How the limit on foreign players contributes to the wage race of Russian hockey players

Monopoly of Russian players

While the hockey players of the Russian national team were fighting for medals at the World Championship, the public was amazed by the news about new contracts of our hockey players with the clubs of the “home” league - the KHL. The main bomb was detonated in Magnitogorsk, signing Sergei Mozyakin, the leader of Mytishchi's Atlant (a sensational finalist of the Gagarin Cup this season), for three years with a total salary of about $12 million . Anton Kuryanov will earn around $3 million at Avangard Omsk. And Alexander Frolov, who is returning to Russia from the New York Rangers, should receive no less in Omsk. And such a whirlwind throughout the league. Almost all major transitions come with large salary increases. And this is largely due to the limit on foreign players in the KHL: a Russian club cannot have more than six foreign players (a sixth can be declared by paying the KHL 7.5 million rubles). In essence, the KHL has established a monopoly of Russian players.

It should also be noted that neither Frolov, nor Kuryanov, nor other holders of large contracts were invited to the Russian national team this off-season. Even Mozyakin, with all his scoring achievements and winning experience in the national team, was considered too slow a player for the World Cup.

Taking into account the much more favorable taxation in Russia, Mozyakin’s salary overseas would be $6-7 million. Of the Russians in the NHL, only Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeniy Malkin and, possibly, Pavel Datsyuk earn more. Ilya Kovalchuk, who signed the famous $100 million “lifetime” contract with the New Jersey Devils, has not yet reached Mozyakin’s financial heights. It turns out unusual. Rest assured that the contracts of all other KHL hockey players mentioned will be inflated, and significantly so. By the way, Kovalchuk said in a recent interview : “If I were a greedy person, I would choose the Motherland [KHL].” A very revealing quote.

True, two circumstances should be noted. First, we do not know the exact amounts because they are not disclosed and there is no legal mechanism that would force the disclosure of salary records. Secondly, the “salary ceiling”. The concept itself came to the KHL from the NHL. The point of this norm is to equalize teams with objectively different economic capabilities and prevent rich clubs from buying up all the stars. But our “salary ceiling” exists with our own Russian specifics. In addition to the opacity of athletes’ incomes, which in principle made the idea of a “ceiling” somewhat strange, there were other “buts”.

For example, in order to lure stars from the NHL, our clubs were allowed to bring one star out from under the “ceiling” and sign a contract with her for any money. Sergei Fedorov, Jaromir Jagr and some others received contracts in Russia that they could no longer objectively count on in the NHL. And a recent investigation by Forbes showed that there may be no “salary ceiling” in the KHL: for example, the budget of the Gagarin Cup winner Ufa club “Salavat Yulaev” exceeds 2 billion rubles (with a “ceiling” of 700 million rubles).

And recently a decision was made according to which the KHL for the next season sets the “salary ceiling” at 900 million rubles, and this season will be the last when it will be possible to take someone outside the limits and pay off with a fine. But Mozyakin’s contract was concluded for four years, Kuryanov’s for three, and a significant part of other expensive contracts will remain in force at a time when the restrictions, in theory, will be strict and defined. How to get out of this situation? Either, having signed five people for millions, the rest are paid pennies, or again they don’t care about formal restrictions, taking advantage of the fact that salaries are not published, and money can be paid in an envelope or you can get wives and other relatives of hockey players into the club, assigning them “strange” salaries. What option do you think the club leaders will ultimately choose, who have only one goal - victory at any cost?

We have a hockey championship

And here's another piece of news about money and hockey: Russia has won the right to host the 2016 World Hockey Championship. Although the event is not ordinary, it is incomparable in importance to the Winter Olympics or the World Cup. Hockey has its own specifics. It is popular in a very limited number of countries. These are North America, Scandinavia, the former USSR and Central Europe. North Americans rarely claim to host world championships (the 2008 World Cup in Canada was the first in the homeland of hockey in history!). They are not very interested in them, since the Stanley Cup is being played at the same time.

That leaves Europe. And there the circle of applicants is traditional: Sweden, Finland, the Czech Republic, Russia. Championships are also held regularly in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Now, to the mentioned countries, Slovakia (where, in fact, the current championship is played) and Latvia will sometimes be added. The rest is already exotic. Like Belarus, which was entrusted with the 2014 championship. And by the way, now Russia’s competitors were just exotic countries for hockey - Ukraine and Denmark. However, they did not live to see the vote, withdrawing their candidacies.

Now about what hosting the World Cup means for our country. No large-scale construction is expected. The championship will be held in two capitals - Moscow and St. Petersburg. The St. Petersburg arena was built for the 2000 World Cup and was then by far the best in the country and one of the best in Europe. The Moscow Megasport was also built for the 2007 world championship. Since we are talking about the two main and most developed cities of the country, there will be no problems with hotels, transport, or entertainment. Moreover, the requirements for the world hockey championship are much more modest than for the football championship. So the budget for the hockey championship will be orders of magnitude lower: according to KHL President Alexander Medvedev, the World Championship will cost €8 million . But, most likely, according to Russian tradition, this amount will increase several times by the time the championship is held.

Real money is played in hockey