The KHL attendance record was, previously, 17,645 fans in the stands for a game. On Saturday, however, that mark was blown away as two of Russia’s most popular teams, SKA and CSKA, faced off in a special ‘Arby Derby’ rivalry game that was held in an unusual venue: The Gazprom Arena in St. Petersburg, also known as the home of the FC Zenit football club and the host of multiple games from this year’s FIFA World Cup.
With a stadium capacity of 67,000 people, let’s just say that the KHL had little difficulty eclipsing the 17k mark in attendance.
Today, Zenit published a behind-the-scenes video to its YouTube channel, showing the transformation of the Gazprom Arena into one of the largest hockey venues ever, truly on par with some of the best Winter Classic games.
The game between SKA and CSKA, in fact, ranks ninth in all-time attendance for any hockey game ever. However, it was topped by another game held earlier this month in the same stadium between the Russian and Finnish national teams as part of the Euro Hockey Tour.
Also in the stands at Gazprom Arena? Russian fighter Khabib Nurmagomedov took in the KHL record breaker, and of course, there was one aspect of hockey that he really seemed to enjoy.
h/t YouTube/Zenit Football Club
