For now Budivelnyk and the KHL remains a dream and Sokil Kyiv without a suitable arena and playing in the Belarusian and Ukrainian leagues the reality for the city of 2.8 million people.

Ukrainian hockey fans hope that everything will improve next year when the Sports Palace will be renovated. Sokil Kyiv plans to play the later stage of the season there after the opening and the Sports Palace’s first big hockey event for many years will be the World Championship Division I Group A, April 17-23, 2011.

The arena became the missing piece in the puzzle. The 50-year-old Sports Palace in downtown Kyiv typifies aging Soviet city halls rather than the “NHL of the East”. That’s why it will be renovated for 87 million hryvnia (€8.7m) for the 2011 IIHF World Championship Division I and should reopen its gates in March as a modernized 7,000-seat venue.

Like in other nations, professional hockey did not flourish after that because the market was not big enough for a domestic league. Since then, the country’s most storied hockey club played in the Ukrainian league with stints in the Russian second-tier league and most recently in the Belarusian Extraliga. But the KHL hasn’t been a serious option for Sokil because there was no money for a KHL budget.