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March 27 - Moscow. KHL's board of directors meeting was held to make the final decisions on leagues structure for 2019/2020 season.
Following multiple votes and discussions, it was determined that no changes will be made. KHL's regular season will feature 62 games.
Most shocking news followed straight after the league announced the list of the teams participating next season. The list featured the same twenty-five teams that took the ice at the start of 2018/2019 season. Many did expect that this was the end for Bratislava ''Slovan'' team following very financially unstable years but the league is giving them another shot.
President of KHL did propose that the team in the last position of KHL's efficiency rating would be excluded but the board decided that Vladivostok ''Admiral'' will remain in the league.
''Admiral has to remain in the league and work towards fixing their issues. If we're to create a far east division in the league, they have to be the around to be amongst cornerstones to establish that'' a league source said.
As for ''Slovan'', the league has given them until April 30th to provide them with financial guarantees and all the paperwork necessary. Dinamo ''Riga'' while not having any issues whatsoever and had a huge climb in KHL rating (climbed 7 positions) are a team that begins their sponsorship negotiations later than most team also had their term extended until the end of April.
KHL's delegation also met with Slovan's ownership that presented a game plan that should improve Slovan's situation and potentially even save the team entirely putting it in competition instead of lurking from the bottom of the standings.
''It's not the first time that this has happened to us because talks with sponsors are always complicated.'' said the chairman of Riga team. ''We're close to signing a new sponsorship deal. It's just a technical thing. Our term is April 30th and I'm sure we will have all the paperwork done until then. We tried to get things done for today. It didn't happen but we're close.'' he added.
Leagues executives also looked at the potential expansion shooting down some of the ideas. ''I have never heard about expansion to South Korea, but we might have another Chinese team soon. As for European expansion, we're having very promising talks with France and Germany.'' said Chernyshenko.
It's notable that United Kingdom are still at the top of KHL's list as the league continues testing the market.
The regular season will start on September 1st and run until February 27th. Playoffs will start on March 1st and will end before April 30th.
2020 KHL All-Star weekend will be held on January 18th-19th. League is expected to vote on the host city but it's expected to be St.Petersburg.
Meanwhile, Omsk ''Avangard'' and Bob Hartley will have to wait at least one more season before returning home to their own arena. Their current home will be torn down in order to build a new rink. For the time being, they will continue playing in Balashika as they have been doing this season.
League is also expected to partner with SAP, much like NHL has. SAP are expected to be the leagues official stats provider.