Gazprom, Russia To Form New International League

Bloomberg

Published: February 8, 2008 (Issue # 1346)

MOSCOW — Gazprom, Russia’s natural-gas exporter, will help fund and form an international hockey league to rival North America’s National Hockey League.

Alexander Medvedev, Gazprom’s deputy chief executive officer, and Russian Hockey Federation President Vladislav Tretiak signed an accord in Moscow to create the Continental Hockey League by April 15, the federation said on its web site Wednesday.

Medvedev is a member of the organizational committee of the Open Hockey League, which is working with the Russian Hockey Federation to form the new league.

“This is the evolution of the Russian Super League,” Russian Hockey Federation spokesman Vladimir Gerasimov said in a telephone interview after the signing. “We need to take another step and secure investment from state corporations.”

The NHL in the U.S. and Canada lure the best players from Russia and other countries with salaries that local clubs can’t afford. The NHL, based in New York, was formed by five Canadian clubs in 1917 and now has 30 teams. Gazprom, with a market value of $304 billion, is the world’s sixth-biggest listed company.

Medvedev, who is also president of the SKA St. Petersburg professional hockey club, told the Sovietsky Sport newspaper last month that Gazprom and six other state-run companies, including billionaire Oleg Deripaska’s Ingosstrakh insurer, would invest an initial $6 million each in the new league.