Russian Rocket
07-12-2000, 04:28:AM
Hey Jari!
It took me a while to translate an article from some internet journal. If you have a friend who speaks Russian, let him translate this article to you: "http://www.sports.ru/tennis/main.asp?/hockey/game/001121". Read the whole article:
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-Not poor, not proud-
-Golden century of russian club hockey-
From everywhere lately it's been heard: "russian hockey is in its golden century." It's hard not to agree with that. Golden -- meaning in players' salaries. Dovlatov was damn right when said that money are like microbs -- they are everywhere. We have them also. The money that is paid to players in Russia are not paid in any other European country. More than that, many north-american clubs cannot concurent with russian clubs.
When I look at the list of completed transfers during the 2-week period, I can see that Avangard Omsk got the goalkeeper of Montreal Canadiens and Stanley Cup champion with Detroit Red Wings in 1998 Kevin Hodson. Metallurg Magnitorgorsk was just in time to get the defender of Ukrainian nat. team Sergei Klimentiev from NHL newcomer Columbus Blue Jackets. Lada Togliatti got a NY Islander to their team Dmitri Nabokov, and Valentin Morozov from Pittsburg Penguins. After realizing the financial situation in many Russian clubs, other players playing in foreign countries came back to us from Germany (Semak, Vasiliev, Mukhometov, Alexandrov), Slovakia (Gribko, Ilin), Finland (Kvartalnov), United States (Vorobiev, Batyrshin). If it would continue like that, we might see Bure and Fedorov coming back. Now we can move the mountains.
In Russian hockey we see enourmous amounts of money. Ambitions of the regions/states and the sizes of the budgets, which show these regions in SuperLeague have been higher than the capital's a long ago (capital's teams CSKA and Dinamo are not even in top 10 rich clubs of Russia). For a team Ak Bars Kazan, the whole Tatarstan works. The president of Tatarstan's parliament is also the president of the hockey club, and the governor of the whole republic is a welcomed and often guest of the Ak Bars's home matches. Sibneft (oil company) and the governor of Omsk Oblast (Omsk State) supports and gives a lot of money from State budget to Avangard. Novokuznetsk, Magnitogorsk and Cherepovets due to the metal factories got their own separate line in outcome of the states' budgets..
The coaches and rulers of the top-clubs had a real budget race, and before the start of the season made an unnoficial auction, whose "products" were players. After Avangard decided to pay the best goalkeeper of SuperLeague for two pasts seasons Vadim Tarasov 50,000 bucks, Metallurg Novokuznetsk, not without a scandal, still kept the keeper at their club by offering him much more money. Also, the same Avangard never ever could afford to pay a goalkeeper 500,000 dollars for one unfinished season, but canadian Kevin Hodson, who a month ago had no idea where Siberia was, will get those money in Omsk.
Other clubs like Lada Togliatti, Metallurg Novokuznetsk, Metallurg Magnitogorsk, Severstal Cherepovets, Ak Bars Kazan, also lie behind in this economic boom which followed by "kindness" of the governors. It is not a secret to anyone nowadays, that the budget of these clubs is bigger than the leading clubs of Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden. After hearing about the wages of our hockey players, my colleagues from these countries got really astonished. It is hard to understand to Finnish journalists why good/average forwards of the Finnish league get 45-40 thousands per year, when their neighbors, while not being better -- get five times more.
"The career of a hockey player is hard and not long, and thus his labor should be well-paid" -- said manager of Lada Valeri Postnikov about the wages of the players. "In Russia, there is a very bad economic situation, and giving that much money to the hockey players, while there are factories closing, -- it is a party during a plague" -- said manager of SKA St. Petersburg Rafail Ishmatov on the other hand. Everybody has his own opinion. Postnikov with a big load of money in Lada cannot afford to loose, while every win of youthful SKA St. Petersburg will be described as a sensation. Proportionally, every manager uses the strategy of their boss. What's better: to be poor and proud or rich and shameful -- is a tougher question than the actual game of hockey. And the answer to it is tough to see.
But you can see something else: money are microbs. And gathering in big amounts, it affects the organism from the inside. That is why russian nat. team, which is made from the domestic hockey league this season, looses 4 games out of 6 on the EuroTournaments of fall to swedes and finns. The players of those teams play for their countries in order not to get ashamed in front of the fellow citizens, scouts and those who sponsor the game. Russians don't have such motivation. There, in their clubs they get enormous amounts of money. Of course they want to say that they are proud to be playing for their country and that they come to play for the white-blue-red flag, but the concentration of the microbs is shown. It is hard to make yourself believe you are proud when you are not poor...
