Zagreb, Milan and Gdansk on KHL’s waitlist

RIA Novosti / Vladimir Fedorenko

The KHL President Aleksandr Medvedev has unveiled the leagues future expansion plans as the regular season is about to end next week.

Speaking with the Sport-Express paper Medvedev stressed the current season was certainly the most intriguing in the league’s history.

“It was a great pleasure to see so many teams struggling for places in the playoff zone, especially in the Western Conference,” he said, refusing to make any predictions on which of the five teams – Slovan Bratislava, Lev Prague, Donbas Donetsk, Dynamo Minsk or Moscow region’s Atlant – will fill the remaining three playoff slots.

The inclusion of Slovan, Lev and Donbas has been dubbed successful, according to the KLH boss.

“Look, before Lev joined the KHL the record attendance in Prague couldn’t surpass 5,000 for years, while the derby between Lev and Slovan this year attracted a crowd of 16,000. The same surge in interest is witnessed in Bratislava, where we could see around 10,000 spectators at almost every game,” Medvedev said.

As for the future expansion, Medvedev said the most likely candidates are now Croatian Zagreb and Italian Milan. Polish Gdansk has also become an official candidate recently.

“Perhaps, one of these cities will join the league starting from the new season,” stressed Medvedev, adding, that the KHL is mulling over creating a third conference one day.