Central Stadium (Yekaterinburg)

The Central Stadium is the largest sports complex in Yekaterinburg. The stadium was built in 1953-1957, has the status of a cultural heritage site and is included in the list of cultural monuments of regional significance.

General information

Official website: no

Capacity: up to 36,000 seats

Address: Ulitsa Repina, 5, Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovskaya oblast’, Russia, 620028

Years of reconstruction: 2014-2018

Field: 105×68 m

Scoreboard: electronic

Field: natural

Construction cost: more than 12.2 billion rubles

Scheme of seats, sectors, stands of the Central stadium (Yekaterinburg)

How to get to the stadium

Buses

• municipal: 21, 24, 25, 28, 61 [94] — stops “Central Stadium”, “Institute of Communications”, 43, 85, 95 — stop “Tokarey Street”;
• commercial: 2, 27, 48, 64, 04, 012, 019, 043, 045, 052, 070 — stops “Central Stadium”, “Institute of Communications”, 011 — stops “Street Melnikova”, “Eternal Flame”.
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Trolleybuses

3, 7 — stops “Central Stadium”, “Institute of Communications”.

Trams

2, 18 — stops “Melnikova Street”, “Vechnyy Ogon’”.

Subway

The nearest metro station — “1905 Square” is located one and a half kilometers from the stadium.

Stadium Facts

“Central” was built over 5 years — from 1953 to 1957. The stadium is unique in that, being a monument of architecture of the Stalinist neoclassicism, it has the status of an object of cultural significance and is carefully guarded by the state.

The Yekaterinburg Arena has become the smallest sports facility, where the matches of the Russian World Cup in 2018 were held. For the period of Mundial, the stadium could take no more than 35,000, after the tournament, due to the dismantling of two collapsible stands, the capacity was set at no more than 23,000.

The facade of the stadium is interesting location on it immediately 6 sculptures that reflect the main wealth of the Ural land: steelworker, skiers, football, arrow, metallurgist and a girl with a torch.

The place where the Central Stadium is now located was literally doomed to become sports. Back in 1900, during the period of Tsarist Russia, a velodrome was opened here. There, for a small fee, it was possible not only to watch the performances of athletes during city and regional competitions, but also to try on the role of a cycling athlete by practicing on sports equipment. The velodrome lasted more than 25 years, until it was closed in 1925. Since then, in its place appeared the Lenin Stadium, which was equipped with treadmills and a football field.

By and large, the Yekaterinburg Arena came to its modern form through 4 large-scale reconstructions: in 1925, the Lenin Stadium grew on the site of the velodrome, and later in the mid-50s it became the “Central”. In 2006-2011, the third reconstruction was carried out. Finally, in 2014-2017, the arena was prepared specifically for World Cup matches.

One summer, a force majeure, but extremely interesting case occurred at “Central”: on the eve of the match of the championship of Russia, a large hole formed in the center of the field. The fact is that right under the football field there is a water supply pipe supplying cold water to one of the districts of Yekaterinburg. So, when the soil was washed with water, a decent funnel with a diameter of more than a meter formed in the center of the lawn. Emergency Call relevant services had as it is impossible by the way, the match took place in a normal mode, and no one even paid attention to any changes in the structure and color of the grass.

The Yekaterinburg Arena was the only one from scratch or reconstructed stadiums, which before the start of the 2018 World Cup passed a kind of baptismal ceremony in the presence of officials of the Orthodox Church.

In August 2011, “Central”, when it opened after its most significant reconstruction, which gave the stadium with a “Soviet shell” a modern look, was immediately entered into the Guinness Book of Records. This was made possible thanks to the performance of the combined military orchestra, consisting of 700 performers and 40 conductors; all together they performed the official FIFA anthem — in fact, Central ended up in the book as the site of the most massive performance of the anthem of the international football federation.

Many residents of Yekaterinburg mercilessly criticized the stadium for its appearance, considering the reconstruction work a complete bad taste. People were outraged by the fact that during the repair, the historical side of the object was almost completely “killed”, for example, the facade was destroyed, but later part of it was restored.

