The VTB Arena – Dynamo Central Stadium is a multi-purpose sports complex in Moscow, Russia. It consists of an ice hockey and an association football venue. The football stadium is officially named Dynamo Central Stadium "Lev Yashin". The ice hockey venue is known as the Universal VTB Arena.[14]

VTB Arena
Map
Address36 Leningradsky avenue
Moscow
Russia
Coordinates55°47′29″N 37°33′35″E / 55.79139°N 37.55972°E / 55.79139; 37.55972
ElevationCentral Stadium: 55 m (180 ft)
  • (Floor count
  • 6)

Universal Arena: 35 m (115 ft)
  • (Floor count
  • 6)
Public transit#2 Zamoskvoretskaya line Dinamo
#11 Bolshaya Koltsevaya line Petrovsky Park
Parking~700 cars
OwnerBM-Bank JSC [1]
OperatorVTB Arena LLC
TypeSports and concert and entertainment complex
Capacity
  • Central Stadium
  • 33 000 (max)
[2]
Detailed capacity

  • Universal Arena
  • 14 000 (max)
[3]
Detailed capacity
Field sizeFootball field 105×70m[4]
Ice rink 60x26m[5]
Acreage206,210 sq.m
land plot is 23.1 he
Construction
BuiltMarch 2014 (2014-03) – 27 November 2018 (2018-11-27)[6]
OpenedCentral Stadium: 26 May 2019; 5 years ago (2019-05-26)
Universal Arena: 4 January 2019; 5 years ago (2019-01-04)
Construction cost 26 billion ( 350,9 million in 2018)
Central Stadium: 9 billion ( 121,5 million in 2018)[7]
Architect
BuilderVTB Bank[10]
Project managerCJSC Dynamo Management Company
General contractorCodest International S.r.L.[11]
Main contractorsFPC Satori LLC [12][13]
Tenants
Website
vtb-arena.com/en/
Dynamo Stadium in 2008

History

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The old Central Dynamo Stadium was closed for demolition in 2008, and the new VTB Arena was built in its place. The final design of the new stadium was done by David Manica of MANICA Architecture,[15] and the construction was originally scheduled to be finished in 2016 and then 2017, but continued into 2018. The project is called VTB Arena, even though VTB Bank attempted to sell the naming rights.[15] The football stadium has the capacity of 27,000, that can be adjusted up to 45,000, or down to an undisclosed number, while the indoor arena has a base capacity of 12,273.[3]

At the end of 2020, a facial recognition system was installed at the stadium to keep unwanted fans out. It was also expected that biometrics will replace tickets in the future.[16]

On results of 2020 the football stadium and ice arena became the winners of the IV Sport Business Awards.[17]

Design

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Central stadium “Dynamo” named after Lev Yashin
 
Multifunctional VTB Arena

The VTB Arena's initial concept was drawn by Dutch architect Erick van Egeraat, who does designs mainly for buildings in Russia and Germany. His vision of comprising both a football stadium and an ice hockey arena inside the bowl of the former Dynamo Stadion won the authorities' approval. Other architects who submitted their projects for tender, but lost out on the final bid, included Perkins Eastman, Populous, and Gerkan, Marg and Partners. However, some of the elements from the losing bids were used in the final design.[18]

The final design was prepared by the American firm MANICA Architecture.

Concerts

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On 27 December 2017, the first event was officially confirmed for the stadium, a concert by Imagine Dragons on 29 August 2018 as part of their Evolve World Tour.[19] In June 2018, the show was moved to Luzhniki Stadium because VTB Arena was not completed by the expected date.[citation needed] The stadium received official permit for use on 27 November 2018 and the first event booked was a figure skating adaptation of the "Swan Lake" by Evgeni Plushenko on 20 December 2018.[20]

Many events were booked for 2019 following the opening: concerts by Twenty One Pilots, Dima Bilan, Manowar, Hollywood Undead, Splean and Disturbed as well as the Walking with Dinosaurs show at the indoor arena and concerts by KISS (End of the Road World Tour), Rammstein (Europe Stadium Tour 2019, later moved to the higher-capacity Luzhniki Stadium after tickets were quickly sold out) and Max Korzh at the outdoor stadium. Other 2019 concerts booked at the arena were The Chemical Brothers, Christina Aguilera (The X Tour), Bi-2, Scorpions (Crazy World Tour), Mumiy Troll, Zveri, LOBODA and Sergey Lazarev at the indoor arena and Jennifer Lopez (It's My Party Tour) at the outdoor stadium. The concerts booked for 2020 included Chaif, The World of Hans Zimmer symphonic show, Diana Arbenina and Novoye Radio awards show feat. Basta, Ruki Vverh! and Little Big (all indoors). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia, 2020 bookings were limited. The concerts booked for 2021 included shows by Aerosmith, Bi-2, and Twenty One Pilots at the outdoor stadium and Powerwolf, LSP, Kasta, Kino, Aria, Artik & Asti, Enrique Iglesias, Korn, Diana Arbenina, and Pavel Volya at the indoor arena. Due to continuing waves of the COVID-19 pandemic, several 2021 shows were cancelled or rescheduled for 2022. Concerts booked for 2022 included rescheduled shows by Iron Maiden, Aerosmith, Enrique Iglesias, Powerwolf and Korn. Most of the 2022 shows were cancelled following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

2024 concerts include mostly performances by local acts, including Kino, Anton Belyaev, Dima Bilan, Egor Kreed, Kipelov, Knyazz, The Hatters and Markul.[21]

