Surface Grass Opened 2017 Owner FC Zenit Saint Petersburg | Broke ground 2007 Capacity 66,881 Architect Kisho Kurokawa | |
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Location Saint Petersburg, Russia Construction cost $1.1 billion— $1.4 billion (May 2015) Address 1, Futbolnaya al., 1, St Petersburg, Russia, 197110 Similar Krestovsky Island, Petrovsky Stadium, Luzhniki Stadium, Otkrytiye Arena, Krestovsky Ostrov Profiles | ||
The Krestovsky Stadium (Russian: Стадион «Крестовский»), also called Zenit Arena, is a football stadium in the western portion of Krestovsky Island in Saint Petersburg, Russia, which is currently under construction. It will host the home matches of FC Zenit Saint Petersburg. The stadium was planned to be completed by December 2008, which was changed to late 2011. It is now proposed that the stadium is scheduled to open in 2017. The stadium will have a capacity of 68,134 people. It will be called Saint Petersburg Stadium during the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup and 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Overview
The competition between architectural project was won by Kisho Kurokawa's "The Spaceship". The design of the stadium is a modified and enlarged version of Toyota Stadium in Toyota City, Japan, which was also designed by Kurokawa. The stadium is being built on the location where the former Kirov Stadium used to stand before it was demolished.
In January 2009 the The St. Petersburg Times reported that the project was now to be funded by the city government of St Petersburg, with Gazprom switching to build a separate skyscraper project. City Hall had to step in after Gazprom declined to invest any further money into the stadium's construction.
On 25 July 2016 the general contractor, Inzhtransstroy-Spb, issued a statement that the city authorities have failed to pay 1 billion rubles ($15.8 million at the current exchange rate) worth of construction work and stopped the work. The next day the contract was terminated. On 1 August there were reports of wind damage to parts of metal sheathing, and a flood.
At the end of August 2016, new general contractor, Metrostroy, resumed construction works on the site.
On October 27, the first match was held at the stadium. In a friendly game, the team of construction workers defeated the team of the Metrostroy company 6-2.
In early November, a FIFA commission discovered that the retractable playing field was unstable, vibration levels were seven times higher than the accepted level. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko assured that a solution to the problem would be found.