Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich gifted the $70 million Arena Omsk to KHL team Avangard as promised, but the donation wasn't quite that simple, it turned out Friday.
Local media in the Siberian city reported that the team was billed the full 850 million rubles for the 10,000-capacity stadium by Abramovich's subsidiaries last month, around the time he vowed to hand it over for free.
But days before, the Chelsea owner had already signed off on a money transfer of the same value from his asset management company Millhouse, its spokesman John Mann told RIA Novosti in an emailed statement.
"For purely legal and technical reasons, the transfer of Arena Omsk was structured such that Millhouse-affiliated companies donated the 850 million rubles to Omsk Avangard as charity, which the hockey club then paid to our commercial entity that previously owned the arena," he said.
The end result was the same, Mann said.
"Just as we said from the beginning - Roman Abramovich gifted Arena Omsk to Avangard and the people of Omsk."
Before last month's transfer of ownership, the team had rented the arena from the day it opened in 2007.
Abramovich has been a longtime supporter of the hockey team, which he used to sponsor through now-defunct oil company Sibneft.
Today, the team is financed by Gazprom Neft, which bought Sibneft in 2005, and the regional government.
Avangard lost the past season's Gagarin Cup final to Dynamo Moscow in a pulsating 4-3 series comback.
