The Kontinental Hockey League was envisioned as Russian President Vladimir Putin's "ambitious challenge to the NHL," according to Mirtle & MacKinnon of the Toronto GLOBE AND MAIL. Now, "its survival -- especially of its most vulnerable teams -- may be at stake." With
oil prices dropping, Western sanctions "increasing and the ruble
cratering, sponsors have been forced to pull funding to a lot of KHL
teams; as a result, many players are getting paid late or not getting
paid at all." Coaches such as Slovan Bratislava's Petri Matikainen have "gone without a salary for the entire season." And
those who are receiving salaries are getting "only a fraction of the
value of their contracts due to the falling ruble," which has plummeted
almost 50% against the U.S. dollar since July. At
least three teams -- Slovan Bratislava, Atlant Moscow Oblast and Dinamo
Riga -- are believed to be "on the verge of financial ruin," prompting new
KHL President Dmitry Chernyshenko to hold crisis meetings among team
execs. Avangard Omsk President Vladimir Shalaev said, "The economic issue and the survival of KHL clubs will be topic No. 1." That "widespread instability has many foreign players who were contemplating a move to Russia thinking otherwise." Winnipeg-based player agent Darryl Wolski said, "I've had a couple of guys in Sweden and Switzerland [who had offers in
Russia] who said maybe I'll just stay where I am. After the mess now with the
ruble." Probably "closest to the edge is Atlant, a
club based in the Moscow suburbs." The state-run Tass news service
reported it was "unlikely" that Atlant would play in the KHL in the '15-16 season. Atlant President Valeri Kamensky recently said that the club was "a month behind in paying salaries." Putin is "a big proponent of the KHL." As a
result, the league's "total collapse seems unlikely, though there has
been talk of having the league focus less on attracting international
stars and more on developing players -- as clubs did during the Soviet
era -- who could play for the national team" (GLOBE AND MAIL, 12/17).
