Present glorious, future tense
WHITE ELEPHANTS Billions pumped in but most of the 12 expensive stadia in Russia look set to remain largely empty after the tournament is over in July
Russia looks set to pack fans into the stadiums for the World Cup. But what happens then? Several of the 12 stadiums look set to remain largely empty after the teams have left Russia and the tournament is over.
It’s a problem both for Russia — whose $10.8 billion World Cup price tag could be inflated by loss-making arenas — and for FIFA, which has a history of leaving host nations lumbered with under-used stadiums, so-called white elephants.
Club team Rotor Volgograd will occupy a new 45,000-seat World Cup stadium despite averaging home crowds of just 3,800 this season, while Baltika Kaliningrad will inherit a 35,000-seat arena with average crowds of 6,100. Sochi has a 48,000-seat stadium but no professional team.
Older fans in Volgograd remember Rotor knocking Manchester United out of the UEFA Cup in 1995, but the club last played top-flight football in 2004 and has longstanding financial problems. It’s facing relegation to the Second Division South — Russia’s lowest professional level. Fans say that if Rotor is to rise again it’ll need government money to maintain the stadium and sign star players. Volgograd mayor Andrei Kosolapov is hunting for a sponsor for Rotor. In Russian soccer, that often means the regional government, or else a stateowned company prepared to tolerate heavy losses. Russian billionaires typically prefer investing in glamorous foreign clubs like Chelsea, Arsenal or Monaco.
Russians are keen to see World Cup games and lead the world on ticket sales. But few go to see local clubs play.
In a country of 144 million people, the Year of opening: 2014
Key events in the past: 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup Distance from airport: 20km from Sheremetyevo International Airport average Russian Premier League attendance this season rose to 13,971, the highest in two decades but still far below Europe’s top leagues. The second tier averaged just 2,552.
Various World Cup stadiums will cost between 200 million and 400 million rubles ($3.2 million to $6.4 million) a year each in maintenance, regional officials have estimated. And the new-stadium buzz may not last forever.
Rubin Kazan saw attendances soar when it moved into the 45,000-seat Kazan Arena, a World Cup stadium, in 2014. However, they’ve since dropped back and this season the stadium was on average more than three-quarters empty.
South Africa and Brazil are still struggling to manage World Cup stadiums from 2010 and 2014.
Four cities in Brazil have under-used stadiums like the $550 million Mare Garrincha in Brasilia, which recently hosted a game for 400 spectators. The Rio de Janeiro state government, administrators and local clubs are fighting over who should pay maintenance bills for the Maracana, which hosted the World Cup final in 2014. South Africa spent $1.1 billion on its 2010 World Cup venues, some of which are reportedly losing money.
Some Russian cities are trying to
KALININGRAD
Year of opening: 2018
Key events in the past: None Distance from airport: 25km from Aeroport Khrabrovo
Places of interest: Immanuel Kant museum, Mother Russia monument, Battle of Konigsberg memorial, etc. adapt. Stadiums in Saransk and Yekaterinburg have large temporary stands which will be removed after the tournament, reducing capacity and costs. The regional minister overseeing Saransk’s preparations, Alexei Merkushkin, said Wednesday he hoped a gym and other commercial ventures would set up at the Mordovia Arena so it breaks even in “two, maximum three years”. No tenants have signed up yet.
Almost all locals welcome Saransk’s new roads built for the tournament but some see the stadium as a burden.
After the World Cup, “who’s going to watch all these backyard-level games?” Year of opening: 1957
Key events in the past: 1959 World Allround Speed Skating Championships for Women, Distance from airport: 22km from Koltsovo airport
Places of interest: Yekaterinburg war memorial, V. Vysotskiy Museum, Sevastyanov's House, Weir on river Iset, Boris Yeltsin Presidential Center, Ganina Yama Monastery. Year of opening: 2018
Key events in the past: None Distance from airport: 5km from Saransk airport
Places of interest: Family monument, Sovetskaya Square, Cathedral of Saint Righteous Warrior Feodor Ushakov, Mordovian Republican Fine Arts Museum. Year of opening: 2018
Key events in the past: None Distance from airport: 23km from Strigino Airport
Places of interest: Chkalov Stairs, the Spit (confluence of Oka and Volga rivers), Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin, Main Fair Building, Nizhny Novgorod art gallery. Year of opening: 2018
Key events in the past: None
Distance from airport: 35km from Kurumoch International Airport
Places of interest: Samara embankment, Chapaev monument, Kubychev Square, Stalin’s bunker, Women for the defence of the motherland in 1941-1945 museum.