Alexander Krylov: “G-Drive Arena has become a new attraction for Omsk”

Krylov led the board of Avangard in 2018, and during this five-year period the club from Omsk managed to move to Balashikha, in order to return to Omsk, in the modern G-Drive Arena newly built. The Hawks played in the final of the Gagarin Cup (2019), two years later they won the main trophy of the Continental Hockey League (2021). But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Gazprom and Gazprom Neft companies, the G-Drive brand are actively involved in the development of sports in Russia, and Alexander Krylov is considered one of the most prominent sports directors in the country. In 2021, he received the Valentin Sych Award for Best KHL Hockey Club Leader.

Krylov manages to develop children’s hockey, and is also the head of the racing team G-Drive Racing – he is a three-time winner of the European Le Mans Series, the World Endurance Championship, twice winner of the Asian Le Mans Series, Russian EnduranceChallenge, multiple winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans “Mana” marathon and other international motorsport endurance competitions.

We touched on all of these topics in our conversation.

“The ultra-modern arena was built in just two years”

— Alexander Vladimirovich, Gazprom Neft built Russia’s best hockey arena in Omsk. What is its importance in the life of a city of more than a million?

— The hardest thing, in my opinion, was finding funding in a very short time. When we learned of the disrepair of the old arena, the question of the future of the Avangard KHL hockey team was seriously raised.

Fortunately, at this time Novosibirsk received the right to host the 2023 World Junior Ice Hockey Championship. I came up with the idea of ​​​​dividing the tournament into two cities, adding Omsk to it. The first person to support us was the president of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) René Fasel.

Then there was the task of coordinating the financing of the state and Gazprom Neft. With the great participation of the head of Gazprom Neft, Alexander Dyukov, the current Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and the presidential assistant Igor Levitin, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin supported us, for which again a big thank you to all.

Thus, the Junior World Championship was to be held in Novosibirsk and Omsk. Should have, but didn’t. However, we managed to build the arena in time. For this, special thanks to our project office and my project team, who were also trained with the help of Gazprom Neft. Without them, nothing would have happened.

The guys from the early days were actively involved in this story and overcame all difficulties with honor. And there were many difficulties – the pandemic, then the Western sanctions … But we managed to meet all the deadlines, and we became the only one of all hockey arenas in Russia, the construction of which began in same time or even before us – in just two years a state-of-the-art G-Drive was built in Omsk Arena.

Has it become iconic? I think the best answer to that question is attendance statistics for all arenas in the KHL this season. G-Drive Arena leads there by a wide margin. Almost all matches in Omsk are sold out, during these months the arena hosted several large concerts, ice shows and other public events.

Yes, there is still a lot to finish. With the opening of the arena, construction work is not complete – this is standard worldwide practice. But even now we can say with confidence that we kept our promise and brought hockey back to Omsk, and the city itself received a new place of attraction, and not only for hockey fans.

“We have introduced hockey lessons in secondary schools”

– Avangard has opened a network of hockey academies, not only in Omsk, but also franchises in Moscow and other cities. What are their objectives and their effectiveness?

– Since my arrival at Avangard, I have always said that the development of hockey among children is one of the priorities. Here again I would like to thank Gazprom and personally Alexey Borisovich Miller for financing the project to build one of the best hockey academies in Omsk not only in Russia, but in all of Europe.

Our famous Canadian coach Bob Hartley, who has seen a lot in his hockey career, was impressed when he came to the Omsk Academy. Everything is there – two rinks (one of them with bleachers for 1200 seats), a comfortable hostel for hockey players, several gymnasiums, everything for rehabilitation, modern hockey simulators and much more. It’s actually something we can be proud of.

As for the numbers, we now have 13 ages in our academy, and that’s over 750 students. For several years, the Academy of HC Avangard has been recognized as the best in the Urals-Western Siberia region. Last year, for the first time, two ages at once became champions of Russia in their years. In the MHL team now we have almost the whole team – the champions of Russia, and this has never happened before.

