The CSKA Russian Penguins spent a month preparing a variety show to celebrate the last game of the Russian NHL stars' goodwill tour of their home country. They outfitted a special VIP box for President Boris Yeltsin, complete with a TV and VCR for instant replay. They were set to reap mega-bucks in sky box sales and sponsorships.


Then, Russian bureaucracy took over.


Just over 48 hours before the face-off of the National Hockey League players' final game Monday night, a high-level meeting at the Kremlin Cup tennis tournament resulted in a decision to move the game from CSKA's home rink to the more spacious Luzhniki Sports Arena.


Cloaked in good intentions, the decision to move the game backfired. Organizers had little time to inform fans of the change, and the CSKA Russian Penguins were left without a game to host in what they had expected would be their largest event of the year.


According to Vsevolod Kukushkin, the tour's press secretary, the venue change was decided Saturday after a meeting among Moscow Mayor Yury Luzkhov, Yeltsin's sports adviser Shamil Tarpischev, CSKA general manager Valery Gushin and CSKA coach Viktor Tikhonov.


Gushin was upset about the decision. "It gave us huge problems," he said.


Ostensibly, the move was for the benefit of Muscovites eager to see their NHL heroes, home in Russia during the North American league's lockout. The appeal of the larger venue was more seats at lower prices, with kids under 14 admitted free.


But the real beneficiaries appeared to be Moscow's leading politicians, who gathered with Yeltsin, Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, Luzhkov and others in the more expansive VIP seating at Luzhniki. Defense Minister Pavel Grachev could be seen enthusiastically cheering as the CSKA Russian Penguins -- the current incarnation of the former Soviet Red Army team -- mounted a spirited third-period rally before losing, 6-5.


"CSKA's ice rink doesn't have so many special seats," said Kukushkin. "Our high-ranking officials are accustomed to special seats, and at Luzhniki, there are several rows for the VIPs."


But overall, the Luzhniki rink was only about half-full -- about 6,300 spectators, not many more than the 5,500-seat capacity at CSKA Ice Palace on Leningradsky Prospekt. It was a poor showing compared with the standing-room-only crowd of more than 10,000 that watched the NHL stars at their preceding game in Novosibirsk. Also, the hastily prepared ice at Luzhniki failed to allow for a fast-moving game.


Yakov Shapkhin, one of Tarpischev's sports deputies, conceded that "not all that was done here was very pretty."


Tour organizer Gelani Tovbulatov, president of Moscow's Spartak hockey club, acknowledged that the organizers had goofed: "It was a mistake from the point of view of getting more fans and because we had little time to prepare."


The Moscow mayor's office had no comment on the decision and referred questions to the Moscow Sports Committee. A spokesman at the committee said it played no role in the decision.


Admissions of error were little consolation for CSKA. "We estimate we lost about $250,000 in boxes and potential sponsors," said Steve Warshaw, the club's head of sales and marketing. The team, now backed by investors from the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins and Anaheim Mighty Ducks, is the most "Americanized" in the Russian league in terms of marketing and promotions.


Beyond the revenue and prestige the game would have earned CSKA, the club also saw its jazzy intermission program -- including ice dancing by Russian Olympians and tennis-on-ice by Russian stars Andrei Medvedev and Yevgeny Kafelnikov -- co-opted by the organizing committee for Luzhniki.


"It was like going to a ball and seeing your date dancing with somebody else," Warshaw said after the game.


Kurt Kiesling was one of the fans caught in the shuffle. "We bought five of the premier tickets, center ice, sixth row up, $50 each, and got to the CSKA stadium an hour early," he said. There, he found the building shut down.


Kiesling and other fans were directed to get on buses -- provided by Luzhkov's office -- to take them to Luzhniki. But when he got to the stadium, he was told he needed to buy new tickets. "We ended up sitting completely in the boondocks," he said, adding that CSKA told him it would refund his money. "It was a complete fiasco."


Sun Microsystems, which spent $60,000 to sponsor the tour, did little better. After the venue change, the California-based computer company was told it could not put its banners up at Luzhniki. The company's Moscow office manager had to take matters into his own hands.


"We went to Luzhniki at midnight Sunday without permission, got the door open and without asking anybody started to put up our banners," Arvind Deogirikar said.


Kukushkin reflected on the confusion brought about by the move. "It was an illogical decision," he said. "We all know CSKA has a better arena, but Russia is a country where logic wasn't born."