Stadium infrastructure

The main feature of the Ekaterinburg Arena, as mentioned above, is its mobility. In the usual mode, the stadium stands can accommodate 23,000 spectators, however, if any large-scale event is suddenly held in the city, it is difficult to find a place better than the reconstructed Central. The maximum attendance during the day increases from 23,000 to 35,000: this is due to the installation of two stands assembled and disassembled according to the Lego construction principle, that is, without much effort.

During the implementation of the project, the most modern engineering solutions and technologies were adopted, but this was not the main thing: the unique feature of the reconstruction was the preservation of cultural heritage sites. During the reconstruction, more than 4 thousand square meters of historical walls were restored, architectural elements of the 50s of the XX century were recreated: bas-reliefs, sculptures, stucco decoration.

In terms of safety, the Yekaterinburg Arena is equipped with the latest technology. The hassle-free stay of football lovers, athletes and stadium employees is ensured by a ticket-entry system and a range of solutions to counter terrorist attacks. Rapid response in case of emergency allows systems to monitor engineering systems and structures (SMIS and SMIK), transmitting relevant information about the state of the stadium to the duty dispatch services of the facility 24/7 — it turns out that the “Central” now works as a single well-coordinated mechanism.

For the convenience of moving spectators between the tiers of the football arena, 26 freight elevators were installed at once, each of which is capable of supporting a weight of at least one and a half tons.

In order for the fans to be comfortable watching what is happening on the football field, two huge multimedia screens measuring 18×9 meters are installed.

If at some point in the game or during a break the fans rush to post photos or videos on social networks, then they can do it without any difficulties, since in the bowl of the “Central” and in the adjacent territory the Wi-fi signal thanks to the most powerful amplifiers is excellent.

Especially for the World Cup at the stadium they created sky-boxes and VIP-tribunes. It became easier for representatives of the press: a modern press center for up to 250 people and 4 booths for simultaneous interpretation appeared at the Yekaterinburg Arena. The commentary block has also undergone significant changes; a personal screen was be installed at the workplace of each commentator in the podium for the media, from which you can watch the game in HD quality.

Food courts, points for the work of public catering enterprises are open and functioning on each of the tiers of the stadium. There is also a cafe for 550 people here, from which you can watch what is happening on the football pitch.

Sport events

After the reconstruction of 2006-2011, the final match of the Russian Cup was held at the stadium, in which Kazan Rubin, then headed by one of the strongest domestic experts Kurban Berdyev, celebrated its victory. The then Commander-in-Chief of Kazan highly praised the preparatory work at the Central , and also praised the fans for the amazing atmosphere in the stands, urging the RFU to more often conduct such events outside of Moscow.

Of course, the most important events at the Yekaterinburg Arena took place in 2018 during the World Championship. The stadium in Yekaterinburg hosted 4 group stage meetings: first, in the most unlikely Mundial match, which was attended by just over 27,000 fans, Egypt was weaker than Uruguay — 0-1. In the next meeting with exactly the same score, the future triumph of the championship the French team defeated the team of Peru. Later, Japan issued a productive draw with Senegal 2:2, and finally, one of the main sensations of the tournament, the national team of Sweden did not notice the resistance of the Mexicans, having defeated those 3-0 and went to the playoffs.

Cultural activities

As part of a large solo concert tour of Russian cities, Alla Pugacheva, a pop star of Russia, performed a concert at the Central. The organizers were disappointed by the number of spectators who came to the Primadonna concert.

The stadium participated in the international event “Museum Night”. The entertainment and educational program at the Central was called “Not Only Football” as part of this promotion. People got the opportunity to attend evening excursions in the arena: guests of the event were given access to football locker rooms, commentator’s booths, VIP lounges, a mixed zone. In addition, anyone could take a picture at the stadium.

“Central” is ideal for large concerts, fairs, exhibitions and so on. A huge plus of the stadium after reconstruction is excellent acoustics. That is why the stadium has become a welcome concert venue for various events.