VTB Arena

Not to be confused with another stadium in Moscow named VEB Arena or another ice hockey stadium in Moscow named CSKA Arena.

This article is about the current venue. For the demolished stadium at the same site, see Central Dynamo Stadium.

VTB Arena

Address	36 Leningradsky avenue Moscow Russia
Coordinates	55°47′29″N 37°33′35″E
Elevation	Central Stadium: 55 m (180 ft) (Floor count 6) Universal Arena: 35 m (115 ft) (Floor count 6)
Public transit	Dinamo Petrovsky Park
Parking	~700 cars
Owner	BM-Bank JSC
Operator	VTB Arena LLC
Type	Sports and concert and entertainment complex
Capacity	Central Stadium 33 000 (max) Detailed capacity Football: 25 716 Concert : 33 000 Universal Arena 14 000 (max) Detailed capacity Ice Hockey: 10 721 Basketball 1: 12 273 Basketball 2: 9 800 Concert : 14 000
Field size	Football field 105×70m Ice rink 60x26m
Acreage	206,210 sq.m land plot is 23.1 he
Construction
Built	March 2014 (2014-03) – 27 November 2018 (2018-11-27)
Opened	Central Stadium: 26 May 2019 (2019-05-26) Universal Arena: 4 January 2019 (2019-01-04)
Construction cost	₽ 26 billion (€ 350,9 million in 2018) Central Stadium: ₽ 9 billion (€ 121,5 million in 2018)
Architect	Erick van Egeraat Mikhail M. Posokhin of Mosproject-2 David Manica of MANICA Architecture SPEECH ABD architects
Builder	VTB Bank
Project manager	CJSC Dynamo Management Company
General contractor	Codest International S.r.L.
Main contractors	FPC Satori LLC
Tenants
FC Dynamo Moscow (2019 – present) HC Dynamo Moscow (2019 – present)
Website
vtb-arena.com/en/

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.

Dynamo Stadium in 2008

History

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, 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. 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.

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.

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

Design

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.

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

Concerts

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. In June 2018, the show was moved to Luzhniki Stadium because VTB Arena was not completed by the expected date. 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.

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.

Football stadium

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. 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. 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, which ended a 3–3 draw, in front of 23,340.

2018 FIFA World Cup bid

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

Hockey arena

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. On 17 February 2019, the arena hosted the VTB United League allstar game.

2019 EuroLeague Final Four

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. 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

• List of football stadiums in Russia
• List of indoor arenas in Russia
• List of European ice hockey arenas

External links

• Official site (in Russian)
• Official site #2
• The new stadium by designer Eric van Egeraat
• Project after adjustment by MANICA Architecture
• Construction progress at StadiumDB.com
• VTB Arena renderings at StadiumDB.com