The Volgograd Arena (russian: «Волгоград Арена») is a

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

stadium in

Volgograd Volgograd ( rus, Волгогра́д, a=ru-Volgograd.ogg, p=vəɫɡɐˈɡrat), geographical renaming, formerly Tsaritsyn (russian: Цари́цын, Tsarítsyn, label=none; ) (1589–1925), and Stalingrad (russian: Сталингра́д, Stal ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. The stadium was one of the venues 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 ...

. It also hosts

FC Rotor Volgograd SC Rotor Volgograd (russian: СK Ротор) is a Russian professional football club from the large city of Volgograd, Volgograd Oblast (formerly Stalingrad). The club will play in the third-tier Russian Football National League 2 in the 2022–2 ...

. It has a capacity of 45,568 spectators.

History

The stadium was built on site of the demolished Central Stadium, at the foot of the

Mamayev Kurgan Mamayev Kurgan (russian: Мамаев Курган) is a dominant height overlooking the city of Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad) in Southern Federal District, Southern Russia. The name in Russian means "tumulus of Mamai". The formation is domina ...

memorial complex, near the

Volga River The Volga (; russian: Во́лга, a=Ru-Волга.ogg, p=ˈvoɫɡə) is the List of rivers of Europe#Rivers of Europe by length, longest river in Europe. Situated in Russia, it flows through Central Russia to Southern Russia and into the Cas ...

. The previous stadium was built in 1958, on the site of a former

oil depot An oil terminal (also called a tank farm, tankfarm, oil installation or oil depot) is an industrial facility for the storage of oil, petroleum and petrochemical products, and from which these products are transported to end users or other stora ...

. This area was undeveloped, occupied by randomly distributed low-value buildings,

warehouse A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities ...

barrack Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are u ...

s and

ravine A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion.unexploded bombs were discovered and removed from the site.

World Cup 2018

The Arena was designed by PI Arena and

GMP GMP may refer to: Finance and economics * Gross metropolitan product * Guaranteed maximum price * Guaranteed Minimum Pension Science and technology * GNU Multiple Precision Arithmetic Library, a software library * Granulocyte-macrophage progenit ...

Architekten, the winner of an open tender. Stroytransgaz was the project's general construction contractor. Initially, local authorities estimated the total project cost, including the construction works, at 10 billion rubles. In October 2014, the preliminary construction cost of the stadium for the 2018 FIFA World Cup was adjusted to 17 billion rubles. The architectural and planning solutions implemented in the stadium focus primarily on its efficient multifunctional use. Its sports core is fully FIFA-compliant. The stadium's capacity is at 45,000 seats, including 2,280 seats in the media box, 640 seats in the VIP box, and 460 seats for people with limited mobility. A special architectural feature of the stadium is its large roof resting on a cable frame, arranged in a “bicycle wheel” pattern created by steel-wire cables. The Volgograd Arena is shaped like an overturned truncated cone 49.5 m tall and about 303 m in diameter. The façade shape is dictated by the need to fit the building compactly into the available piece of land. The stadium has 42 elevators, 24 of them adapted for people with disabilities. The ornamental pattern of the self-bearing façade structures is evocative of the traditional local wine weaving craft and Victory Day fireworks. The Volgograd Arena is equipped with a sound system with speakers by Funktion One and processing and amplification by MC2 Audio.

The stadium was inaugurated on April 3, 2018, shortly before the first

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

match on April 21, 2018. Football veterans, among them

Alexander Nikitin Alexander Konstantinovich Nikitin (russian: Алекса́ндр Константи́нович Ники́тин; born 16 May 1952) is a Russian former submarine officer and nuclear safety inspector turned environmentalist. In 1996 he was accused ...

and

Valery Yesipov Valery Vyacheslavovich Yesipov (russian: Валерий Вячеславович Есипов; born 4 October 1971) is a Russian football manager and a former player. Once, Yesipov held the record for most appearances in the Russian Premier ...

, were honored in an honoring ceremony before the first match.

Services for fans

The following services are available to fans visiting the stadium: * Navigation and information support from volunteers. * Information (children registration point, stroller storage, lost and found office). * Storage room. * Audio descriptive commentary for the fans who are blind or visually impaired. The stadium has 42 elevators, 24 are suitable for disabled fans. In addition, the Arena is equipped with lifts, ramps and turnstiles for spectators with limited mobility. A separate sector of the Arena is specially made accessible for people with disabilities.

Security

By the opening of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the stadium was equipped with alarm and public alert systems, metal detectors, indicators of hazardous liquids and explosives, and the facility was serviced by 30 posts of 24-hour security posts.

2018 FIFA World Cup

After 2018 FIFA World Cup

After the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, the Arena reduced its seating capacity to 35,000 and was handed over to the local

Rotor Volgograd SC Rotor Volgograd (russian: СK Ротор) is a Russian professional football club from the large city of Volgograd, Volgograd Oblast (formerly Stalingrad). The club will play in the third-tier Russian Football National League 2 in the 2022– ...

References

External links

{{Russian Premier League venues Football venues in Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup stadiums Sports venues completed in 2018 Buildings and structures in Volgograd 2018 establishments in Russia