Arena Lviv ( uk, Арена Львів) is a football stadium in

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. It was one of the eight

UEFA Euro 2012 The 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2012 or simply Euro 2012, was the 14th European Championship for men's national football teams organised by UEFA. The final tournament, held between 8 June and 1 ...

venues, where it hosted three of the group-stage games. According to the official plans, the stadium has a total seating capacity of 34,915. Both clubs

FC Lviv FC Lviv ( uk, ФК «Львів», pl, FK Lwów) is a Ukrainian professional football club from the city of Lviv, that competes in the Ukrainian Premier League. While the first president of FC Lviv Oleksandr Didenko insisted that FC Lviv of 1 ...

and Rukh Lviv use the stadium for home games.

Home field

It was the home field of

FC Karpaty Lviv Football Club Karpaty Lviv ( ) is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club based in Lviv. History Early years (1963–68) The team of Karpaty was founded on 18 January, 1963 in association football, 1963. In 1961 Silmash Lvi ...

in 2011–12.FC Karpaty to play at Arena Lviv stadium

Kyiv Post The ''Kyiv Post'' is the oldest English-language newspaper in Ukraine, founded in October 1995 by Jed Sunden. History American Jed Sunden founded the ''Kyiv Post'' weekly newspaper on Oct. 18, 1995 and later created KP Media for his holdings. ...

(29 November 2011) But Karpaty only played five games at it and returned to its original home field due to the lease price. Another club

Hoverla Uzhhorod Football Club Hoverla Uzhhorod ( ) was a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club based in Uzhhorod. Following the end of the 2015–16 Ukrainian Premier League, 2015–16 season it was expelled from the Ukrainian Premier Leagu ...

also played a home game at the stadium, due to reconstruction of Avanhard Stadium in

Uzhhorod Uzhhorod ( uk, У́жгород, , ; ) is a city and municipality on the river Uzh in western Ukraine, at the border with Slovakia and near the border with Hungary. The city is approximately equidistant from the Baltic, the Adriatic and the B ...

. Due to the conflict in their home city,

Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk ( uk, Футбольний клуб «Шахтар» Донецьк , short nickname "miners") is a Ukrainian professional football club from the city of Donetsk. In 2014, due to the War in Donbass, the club was f ...

played its home games at the stadium between July 2014 and December 2016.

Overview

Construction work began on 20 November 2008 and was completed by October 2011. The opening ceremony took place on 29 October, with a vast theatrical production dedicated to the history of Lviv and with the concert of the pop-star

Anastacia Anastacia Lyn Newkirk ( ; born September 17, 1968) is an American singer, songwriter and former dancer. Her first two albums '' Not That Kind'' (2000) and '' Freak of Nature'' (2001) were released in quick succession to major success. Spurred o ...

. The first football match in the stadium was played on 15 November 2011, between

and

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, ending with a score of 2–1. The first player to score a goal in the new stadium was

Artem Milevskyi Artem Volodymyrovych Milevskyi ( uk, Артем Володимирович Мілевський, be, Арцём Уладзіміравіч Мілеўскі; born 12 January 1985) is a Ukrainian former professional footballer who played as a se ...

in the 16th minute (the second was an own goal and the third was scored by

Marko Dević Marko Dević ( sr-Cyrl, Марко Девић; ukr, Марко Девiч, Marko Devich; born 27 October 1983) is a retired football player. A naturalized Ukrainian citizen since 2008, Serbian-born Dević made his international debut for his a ...

in the 91st minute).

Construction

The original architectural firm for the project was ''

Hochtief Hochtief AG is a German construction company based in Essen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.Dnipro Arena Dnipro, previously called Dnipropetrovsk from 1926 until May 2016, is Ukraine's fourth-largest city, with about one million inhabitants. It is located in the eastern part of Ukraine, southeast of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on the Dnieper Rive ...

