A professional hockey team will take up residence in one of Sochi’s Olympic venues starting next season.
The Kontinental Hockey League has announced that a franchise will be based in the Black Sea resort town. The team will reportedly be called the Sochi Leopards, though that remains unofficial.
The club will likely play in either the Bolshoy Ice Dome or Shayba Arena. Both hockey venues were built for this year’s Winter Games and are located within the Olympic Park.
The new club will be the first of any sport to call a Sochi Olympic venue home.
Some wonder whether the Sochi club will be successful given that many of the country’s hockey fans are in central and eastern Russia. Sochi’s nearest rival will be located in Ukraine.
The KHL is considered the top hockey league in the world outside the NHL. With the additions of two Russian teams and one in Finland for next year, the league will have 31 teams in nine countries.
Sochi Memorabilia En Route to Lausanne
In accordance with the IOC’s host city contract, the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee has started transferring artifacts to the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.
Currently, only 50 artifacts are headed to Lausanne, but over 100 more artifacts will be sent to the museum over two more transfer stages.
Among the first artifacts on display in Lausanne are accreditation cards from game medalists, flags and banners, licensed merchandise, and ice hockey pucks used in the gold medal matchbetween Sweden and Canada.
The exhibit is set to be complete in June.
Written by Nick Devlin and Andrew Murrell
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