KHL’s Chinese expansion team - Red Star Kunlun logo.

[Luke_Groundrunner 41]

KHL (Kontinental Hockey League) is expanding to China, Red Star Kunlun to begin play in 2016/17.

 

 

Quote

The first expansion team for the 2016-17 season has been awarded, but it won’t be playing in Las Vegas or Quebec City. The KHL announced Monday the league will have a team from Beijing joining the league, and the new club will begin playing in September 2016, according to TASS.

Beijing’s KHL team, which is yet unnamed, will play at the 18,000-seat MasterCard Center in Beijing, which currently plays host to the Chinese Basketball Association’s Beijing Ducks. The arena was also host to the basketball tournament at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The team will be backed by Russian and Chinese businesses, and the league will also be supplying Beijing with a development academy.

“The task is to build a hockey vertical: a KHL team, a second team playing in the Chinese league, a team in the youth league and mass involvement so that all who wish can play ice hockey and there should be more ice rinks that are public and open for all,” vice president of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, Roman Rotenberg, told TASS.ru. “This is a priority task.”

The expansion to China has long been rumored, and Pro Hockey Players Association agent Darryl Wolski said in June that the league was planning an expansion into Beijing. One big reason for the expansion is the 2022 Winter Olympics, which are set to take place in Beijing. China was said to be a potential host for a KHL game as soon as this season, though it doesn’t appear as though that will happen.

The KHL currently features 28 teams, with most situated in Russia. Other countries with KHL clubs include Kazakhstan (Barys Astana), Belarus (Dinamo Minsk), Latvia (Dinamo Riga), Slovakia (HC Slovan Bratislava), Finland (Jokerit) and Croatia (Medvescak Zagreb).

According to TSN’s Rick Westhead, the league could also be looking into expansion to Seoul, South Korea in the next “year or two.”

For years, the KHL has been looking to grow and expand in an attempt to compete with the NHL and become a worldwide league. In 2012, former league president Alexander Medvedev mentioned the potential for the league to expand to 64 teams. Medvedev was replaced by Dmitry Chernyshenko in November 2014.

 

Logo image and quote is from this THN (The Hockey News) article.

[Kevin W. 1,957]

I look forward to the KHL collapsing due to overbearing travel costs. I'm sure Putin will blame the West for it.

[Pava 17]

It is third team in league with red star logo. other two are CSKA, SKA

[BeerGuyJordan 1,305]

As KHL branding goes, this one is pretty good.

[stumpygremlin 471]

That jaw looks dislocated.

[kiwi_canadian 198]

Here are the jerseys:

 

Link to story:

http://www.thehockeynews.com/blog/khls-chinese-team-unveils-jerseys-featuring-great-wall/

[BrianLion 1,459]

the sublimated Great Wall on the hem stripe is kind of fun, other than that they look like a standard issue Chinese National Team knock-off

[Luke_Groundrunner 41]

4 hours ago, kiwi_canadian said:

Here are the jerseys:

 

Link to story:

http://www.thehockeynews.com/blog/khls-chinese-team-unveils-jerseys-featuring-great-wall/

A little more black incorporated into uniform would've been nice!

[Mingjai 1,062]

Interestingly, their Chinese name doesn't mean actually Red Star: 昆仑鸿星 (or 昆侖鴻星 in traditional characters) literally means Kunlun Great Star, though the character for "Great" 鸿 (鴻) sounds like the character for "Red" 红 (紅). It's weird that they didn't just choose the character for red--perhaps there were trademark issues if they used the Chinese characters 红星 (紅星) for "Red Star."

[daniel75 1,447]

looks like a logo for an energy drink.

[Thaumatrope 370]

aaaaand its a rip off.

 

Credit goes to this guy on Reddit for the logo breakdown. 

 

 

I know...I'm shocked.

[charger77 1,792]

Any idea of where these (or any KHL jerseys) can be purchased aside from the KHL site?

[BrianLion 1,459]

I'd like to think there's an American manufacturer somewhere that sells really cheap knock-offs of all professional Chinese team jerseys. 

[moonwalker 25]

6 hours ago, BrianLion said:

I'd like to think there's an American manufacturer somewhere that sells really cheap knock-offs of all professional Chinese team jerseys. 

 

I'd honestly love that.

[Trapper John 54]

I wonder what the time difference is between Moscow and Beijing it has to be 6 or 7 hours at least.

[Sodboy13 5,694]

And word came today that the KHL is going to put an expansion team in London for 2017-18. That's what you get for Brexiting.

[BrianLion 1,459]

On 7/15/2016 at 10:02 PM, Trapper John said:

I wonder what the time difference is between Moscow and Beijing it has to be 6 or 7 hours at least.

 

Beijing is 5 hours ahead of Moscow, so basically the difference between Chicago and Honolulu during DST

[wildwing64 1,702]

On 7/13/2016 at 1:04 PM, Thaumatrope said:

aaaaand its a rip off.

 

Credit goes to this guy on Reddit for the logo breakdown. 

 

 

I know...I'm shocked.

 

F***'s sake, China

[jaha32 210]

I first saw this on dribbble by Denis Davydov, and sure enough, this appears to be their replacement to the short-lived plagiarized one. For a league that isn't known for having good team logos, the KHL has had some pretty good logos by a few teams as of late.

 

http://en.khl.ru/clubs/kunlun/

 

[BeerGuyJordan 1,305]

6 hours ago, jaha32 said:

I first saw this on dribbble by Denis Davydov, and sure enough, this appears to be their replacement to the short-lived plagiarized one. For a league that isn't known for having good team logos, the KHL has had some pretty good logos by a few teams as of late.

 

http://en.khl.ru/clubs/kunlun/

 

That's a huge improvement and just might be the best logo the league has, now.