A Curious Move

If you haven't seen anything about the KHL on this blog in a while, that wasn't entirely intended, but I don't think anyone really came here to read about Russia's version of the American Hockey League. Yes, the KHL is Russia's top hockey league that often sees players heading there due to the money, but the hockey isn't all that great outside of a handful of marquee players. Outside of a handful of teams, the majority of the KHL plays blissfully mediocre hockey while trying to stay afloat financially. For one team, that has meant playing in a city nowhere close to the one they represent, and it appears they're moving again this summer.

Kunlun Red Star was founded in 2016 in Beijing, China as a way for the Chinese National Team to improve before the 2022 Winter Olympics that was hosted in Beijing. Of the twelve countries that participated in that Olympiad, China finished in 12th-place, losing all three games in the round-robin portion of the tournament and scoring two goals against sixteen goals-against over those games. Shoutout to Shuai Fu and Taile Wang who beat German netminder Mathias Niederberger for the two Olympic goals in front of the home crowd.

Clearly, that effort didn't come close to the results that China was seeking, and Kunlun Red Star moved away from associating itself closely with the Chinese National Team in favour of a more competitive KHL team. Players like Brandon Yip, Tomas Jurco, Tyler Graovac, Jake Chelios, and Jermey Smith were brought in to help the team move up in the KHL standings, but the Dragons regularly find themselves in the lower half of the standings year after year.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the team had reached an agreement to play home games in Moscow at the Arena Mytishchi for the 2020-21 season in an effort to reduce the travel and movement of people across Asia as countries tightened their border restrictions. That agreement was kept in place for the 2021-22 season with the Olympics happening in Beijing, and, as travel began to resume in 2022-23, it was expected that the Dragons would return home to Beijing as they hoped to continue growing the game across China.

Except that never happened.

Kunlun Red Star has played at Arena Mytishchi ever since the fall of 2020, and they appeared to be set to make Moscow their home once again this year if it wasn't for a little league intervention. As the comment on that Instagram link states, "Kunlun Red Star was ranked first overall by audience gained % in KHL 2024/2025 season," so it seems like the Moscow-based Chinese team was gaining in popularity in their home away from home. The KHL may have recognized this trend, and they made an executive decision for the 2025-26 season.

With Arena Mytishchi holding just 7000 fans per game, the chance to grow that number larger with more fans in seats simply meant moving the team to a larger facility. That's where the KHL entered the discussion as it appears they decided to move the team to the largest hockey arena in the world as the 22,500-seat SKA Arena in St. Petersburg will now house Kunlun Red Star for the 2025-26 season!

Frankly, this seems like a wild gamble when it comes to filling a 22,500-seat arena when one considers that they're moving from Moscow to St. Peterburg for this season. If the Dragons were making progress at attracting Muscovites to their games, that's a credit to them for figuring out how to get Moscow-based Russian hockey fans into a building to see them play. It's not like fans from Beijing were making that trek to see the Dragons in action, so it's hard to fathom why the KHL would move them seven hours northwest from where they were finding success in attracting fans and making money.

You might be thinking, "Doesn't St. Petersburg have a KHL team?", and you'd be correct as SKA St. Petersburg plays in the city. According to eurohockey.com, "SKA St. Petersburg recorded the highest average attendance at 17,648 spectators per game" in 2023-24, so the KHL is really going to put Kunlun Red Star into the same arena where the team with the highest attendance already plays. If you're like me, the question in your heads is "How on earth does that make any sense?"

I guess that Instagram post on the KRS China site that was made in May about securing Arena Mytishchi for the upcoming season meant nothing? I would have assumed that contracts would need to be signed in order for Arena Mytishchi to ensure there was staffing and amenities available for games, but it seems that the arena will now sit empty when it should have had KHL games being played in a number of the evenings. No one will likely discuss how Kunlun Red Star is getting out of that agreement, but maybe someone should since moving to St. Petersburg appears to make zero sense.

To recap this whole saga:

• Kunlun Red Star are supposed to play in Beijing.
• For the last five years, they played in Moscow.
• In 2024-25, they had the largest audience gains by percentage.
• They agreed to play at Arena Mytishchi for a sixth season.
• The KHL inexplicably moved the team to St. Petersburg.

I often ask why the business of hockey ruins so many good things in hockey like seeing a fanbase grow and having people support a "home" team that is technically from another country, and it dawns on me that not many people involved in the game are in it to make the game better. Everyone wants their share of the pie when it comes to entertainment dollars, and the opportunities to take a few more dollars in always outranks that option to do better in all cases.

In this case, a growing fanbase in Moscow was coming out to Arena Mytishchi to cheer on the Chinese KHL team, so the "logical move" would be to have the team play 700kms away in an entirely new city where none of the fans have cheered for Kunlun Red Star in any of the previous five seasons. Yes, there will be people who go to watch the Dragons play in St. Petersburg, but they'll always be second fiddle to SKA St. Petersburg in that city no matter what Kunlun does on or off the ice to rally fan support. That's just how it is.

I know things aren't great in Russia overall, but it seems like Kunlun Red Star is getting the raw end of this deal if all the facts are true.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!