Roman Rotenberg speaks about the Hockey Classic in Saint Petersburg

Following the completion of the 2018 Hockey Classic between the senior Russian and Finnish national teams at the Gazprom Arena in Saint Petersburg, leader of the Russian national team management group and RIHF first vice-president Roman Rotenberg gave his take on proceedings.

- 81 thousand people visitied the stadium during the day with 71,381 watching the match inside the arena. We are grateful to all of the fans for coming the arena, it was important to show that ice hockey can also attract this amount of fans. This gives us the opportunity to continue developing. On December 22, there will be another match at this stadium. I don't think anyone in the world has gathered such a large amount of fans in two consecutive games. I would like to extend a huge thanks to our partners Gazprom and Gazprom chairman Alexei Miller, without their support we couldn't have set this record.

If we had a stadium able to hold 120 thousand fans, we would fill it completely and break the world record. I would like to point out that the Gazprom Arena is good for watching ice hockey in terms of the view, at the baseball stadiums in the USA you can't see anything at all in the NHL outdoor games. We managed to construct temporary stands next to the ice which gave those fans the chance to experience the atmosphere. The team felt their support. The arena is fantastic and everyone, including Rene Fasel, noted this. In 2010 in Gelsenkirchen, when the previous European record was set, you could barely see the puck. Here, you could see everything. We will go for the world record in the future.

- Will we see a game like this again in Saint Petersburg next season?

- Of course. Another match at the Gazprom Arena will take place on December 22, but I want to say that the atmosphere was brilliant - more than 70 thousand people were supporting Russia inside the stadium. I am sure that we will repeat this event in the future and we will consider the format.

- At the next Channel One Cup, will you play in Saint Petersburg again or at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow?

- We've already thought about this. The weather conditions are a risk. When we played on Red Square, that was the only sunny day. For the players it can be dangerous and there is the threat of receiving injuries. The quality of the television picture is also a factor. Today, the picture quality was great. The entire country saw Russian ice hockey and the Red Machine in all of its glory. We are grateful to our partner Channel One for this.

- In the 2019/2020 KHL season, have you thought about holding more than two or three matches at football stadiums?

- Time will tell. We have the highest ambitions and we're now planning a multi-functional stadium next to Victory Park. This game proved that we're capable of attracting an average of 20 thousand fans per game. Maybe it's the right idea to hold more ice hockey matches at the Gazprom Arena. Everyone was surprised that we only released details of this project two months ago. There are more than five million people living in Saint Petersburg, and on behalf of the Russian national team and SKA, I can say that we are ready to play at football stadiums. The Finns even suggested that we play all Channel One Cup matches here. I think that it must be a record to organise such an event in just two months. I thank everyone who participated in the organisation. We can go for records, the main thing is desire.

- Maybe SKA should play against an NHL club?

- We can also play against the Canadian national team. We're always open to discussion and I think that our colleagues appreciate this. In terms of the organisation, everyone saw that this took place at the highest level.

- Will the Russian national team play matches in different cities?

- Yes, we're always playing in the regions. In the next stage of the Euro Hockey Tour we're going to play in Yaroslavl, we had already revealed this.

- Ahead of the SKA-CSKA KHL match next Saturday, will any changes to the organisation of the Hockey Classic be made?

- There is no limit to perfection. You can always improve certain things, but I'm not going to get into details. We will discuss everything. The whole country saw the level at which this match took place and we are expecting a great demand to attend the SKA-CSKA KHL match.

- How did you choose the performing acts for the concert before the Hockey Classic match?

- We always choose top acts so that there was interest. The work with fans is always ongoing. We've come a long way, but we're not stopping here, other sports are also improving and we have to make sure that people continue attending matches. People in Saint Petersburg could have gone to the cinema or the theatre, but they came here to watch ice hockey. This makes us really happy. It was very important to win today, as it always is.