At the same time, the Omsk Hawks are one of the youngest teams in the league. It takes time for the work of the academy to begin to bear full fruit for the main team, as this is their main task. But we are on the right track. Already this season, several very young guys have made their debuts for the first team, and we will continue to connect young people to KHL games. The same striker Ivan Miroshnichenko is already regularly at Avangard’s base, getting playing time in every game.

We are also actively developing our academy’s franchise program. Already, six franchises of our school are operating under this program in five cities of Russia. Interest is very high, applications are received almost every day. Over the past four years, the Avangard brand has really become very strong and prestigious.

Is it your idea to organize hockey lessons in secondary schools in Omsk? How is the project progressing?

— Yes, last year we launched a pilot project with the government of the Omsk region. In the first year, 10 schools took part, involving first-year students. This is a full-fledged physical education lesson: in the warm season – floorball, in the cold – ice lessons.

All the infrastructure for this in the schools already existed thanks to our mass hockey program. The feedback on the results of the first year has been excellent – both from children and from parents, teachers, school leaders. It was surprising to me that the girls are interested in these courses and like them as much as the boys.

This school year, it was decided to expand the project – to the ten schools that have already participated in it, where first and second year students play hockey, five more new schools have been added, where first year students go on the ice. In total, only 65 CP and 46 CP are concerned today, the total number of children is 3172 (1489 boys and 1683 girls). Here is such a statistic.

It’s good that our project has already been noticed at the federal level. As far as I know, the FHR and KHL have the task of extending such a program to other regions of Russia.

“Avangard Academy is the top of our selection funnel”

— You mentioned the mass hockey program in Omsk. Is it the construction of ice rinks?

– The Academy is a place where the most talented guys come. This is the top of our so-called selection funnel. In order not to miss anyone and to make the widest possible choice, you need to start with the lowest mass level.

Thanks to Gazprom Neft, 32 boxes throughout the city have been built and equipped with everything necessary. As a rule, these are boxes in schoolyards. In schools there are teams where children study as an option. Today, 96 teams participate in the program, nearly 2,000 children are involved.

The coaching staff for the Grassroots Hockey Program and the Lesson at School Program is provided by the HC Avangard system. We do not plan to stop, we want to build new boxes already outside the city – in the Omsk region. We see great potential and interest among local residents.

So, a child from Omsk begins to get acquainted with hockey from an early age – from the first year. If he is interested, he goes to the mass hockey team, where the children are older. All teams in this program are scouted by academy scouts, so the top guys first enter the youth sports school and then go straight into the academy at HC Avangard. Separately, I note that at all stages of training is completely free. And during the four years of the mass hockey development program, more than 200 children have already transferred to the academy.

“We are creating a new sports and technical industry in Russia”

— In addition to the development of hockey in Omsk, Gazprom Neft and the G-Drive brand have their own racing team, of which you are the leader. Last year, your motorsport project G-DriveRacing turned 10 years old. How do you assess the results of this decade?

– In short, G-DriveRacing has seven championship titles in key international championships in 10 years, as well as a number of victories in individual endurance races. It is a huge experience, and now we are using it successfully in our country.

After the effective closure of international competitions for us, we quickly launched a program to support and develop motorsport in Russia. Almost all major racing series in the country are now supported by Gazprom Neft. I think there is every reason to evaluate the results positively.

How do you think Russian motorsport feels now? What to expect from the upcoming season?

— We can see the growing interest of the public, especially when it comes to young people. And on our side, we are doing everything to strengthen this interest. Our plans for this year’s motorsport season are in the works. It will be an interesting struggle in endurance racing, rally raids, circuit racing, drifting and cyber racing, as well as supporting and organizing large-scale car culture events. We only intend to increase our support for motorsport.

The task is to bring more motor sportsmen, young engineers and other necessary specialists to Russia. With such development, we will create a whole new sports and technical industry for the country in a fairly short period of time. The objective is ambitious, but we are not setting ourselves other objectives.