KHL’s Kunlun Red Star is considering many options and looking for a place to play their home games as it won’t be possible to play in China. Kunlun team was forced out of China early, towards the end of last season when they had to play the final home game in Novosibirsk where they hosted Dinamo Riga.
At this point, it’s very unclear when worldwide travel would be allowed. So it’s very unclear if Kunlun would be able to travel to road games and other teams travel to China.
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Sports-Express had reported that as soon as the borders would open the team would move to a city in Russia until it would be safe to return to China. The information was partly confirmed by Kunlun’s chief of media relations Oleg Vinokurov.
”We’re looking at many different possibilities here. Of course, Moscow is further down our list because there is nowhere to play right now. Even CSKA and Spartak are sharing an arena. Where could we find another one? It’s something out of fairytales. We’re considering other options. KHL is also involved in the discussion. We’re making sure that we’re ready to play if we won’t be able to host games in Beijing.”
There’s also a rumor floating around that Kunlun would host their pre-season training camp in Rīga, Latvia. It’s no coincidence as the Latvian capital hosted the Kunlun Red Star Junior team during the 2017/2018 season as the junior squad played in MHL.
If a move to a new arena would happen – Kunlun wouldn’t be the only team to do so. Bob Hartley and the team he coaches, Avangard Omsk are currently playing in the Moscow region while the teams’ new arena in Omsk is being built.
Kunlun finished their regular season in ninth place and failed to qualify for the playoffs.