. They made a presentation of their design on 21 May 2007 and proposed the name of Lemberg. The capacity of the stadium was originally planned to be 32,000, at a total cost of 70.4 million

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

s. It was planned that the stadium would be erected prior to 2010. The Hochtief representatives met with Andriy Sadovy and Myroslav Senyk (the head of the local regional council). Lviv officials claimed that the arena would cost 60 million euros, with 75% of the amount to be paid by an investor and 25% by the city government. In early 2008, Hochtief was replaced by the Austrian company ''AlpineBau''. After almost a year of discussions, no works had begun and by 10 October 2008 AlpineBau had rejected the city's bid of 85 million euros, requesting at least 100 million. On 23 October 2008, Lviv's administration contacted ISD (Industrial Union of

Donets Basin The Seversky Donets () or Siverskyi Donets (), usually simply called the Donets, is a river on the south of the East European Plain. It originates in the Central Russian Upland, north of Belgorod, flows south-east through Ukraine (Kharkiv, Don ...

). ISD is a major transnational industrial corporation in Eastern Europe, combining several industries including mining, construction, metallurgy, machine-building, and others. As time was limited, municipal officials held talks with another Austrian architectural company, Albert Wimmer, which designed the Hypo-Arena in

Klagenfurt Klagenfurt am WörtherseeLandesgesetzblatt 2008 vom 16. Jänner 2008, Stück 1, Nr. 1: ''Gesetz vom 25. Oktober 2007, mit dem die Kärntner Landesverfassung und das Klagenfurter Stadtrecht 1998 geändert werden.'/ref> (; ; sl, Celovec), usually ...

. Together with another local company ''Arnika'', they came up with the design for the Ukrainian stadium. On 7 November, the Ministry of Economics appointed the project-construction company ''Azovinteks'' as the general contractor which immediately sent about one hundred of its workers, along with equipment, to Lviv. Azovinteks is based in

Mariupol Mariupol (, ; uk, Маріу́поль ; russian: Мариу́поль) is a city in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It is situated on the northern coast (Pryazovia) of the Sea of Azov, at the mouth of the Kalmius River. Prior to the 2022 Russian i ...

and is part of the ISD group. The website, turnir.com.ua, referencing the declaration of the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers said that in April 2010 the government of Ukraine transferred the stadium into the sphere of control of the Ministry of Sport, Family, and Youth in order to stabilize and accelerate the construction of the stadium. Previously, the stadium was the property of the Lviv communal venture "Directorate for construction of a stadium in Lviv". On 23 June 2010, the deputy chairman of the Lviv Oblast State Administration (LODA) Volodymyr Hubytsky informed the members of Lviv's council that the financing of Euro-2012 in the city of Lviv had been increased by five billion

hryvna The or ( ; uk, гривня , : ''hrn''; sign: ₴; code: UAH) has been the national currency of Ukraine since 2 September 1996. The hryvnia is divided into 100 . It is named after a measure of weight used in medieval Kievan Rus'. Name Etym ...

(from 5.3 to 10.3 overall). Hubytsky also said the government had confirmed the State Aiming Program for the preparation of the final stage of Euro-2012. The Lviv Oblast was assigned up to 16.4 billion hryvnas to completely cover the construction of the stadium and the city's airport. The head of the oblast administration also stated that rates of construction were increased and by August 30 the stands' carrying structure for the second tier would be installed. Hubytsky said that a consensus was found with the state company "Lviv Armored-Tank maintenance plant" which agreed to surrender part of its territory for the construction of approachable road access and various engineer networks for the stadium. ;Construction financing The deputy chairman said that 345 million hryvnas were spent on all construction projects in 2010, which was one and a half times more than the previous couple of years (216 million). The state program estimated the financing of all Euro-2012-related projects at 5.7 billion hryvnas, out of which 4 billion would come from the state budget, 1.35 from investors, and the rest .36 billion from the local budget. For the stadium only, the program assigned some 1.65 billion hryvnas, out of which .31 billion (.23 - state, .08 - Lviv) were released at the start of construction and 180 billion in 2010.

Plans

The stadium's capacity is anticipated to be 34,915 spectators including 450 VIP sittings as well. All seats will be covered, while part of the roof assembly will be transparent to provide sufficient sunlight for the turf. The stadium's parking will be located underneath the arena which will consist of three levels. The parking for VIP will include 1,593 spaces. Parking for tele- and radio-media agencies will include (). There also will be parking for the disabled and special elevators will provide passage to seats that are also designed and reserved to accustom the necessary personnel. The western portion of the stadium long will include: *concert-halls, *VIP clubs and restaurants () *media-center () *various training centers () *administration offices () *offices with a restaurant ()

Location and transportation

;Roads The stadium is located in the southern part of Lviv city, near the intersection of the city's

beltway A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop, bypass or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city, or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist i ...