------------------------------------------------
a couple of corrections/explanations:
-Tatarstan is a republic of Russia, one of the states of Russia. It is a big state, and its capital Kazan, from where Ak Bars comes from, has population of over 1 million people.
-Sibneft is a company that gets oil. Oil is extremely valuable and expensive. That oil company, being from Siberia, gets big bucks.
-Omsk Oblast is also a state in Russia. Omsk has a population of over 1 million people
-"got their own separate line in outcome of the states' budgets.." meaning that giving them money is a must in the state's list. It stands along with giving money to teachers, doctors, and other social workers.
-microb -I might have messed up the word, but it means that it's a small-very tiny insect which destroys things when there are a lot of them
-"Proportionally, every manager uses the strategy of their boss." Club sponsors, owners, and presidents decide whether to have a team with a lot of youngsters (like in NHL Tampa Bay with NY Islanders this year) or spend some money of costly free agents (like NY Rangers and Los Angeles Kings past couple of years).
my comments:
i was blown away myself when I read this. I know there is such thing in basketball, where the top russian basketball clubs spent their money on some north american players this offseason, but I had no idea about hockey. Personally, I do not like the idea of it, just because it matches your saying that Russians can't play because they are greedy. Well, it is a reverse of it, you know, but the idea has stayed the same -- on itl. level Russia just cannot play lately... I hope for the next WC in order to prove that wrong, and for the next EuroTour which will be in Russia ("Baltika Cup")...
Also, I was on the nhl.com not long ago, and in section "World Game" there is a scout section that tells us about the best youngester from Europe -- there, Russians dominate... Just to make sure that you won't feel that Russian clubs only spend money on the free-agents. What you were right about were arenas -- there were not much built in soviet times just because sport was not considered proffessional back then in USSR. Then, if a coal mine city had a team, the players would get salary like coal miners did, and some more privileges coal miners did not have... But, you know, sportsmen did not work in coal mines back then either http://www.soccergaming.com/ubb/smile.gif
anyways, sorry to bring this topic up, but, you know, i want to hear a nice respond from you concerning the article.. It is true, though...
It took me a while to translate an article from some internet journal. If you have a friend who speaks Russian, let him translate this article to you: "http://www.sports.ru/tennis/main.asp?/hockey/game/001121". Read the whole article:
-------------------------------------------------------------
-Not poor, not proud-
-Golden century of russian club hockey-
From everywhere lately it's been heard: "russian hockey is in its golden century." It's hard not to agree with that. Golden -- meaning in players' salaries. Dovlatov was damn right when said that money are like microbs -- they are everywhere. We have them also. The money that is paid to players in Russia are not paid in any other European country. More than that, many north-american clubs cannot concurent with russian clubs.
When I look at the list of completed transfers during the 2-week period, I can see that Avangard Omsk got the goalkeeper of Montreal Canadiens and Stanley Cup champion with Detroit Red Wings in 1998 Kevin Hodson. Metallurg Magnitorgorsk was just in time to get the defender of Ukrainian nat. team Sergei Klimentiev from NHL newcomer Columbus Blue Jackets. Lada Togliatti got a NY Islander to their team Dmitri Nabokov, and Valentin Morozov from Pittsburg Penguins. After realizing the financial situation in many Russian clubs, other players playing in foreign countries came back to us from Germany (Semak, Vasiliev, Mukhometov, Alexandrov), Slovakia (Gribko, Ilin), Finland (Kvartalnov), United States (Vorobiev, Batyrshin). If it would continue like that, we might see Bure and Fedorov coming back. Now we can move the mountains.
In Russian hockey we see enourmous amounts of money. Ambitions of the regions/states and the sizes of the budgets, which show these regions in SuperLeague have been higher than the capital's a long ago (capital's teams CSKA and Dinamo are not even in top 10 rich clubs of Russia). For a team Ak Bars Kazan, the whole Tatarstan works. The president of Tatarstan's parliament is also the president of the hockey club, and the governor of the whole republic is a welcomed and often guest of the Ak Bars's home matches. Sibneft (oil company) and the governor of Omsk Oblast (Omsk State) supports and gives a lot of money from State budget to Avangard. Novokuznetsk, Magnitogorsk and Cherepovets due to the metal factories got their own separate line in outcome of the states' budgets..
