By Eurohoops Team/ info@eurohoops.net
CSKA Moscow president Andrey Vatutin said that the 2020-2021 budget of the Russian club will be reduced by 25-30 percent as a result of the financial crisis due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“The management has made serious efforts to keep the squad operational in a crisis,” Vatutin said in an interview with Izvestia. “Yes, we had two star newcomers but, also, for various reasons expensive players such as Kyle Hines, Andrey Vorontsevitch, Kostas Koufos and Ron Baker left the team. The total payroll hasn’t increased. This was a very important factor because the club budget will certainly be reduced. As you know Aeroflot cut most marketing programs. Our owner Nornickel was in a difficult situation, the financing of the club will be reduced. Of course, we understand the objective difficulties and incredibly appreciate everything that Norilsk nickel has done and doing for our club. Given the depreciation of the ruble and the alleged restrictions on ticket sales, we predict that the overall budget cut will be around 25-30 percent.”
So far in offseason, CSKA has made two major signings with EuroLeague stars Tornike Shengelia and Nikola Milutinov. The 2019 EuroLeague champions parted ways with the players Vatutin mentioned while extending the contracts of star guard Mike James and swingman Darrun Hilliard.
Regarding the ending of CSKA’s partnership with Russian airline company Aeroflot, Vatutin added that the team will now have to travel to game destinations also via regular flights and not just by charter flights like before.
“We are sincerely grateful to Aeroflot for a long and I am sure mutually beneficial partnership. We hope that tone day – when the economy comes out of the crisis – we will continue to work together. Obviously, this won’t happen in the coming year because the airline now simply doesn’t generate profits. Surely the team will have to experience some inconvenience during the upcoming season and use regular flights more often.”