MOSCOW, April 17 (R-Sport) - Russia's Far Eastern port city of Vladivostok, which is striving to join the expanding KHL hockey league, is to open a KHL-standard arena by the fall, the region's governor said Wednesday.
The league is expected to confirm Vladivostok as an expansion team for next season by the end of the month, according to hockey great Slava Fetisov, now a senator for the city's region of Primorsky Krai.
"In the fall we'll open a concert-and-sports complex," the region's governor Vladimir Miklushevsky said in comments on the administration's website.
"It's the first sports venue of its scale in Primorye. Here we'll be able to hold KHL-standard hockey games and football and basketball competitions," he added of the 7,000-capacity arena.
The 2013-14 KHL season is expected to begin in the first week of September.
Vladivostok would give the Far East a second top-flight team, with Amur Khabarovsk, situated 700 kilometers north of the city, one of the KHL's founding members.
The pending success in recruiting Vladivostok to the expansion drive comes in the wake of failure to absorb Polish team Gdansk.
Despite boasting excellent facilities, the team on the Baltic coast has not been able to secure financing for next season.
Another mooted addition, former KHL team Lada Tolyatti, has fallen silent on its possible return to the top flight.
The KHL covers seven countries: Russia, Belarus, Latvia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
