Russia's state-controlled gas major Gazprom intends to take on the Omsk government's sponsorship of KHL team Avangard, more than doubling its financing to $30 million annually, the company's CEO Alexei Miller said Wednesday.
Avangard, which lost last month's Gagarin Cup final to Dynamo Moscow last month, currently receives $12 million from Gazprom, with the local government also contributing millions, Miller said.
"Gazprom will increase its financing of Avangard by 2.5 times. The budget of the hockey club will be more than 1 billion rubles," he said.
Former Gazprom official Viktor Nazarov was sworn into office as Omsk region governor on Wednesday, immediately signing a regional development agreement with Miller.
It wasn't clear if that included the Avangard deal, which would effectively relieve the government of its financial burden to the club.
Before entering office, Nazarov had vowed to seek alternative sources of finance to the Omsk regional budget, calling the hockey team "too expensive a toy" for the tax-payer.
Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich last month donated the $70 million Arena Omsk, where the team plays its home games, to Avangard.
The team had rented the 10,000-capacity arena since it opened in 2007.
