The Russia-based Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) chalked up 3.5 billion rubles (over $50.3 million) in revenue for the 2017/2018 season, KHL President Dmitry Chernyshenko told journalists on Friday.

"The Board of Directors approved the distribution of a record-high sum of 400 million rubles among the clubs," Chernyshenko said. "We are very pleased to announce that our revenues are on the rise."

"The total revenue from the past season hit 3.5 billion rubles," the KHL president continued. "Our sponsorship income experienced a 20-percent increase, while the revenues from the sales of broadcasting rights jumped 15%"

The KHL president also said that the league would also shell out about 340 million rubles (about $4.9 million) to the Russian Ice Hockey Federation (RIHF).

"The provisional budget of the KHL stipulated the sum of about 340 million rubles to be paid to the RIHF," Chernyshenko said.

The Russia-based Kontinental Hockey League is also set to expand the number of its members, Chernyshenko continued, as several foreign ice hockey clubs, including from France, intended to join the league starting next season.

"I have said on numerous occasions that we are in negotiations with several clubs and we will come up with statements as soon as we reach the stage of analyzing the applications and financial documents," Chernyshenko said.

"As of now, we are only studying documents, including from French ice hockey clubs, possibly from a club in Paris with its Bercy Arena and perhaps a club from Marseilles as well," the KHL president added.

The Kontinental Hockey League was founded in Russia in 2008 and currently lists 25 professional ice hockey clubs from Russia, Belarus, China, Finland, Kazakhstan, Latvia and Slovakia.

International experts deem the KHL as the premier ice hockey league in Europe and Asia ranking it as the world’s second most important right on the heels of the US-based NHL (National Hockey League).