A new ice field. Zorky Stadium, Krasnogorsk. Autumn 2002

Ball hockey, or "Russian hockey," was the favorite game of our fathers, which in the 1950s and 1960s gathered full mela stadiums. Since the 1990s, the game lost most of its fans, and with them the support of the administrative state structures, television and the press. Ball hockey has remained a popular folk sport only in areas of northern Russia and Siberia. It is impossible to restore interest in this game and make it more spectacular without an artificial ice surface. In the world practice of bandy it is noted that the presence of artificial ice covering stadiums with appropriate training of players allows to show the game of high class, and this is the filling of stadiums with spectators and as a consequence, the advertising, attention of TV and press. All of this has been severely lacking in domestic ball hockey in recent years, which to some extent explains its failures. After analyzing the state of the sport the Presidium of the Russian Ball Hockey Federation adopted a resolution on making it compulsory for all club teams of the top league to have their own stadium with an artificial surface of the playing field.