MOSCOW, December 6 (R-Sport) – In a step forward for legacy plans, next year’s Winter Olympic host city of Sochi may get its first major league hockey team as soon as next season, according to NHL legend and project organizer Pavel Bure.
There is currently no tenant confirmed post-Olympics for the 12,000-seat Bolshoi Ice Dome, which will host hockey during the Games, and the nearest team in Eastern Europe’s KHL is located 500 kilometers (300 miles) away in Ukraine.
“There are negotiations to enter the league for next season,” said Bure, who is in charge of plans to set up a new team in Sochi on behalf of the regional government, in comments to the Sovetsky Sport newspaper.
“Sochi’s plus is that the infrastructure there is already complete. The Olympic arena is one of the best in the country.”
A final decision will rest with the as-yet-unnamed Sochi team’s backers, Bure said.
Hockey, while popular in central and eastern Russia, is a marginal sport in the south of the country, where football tends to be much more popular.
Bure has previously said he plans to model the Sochi team on the Los Angeles Kings, citing that organization’s success in building a loyal following despite the presence of established local teams in other sports.
Sochi’s home Krasnodar Region had never hosted a professional hockey team until last year, when Kuban Krasnodar was founded to compete in the minor-league VHL.
Bure spent 12 seasons in the NHL, featuring in seven All-Star Games, and received the Calder Memorial Trophy as the best rookie in 1992 and two Maurice Richard Trophy awards as the top goal scorer.
He also became the first Russian player whose number was retired by an NHL team when the Vancouver Canucks announced in July that his No. 10 jersey would no longer be used.
His last job in hockey was as head coach of the Russian national team at the 2006 Turin Olympics, when the team lost the bronze medal game 3-0 to the Czech Republic.
