VTB Arena

The VTB Arena – Dynamo Central Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Moscow, Russia. It consists of an ice hockey and an association football venue. The football stadium is officially named Dynamo Central Stadium. The ice hockey venue is known as the VTB Arena.

History

The old 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

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.

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.

This page also has a version in other languages :  ВТБ Арена (russian)