The team's 2004 promotion to the Russian Premier League gave local fans a chance to see some of the nation's best teams play at the city's own stadium.
Tomsk has many local media outlets including the TV2 television station, the radio stations Radio Siberia and Echo of Moscow in Tomsk along with several newspapers (Tomskii Vestnik,Tomskaya Nedelya, Krasnoye Znamya and Vechernii Tomsk).
In April 2006 Tomsk received international media attention as the venue of a major summit on economic cooperation, held in the city between Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Tomsk was the name given by children's author Elizabeth Beresford to one of her fictional characters The Wombles, all of whom are named after places
