move? Krylov addressed that in the press release put out today.
"For Moscow region, several factors say at once. Firstly, this is a large army of our fans living in Moscow - here and those who were born in Omsk, and those who were born in the capital, but thanks to family traditions are rooting for the 'Vanguard'. In Krasnoyarsk, too, love hockey, but fans of the 'Vanguard' there is extremely small. Secondly, the Balashikha Arena is an active stadium, everything is set up in all directions necessary for us, while the Platinum Arena has just been handed over and there, in fact, all processes need to be started from scratch. Third, logistics. We all figured, in case of moving to Krasnoyarsk, "Avangard" would become the fourth club for remoteness for all teams of the KHL. In Krasnoyarsk from Moscow to fly five hours, in addition, in this city, we could play only until the start of the playoffs, since March 2 there will begin the Universiade. There was another option with Mytischi, but there already holds its Euroleague matches the basketball club "Khimki". Given the very tight calendar of the KHL and other related issues related to the site, it is not possible to place two clubs from different sports in the 'Mytischi Arena'."
It seems that the Omsk club did their homework very well in researching their potential options regarding a temporary move. The fact that Krylov and the Board of Directors addressed processes and logistics as two of their main factors in determining the move makes it seem as though they're looking out not only for the team and its bottom line, but the players and staff who will be uprooted and moved temporarily. while it may not be the best option for the team's fans in Omsk, at least the Board of Directors gets full marks in ensuring that the team itself won't be hamstrung by any unforeseen circumstances.

There will be a noticeable difference in terms of fan support inside the arena depending on how many fans Omsk will attract. Arena Omsk is a 10,318-seat arena that usually fills up pretty quickly due to the popularity of the team in the city and region whereas Balashikha Arena only seats 6000 fans. There shouldn't be a discernible difference in arena noise, but losing 4000 seats per night does affect a team's bottom line. I'll have to keep an eye on Avangard Omsk's fiscal situation going forward, but they are one of the teams who is better off in the KHL compared to others.

If there is a plus to moving, it's that Balashikha Arena housed a KHL team for a couple of seasons in HC MVD. That club was merged into Dynamo Moscow in 2010, and a new Russian junior team run by the Dynamo club was founded in Balashikha. Having that KHL experience should help the arena staff ease the transition of the Omsk team into the building and make the process of running game nights fairly smooth as long as some of the arena staff have remained working at the rink. If not, they'll still have their junior hockey club experiences to fall back on, so it's not like Omsk is walking into a rink with zero experience in hosting a season of high-level hockey.

At the end of the day, 2700 kilometers is a long way to go to cheer for the Omsk team, but perhaps they'll attract some new fans from the Moscow region to join the "large army of fans living in Moscow" as Avangard fans. The best news is that Avangard Omsk is moving into a KHL arena while Arena Omsk is being repaired, and they'll be able to play out the season while the repairs continue. While the short-term plans may not be the best solution for fans in the Omsk region, the long-term plans of returning to Omsk and playing out the franchise's days there should be on solid ground once the foundation of Arena Omsk has been repaired.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!

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