Football stadium

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On 27 November 2018, the arena confirmed that the first football game after reopening was to be played between Dynamo Moscow and Spartak Moscow (see Oldest Russian derby), initially scheduled for 10 March 2019.[22] However, on 28 February 2019, the Russian Premier League announced that its inspectors did not find the pitch acceptable for play, and the derby was moved to a backup stadium.[23] As a result, the pitch was reinstalled from scratch. On 16 May 2019, the league approved the new pitch for use and announced that the first game at the stadium played by Dynamo would be the closing game of the 2018–19 Russian Premier League season against Arsenal Tula on 26 May,[24] which ended a 3–3 draw, in front of 23,340.[25]

2018 FIFA World Cup bid

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The VTB Arena's new football stadium was included in the successful Russian bid to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup.[26] In late September 2012 FIFA announced the list of host cities and venues, which excluded VTB Arena from the host list.[27]

Hockey arena

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Ice hockey club HC Dynamo Moscow played their first game at the arena (named Arkady Chernyshev Arena for hockey games) on 4 January 2019 against Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg, winning 2–0 with attendance of 10,797.[28] On 17 February 2019, the arena hosted the VTB United League allstar game.[29]

2019 EuroLeague Final Four

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The VTB Arena's new indoor arena was reported to be chosen to host the basketball EuroLeague's final competition stage, the EuroLeague Final Four, in 2019.[30] However, EuroLeague Basketball did not confirm this report, and the tournament was in fact awarded to Fernando Buesa Arena in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Counterparty of VTB ARENA LLC". www.audit-it.ru (in Russian). 2024-03-21.
  2. ^ "VTB Arena - Central Stadium Dynamo". Archived from the original on 2017-12-02.
  3. ^ a b "Configuration". VTB-arena.com (in Russian). Retrieved 25 March 2020.
  4. ^ "strengthening of the natural lawn "firmware" SISGrass". www.sisrus.ru (in Russian). 2019.
  5. ^ "Completed Raita Sport projects in Russia and the CIS 2015-2020". www.raitasport.ru (in Russian). 2018.
  6. ^ "The reconstruction of the Dynamo stadium has been completed". www.icmos.ru (in Russian). 2018-11-27.
  7. ^ "The total cost of construction, according to the assessment of the former head of the Board of Trustees of Dynamo Moscow Sergey Stepashin". www.news.ru (in Russian). 2023-08-17.
  8. ^ "In accordance with the stadium reconstruction project, the former perimeter of the historical facades being restored was built over with a futuristic volume of complex shape, inside which the main football and small arenas were located". www.speech.su (in Russian). 2017.
  9. ^ "It's a big responsibility to design public spaces for so many people". www.abd-architects.ru (in Russian). 2017.
  10. ^ "VTB plans to invest about $1.5 billion in the reconstruction of the stadium and the construction of the Petrovsky Park project, VTB President Andrey Kostin said". www.cre.ru (in Russian). 2009-04-13.
  11. ^ "Генподрядчиком строительства "ВТБ Арена Парк" стала итальянская компания" [The Italian company became the general contractor for the construction of VTB Arena Park]. www.arendator.ru (in Russian). 2014-07-01. Archived from the original on 2024-03-22.
  12. ^ "Counterparty of VTB ARENA LLC". www.zakupki360.ru (in Russian). 2015-03-26.
  13. ^ "Vinci is eliminated from the field". www.russianrealty.ru (in Russian). 2014-05-15.
  14. ^ "О площадке".
  15. ^ a b AEG involved in massive Moscow sports complex.
  16. ^ "На стадионе "Динамо" будет система распознавания лиц. Она работает, даже если человек в маске". Sports.ru. 2021-01-27.
  17. ^ "Объявлены победители IV премии Sport Business Awards" (in Russian). SBC Magazine. Retrieved 2021-02-26.
  18. ^ ВТБ ждет подходящего момента для выгодной продажи «Динамо» (in Russian).
  19. ^ Imagine Dragons – первый официально объявленный концерт на стадионе «Динамо». Championat. 27 December 2017.
  20. ^ Плющенко: на новом стадионе "Динамо" лед мирового уровня [Plushenko: New Dynamo stadium has world-class ice surface] (in Russian). RIA Novosti. 5 December 2018.
  21. ^ "Афиша" [Arena Schedule] (in Russian). VTB Arena. Retrieved 11 August 2021.
  22. ^ Первый матч на реконструированном стадионе ФК "Динамо" проведет в марте против "Спартака" [First game at reconstructed Dynamo Stadium will be played in March between FC Dynamo and Spartak] (in Russian). TASS. 27 November 2018.
  23. ^ Комиссия РФПЛ не приняла газон стадиона «Динамо» [Russian Premier League commission did not accept the pitch at Dynamo Stadium] (in Russian). Russian Premier League. 28 February 2019.
  24. ^ Комиссия РФС и РПЛ приняла стадион «Динамо» [RFU and RPL commission accepted Dynamo stadium] (in Russian). Russian Premier League. 16 May 2019.
  25. ^ Российская Премьер-Лига 2018/2019, 30-й тур, № 236 [Russian Premier League 2018/2019, Game Day 30, Match n. 236] (in Russian). Russian Premier League. 25 May 2019.
  26. ^ "Russia's VTB Arena to be the main venue for 2018 FIFA World Cup". Archived from the original on 2011-07-07. Retrieved 2011-06-09.
  27. ^ Russia: FIFA drops two cities ahead of 2018 World Cup.
  28. ^ "Dynamo Moscow v Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg" (in Russian). Kontinental Hockey League. 4 January 2019.
  29. ^ "VTB United League All-Star Game 2019". allstar.vtb-league.com. Retrieved 2019-01-29.
  30. ^ Moscow to host EuroLeague Final Four of 2019.
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