OSC Metalist Stadium

"Metalist" Oblast Sports Complex (Ukrainian: Обласний спортивний комплекс "Металіст"), which includes the Metalist Stadium (Ukrainian: Стадіон "Металіст"), is a multi-use stadium in Kharkiv, Ukraine. It is used chiefly for football matches and is the home stadium of FC Metalist 1925 Kharkiv. The stadium, which was a venue for Euro 2012, currently seats 40,003 spectators.

After FC Metalist Kharkiv financially collapsed in May 2016 professional football temporary disappeared from the stadium. In August 2016, Metalist 1925 Kharkiv made the stadium its home stadium. Shakhtar Donetsk followed suit in February 2017.

History

Construction on the stadium began in 1925 by order of Anastas Mikoyan and a decision of the Kharkiv Raion League of Steel-production Workers (Metalists). Opened on 12 September 1926, the new stadium was known as Traktor, as it was then being built by workers of the Kharkiv Lokomotive Factory (today Malyshev Factory). The stadium was built on territory of an old Holy Spirit cemetery that was active in 1772–1854 and was officially closed by the Russian Holy Synod at the end of the 19th century. On the moment of opening, it was the biggest stadium in the city until in 1931 there was built Dynamo Stadium.

Prior to World War II, the facility was renamed Dzerzhynets Stadium in honor of Felix Dzerzhinsky, the first head of the Cheka. Since 1967, it has borne its present moniker, Metalist; in that same year, the capacity of the stadium reached 10,000.

Including improvements for Euro 2012, the stadium has undergone four renovations over the course of its history. The first of these took place in the mid-1960s, when the western section of the structure was renovated. The next, begun in 1970 and finished four years later, saw the addition of the north and south stands, raising capacity to 30,000.

This page also has a version in other languages :  ОСК Металлист Стадион (russian)