First game tonight, Donbass v Kremenchuk. When the dust finally settled, 6 teams were entered into the championship this year. Based on the results from the Donbass Open Cup, Belyi Bars has taken a massive step up from last year, and Kremenchuk has taken a massive step down. Dynamo Kharkiv got crushed in their games. The other two teams from Kiev and Lviv are unknowns as they have not played any games as of yet.
As already mentioned Donbass beat Kremenchuk 5-2. Belyi Bars beat the Lviv team 4-0, and Dynamo Kharkiv bounced back from the beating they took in the Donbass Open Cup to beat the Brovary team 8-1. I watched the Kharkiv game, and they had a very nice crowd. Will be interesting to see how the 3 western teams do attendance wise.
The rink that Donbass are playing in isn't suitable even for the Belarussian league. If the owner builds his rink in Cherkassy as planned, then he might start looking at bumping up Donbass to a different league.
Isnt their current one like 450 seats?
I suppose it depends on whether the intention is to play second or first league, in the second league rather just the current location is inconvenient. In the first league it's a bit small of course, but the conditions overall are arguably clearly better than these (Navapolatsk):
If they build a new, bigger arena nearer to the rest, then I think Donbass would compare very favorably to most Belarusian teams.
Well after the first two rounds it's pretty obvious who the cream of the crop are this year. Donbass are steamrolling over everyone again, Belyi Bars are number 2 having beat Kremenchuk in a close game, but Dynamo Kharkiv have laid a beating on the bottom two teams. I guess we'll see were DK are after they play Kremenchuk. Brovary and Lviv have not looked good in their first two games losing by lopsided scores in both.
thanks for updates! Can you give us some informations about every team home attendances?
I can only give you anecdotal information, from what I've seen on TV, not actual numbers.
Belyi Bars first home game had what appeared to be a sell out, or at least very close
Brovary had what looked like maybe a 100 people at their first home game.
Lviv has not played a home game yet, or if they have I have not seen them.
Kharkiv have had 2 excellent looking crowds, at least what looked close to sell outs
Kremenchuk I have not seen play at home yet
Donbass was sold out for the home game I saw them play.
Thanks for the info. What kind of prices would the tickets be?
Honestly, no idea. I can go to a first division football game in Odessa for less than one USD, so a ticket to a hockey game can'т be much more than that. Maybe Donbass charge more as they have a very passionate and dedicated fan base, but I can't imagine anyone else is charging more than 20 or 30 UAH, which is about around a buck US.
where can I watch these games?