( uk, Кільцева дорога) M10/ M06 and the route

E471 Mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids ( E471) refers to a naturally occurring class of food additive composed of diglycerides and monoglycerides which is used as an emulsifier. It is also used as a fruit coating agent. This mixture is also some ...

/ M06 (locally,

Stryi Stryi ( uk, Стрий, ; pl, Stryj) is a city located on the left bank of the river Stryi in Lviv Oblast (region) of western Ukraine 65 km to the south of Lviv (in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains). It serves as the administrative cen ...

ska Street)
more info
. Note that the city's beltway is part of the route E40 that connects

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

, Wroclaw,

Rzeszów Rzeszów ( , ; la, Resovia; yi, ריישא ''Raisha'')) is the largest city in southeastern Poland. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River in the heartland of the Sandomierz Basin. Rzeszów has been the capital of the Subcarpathian Vo ...

, Lviv,

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

, and

Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Sykhiv municipal raion of

, while the stadium is situated right next to the Sykhiv residential massif. The stadium is located next to a

hippodrome The hippodrome ( el, ἱππόδρομος) was an ancient Greek stadium for horse racing and chariot racing. The name is derived from the Greek words ''hippos'' (ἵππος; "horse") and ''dromos'' (δρόμος; "course"). The term is used i ...

. ;Airport The easiest access to the

Lviv International Airport Lviv Danylo Halytskyi International Airport ( ua, Міжнародний аеропорт "Львів" імені Данила Галицького) is an international airport in Lviv, Ukraine. The airport is second largest and busiest airpor ...

is by the beltway and the route M11. The airport lies northwest from the stadium. ;Metro/trams The city of Lviv is famous for its trams network. Since Ukraine won the bid for the Euro-2012 there were discussions on extending the network to the southern edge of the city under the name ''Trams to Sykhiv'', as well as revival of the idea of a local subway system. Neither went forward due to "money vacuuming" out of the local budget. On 1 December 2009, the city of Lviv opened a line of a ''railbus'' that ran from Sykhiv to Pidzamche stopping at the

Lviv Rail Terminal Lviv-Holovnyi railway station ( ua, Льві́в-Головни́й) is the main railway terminal in Lviv, Ukraine. It is one of the most notable pieces of Art Nouveau architecture in former Galicia. The station was opened to the public in 190 ...

as well. However, on 15 June 2010, the line was closed down due to being unprofitable.
Map on the European road network in Ukraine

Other stadiums in Lviv

There are two other major stadiums in the city. One of them is the

Ukraina Stadium Ukraina Stadium ( uk, стадіон Україна) is a multi-purpose stadium in Lviv, Ukraine. It is currently used mostly for association football matches, and is the home of FC Karpaty Lviv. "Ukraina" is also an alternative stadium for the U ...

which is leased to

until 2018. Ukraina Stadium is also one of the main alternative stadiums of the

Ukrainian national football team The Ukraine national football team ( uk, Збірна України з футболу) represents Ukraine in men's international football and is governed by the Ukrainian Association of Football, the governing body for football in Ukraine. Ukr ...

. Another major stadium in Lviv is the SKA Stadium. Both Ukraina and SKA are located in much closer proximity to the centre of Lviv than Arena Lviv.

UEFA Euro 2012 matches

The stadium was one of the venues for the

. Three group B matches were played there (with the other matches in that group played at

Metalist Stadium "Metalist" Oblast Sports Complex ( uk, Обласний спортивний комплекс "Металіст"), which includes the Metalist Stadium ( uk, Стадіон "Металіст"), is a multi-use stadium in Kharkiv, Ukraine. It is us ...

, Kharkiv). The following matches were played at the stadium during the UEFA Euro 2012:

2018 World Cup qualifications disqualification

On 27 September 2013, FIFA Disciplinary Committee adopted a decision about disqualification of the stadium starting from 27 September 2013 and throughout the whole period of preliminary qualification for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...

.For what really they punished Ukraine
tribuna. 30 September 2013

Gallery

File:Завжди вірні.jpg, Fans of

Karpaty Lviv Football Club Karpaty Lviv ( ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Lviv. History Early years (1963–68) The team of Karpaty was founded on 18 January, 1963. In 1961 Silmash Lviv won the championship of Lviv Oblast but lost its p ...

: "Always Loyal"