The coaches and rulers of the top-clubs had a real budget race, and before the start of the season made an unnoficial auction, whose "products" were players. After Avangard decided to pay the best goalkeeper of SuperLeague for two pasts seasons Vadim Tarasov 50,000 bucks, Metallurg Novokuznetsk, not without a scandal, still kept the keeper at their club by offering him much more money. Also, the same Avangard never ever could afford to pay a goalkeeper 500,000 dollars for one unfinished season, but canadian Kevin Hodson, who a month ago had no idea where Siberia was, will get those money in Omsk.
Other clubs like Lada Togliatti, Metallurg Novokuznetsk, Metallurg Magnitogorsk, Severstal Cherepovets, Ak Bars Kazan, also lie behind in this economic boom which followed by "kindness" of the governors. It is not a secret to anyone nowadays, that the budget of these clubs is bigger than the leading clubs of Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden. After hearing about the wages of our hockey players, my colleagues from these countries got really astonished. It is hard to understand to Finnish journalists why good/average forwards of the Finnish league get 45-40 thousands per year, when their neighbors, while not being better -- get five times more.
"The career of a hockey player is hard and not long, and thus his labor should be well-paid" -- said manager of Lada Valeri Postnikov about the wages of the players. "In Russia, there is a very bad economic situation, and giving that much money to the hockey players, while there are factories closing, -- it is a party during a plague" -- said manager of SKA St. Petersburg Rafail Ishmatov on the other hand. Everybody has his own opinion. Postnikov with a big load of money in Lada cannot afford to loose, while every win of youthful SKA St. Petersburg will be described as a sensation. Proportionally, every manager uses the strategy of their boss. What's better: to be poor and proud or rich and shameful -- is a tougher question than the actual game of hockey. And the answer to it is tough to see.
But you can see something else: money are microbs. And gathering in big amounts, it affects the organism from the inside. That is why russian nat. team, which is made from the domestic hockey league this season, looses 4 games out of 6 on the EuroTournaments of fall to swedes and finns. The players of those teams play for their countries in order not to get ashamed in front of the fellow citizens, scouts and those who sponsor the game. Russians don't have such motivation. There, in their clubs they get enormous amounts of money. Of course they want to say that they are proud to be playing for their country and that they come to play for the white-blue-red flag, but the concentration of the microbs is shown. It is hard to make yourself believe you are proud when you are not poor...
------------------------------------------------
a couple of corrections/explanations:
-Tatarstan is a republic of Russia, one of the states of Russia. It is a big state, and its capital Kazan, from where Ak Bars comes from, has population of over 1 million people.
-Sibneft is a company that gets oil. Oil is extremely valuable and expensive. That oil company, being from Siberia, gets big bucks.
-Omsk Oblast is also a state in Russia. Omsk has a population of over 1 million people
-"got their own separate line in outcome of the states' budgets.." meaning that giving them money is a must in the state's list. It stands along with giving money to teachers, doctors, and other social workers.
-microb -I might have messed up the word, but it means that it's a small-very tiny insect which destroys things when there are a lot of them
-"Proportionally, every manager uses the strategy of their boss." Club sponsors, owners, and presidents decide whether to have a team with a lot of youngsters (like in NHL Tampa Bay with NY Islanders this year) or spend some money of costly free agents (like NY Rangers and Los Angeles Kings past couple of years).
my comments:
i was blown away myself when I read this. I know there is such thing in basketball, where the top russian basketball clubs spent their money on some north american players this offseason, but I had no idea about hockey. Personally, I do not like the idea of it, just because it matches your saying that Russians can't play because they are greedy. Well, it is a reverse of it, you know, but the idea has stayed the same -- on itl. level Russia just cannot play lately... I hope for the next WC in order to prove that wrong, and for the next EuroTour which will be in Russia ("Baltika Cup")...
Also, I was on the nhl.com not long ago, and in section "World Game" there is a scout section that tells us about the best youngester from Europe -- there, Russians dominate... Just to make sure that you won't feel that Russian clubs only spend money on the free-agents. What you were right about were arenas -- there were not much built in soviet times just because sport was not considered proffessional back then in USSR. Then, if a coal mine city had a team, the players would get salary like coal miners did, and some more privileges coal miners did not have... But, you know, sportsmen did not work in coal mines back then either http://www.soccergaming.com/ubb/smile.gif
anyways, sorry to bring this topic up, but, you know, i want to hear a nice respond from you concerning the article.. It is true, though...