In the Continental Hockey League, to the delight of the fans, the regular season started.
For four days, 17 matches have already taken place, many of which turned out to be bright.
In particular, the victory of the modest Dynamo Moscow over the star Ak Bars of Oleg Znarok or the confrontation between SKA and Salavat Yulaev.
However, one more fact attracts attention - not the largest number of spectators in the stands, although for the first time in a long time there are no restrictions on the arenas.
For the past two years, KHL clubs have experienced serious financial difficulties caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The stadiums could not be completely filled, and as a result, an average of 2382 people came to the games last season (data from the IIHF).
According to this indicator, the league was in seventh place among the European championships, and Switzerland took the first line (6139 spectators on average).
The starting tournament, as conceived by the leadership of the KHL, should give the clubs the opportunity to finally make money on match days: on tickets, selling souvenirs and sponsors.
That is why in the regular season each team will play a record 68 meetings.
According to the president of the league Alexei Morozov, the competition calendar has become more rhythmic, because it no longer has a large number of pauses.
“Instead of the Finnish and Swedish stages of the Eurotour, they added interesting games, increased the number of derbies and principled meetings.
This is very important from the point of view of maintaining the level of competition in the absence of international matches... Two years of the pandemic left their mark, clubs had practically no financial income on match days, and this is the main share of commercial income, ”Morozov said in an interview with RBC.
It would seem that the spectators who missed hockey should have rushed to the ice arenas.
At least that's what happened in other sports.
The RPL showed good statistics before the introduction of Fan ID, and the Russian Cup final set a Luzhniki attendance record.
The VTB United League gathered full stands for the final series between Zenit and CSKA.
However, as Andrei Arshavin said after Euro 2012: "Your expectations are your problems."
And so far, it cannot be said from the first matches that the fans will improve the financial situation of the KHL clubs.
Attendance is lower than in pre-covid seasons.
In September 2019, an average of 6,759 people went to regular season matches.
In earlier periods, the numbers were slightly lower, but always around six thousand.
At the start of the 2022/23 season, there were an average of 4967 spectators in the stands of the ice arenas.
The most attended meetings were in St. Petersburg and Minsk: SKA and Salavat Yulaev attracted 12,228 fans, and 13,805 hockey fans came to watch Dynamo and Barys.
Also, full houses were recorded at the Nizhny Novgorod "Torpedo" and "Vityaz".
However, there are questions to the Podolsk club: a large number of empty seats can be seen on the video from the game with Avangard.
And the figure of 5700 with the declared capacity of the arena of 5525 is hard to believe.
Yekaterinburg has surprisingly low rates.
Avtomobilist in the stands is still supported by less than three thousand people, although earlier the stadium was almost always full.
Of course, this can be explained by not the best game of the team lately.
On the other hand, the beginning of the season is the time to support it.
They did not get sick with hockey in Sochi either.
Andrey Nazarov's team, which lit up in the off-season, while 3048 and 2220 spectators came to watch.
Traditionally low attendance in Moscow.
Even the sign "Dynamo" - "Ak Bars" did not inspire the residents of the capital.
Although the Kazan club with its stellar line-up and Oleg Znark, of course, should have aroused interest.
In addition, the blue and white invited Alexander Ovechkin to a meeting.
But, despite all the efforts of management, only 5432 people gathered at the stadium.
Spartak only in one game out of two managed to overcome the mark of three thousand spectators, although figure skater Kamila Valieva visited the arena for the game with Amur.
With half-empty stands, CSKA hockey players also perform.
Only 7.3 thousand fans attended the opening match of the season with Metallurg Magnitogorsk.
The first meeting of the Chelyabinsk "Tractor" did not gather a full house either, however, for the confrontation with "Lokomotiv", hockey fans pulled themselves up to the stands and reached the dokovid indicators.
Of course, it is too early to draw serious conclusions: only 17 matches out of 133 scheduled for September took place.
The arenas in Omsk, where they finally built a new stadium, Kazan and Yaroslavl, have not yet opened their doors.
When the games are held in these cities, the average attendance figures will rise.
We must not forget about such factors as the beginning of the school year and the end of the summer season.
Not all the fans have returned home yet, someone continues to dig beds in the garden, and family people took care of the children for the first days of the month.
However, it is possible that there will be no record figures for the number of spectators in the stands this season.
At least that's what Lokomotiv president Yuri Nikolaev thinks.
In his opinion, the league made too many matches in the regular season.
“I do not support the new KHL calendar.
We have 13 games in September.
This not normal.
What is it all for?
The solvency of the population is not so great to go to hockey so often.
It would be more correct to give a pause to the guys, ”the specialist said in a comment to Sport24.
From this point of view, the tournament calendar is really imperfect.
In addition, trying to create comfortable conditions for the teams, the league, in the likeness of the NHL, makes home and away series.
So, CSKA for the regular season will twice hold five matches in a row in Moscow.
Taking into account the cost of tickets, not every fan can afford to go to all of them; rather, he will choose one or two games.
The same situation in the regions.
Therefore, for now, the question of whether the clubs will be able to improve their financial situation with such a calendar and the number of matches remains open.
And we will get the answer to it only at the end of the regular season.