Samara To Spend $1.6 Billion Across Region Readying For Russia 2018

More details of infrastructure build and budgeted spends "are emerging for the 2018 World Cup in Russia," according to Paul Nicholson of INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL. The Samara region is planning to spend more than 77B rubles ($1.6B) in its preparations. The stadium component of the cost is 13.4B rubles ($272M). Located at the entrance to the city of Samara, the 45,000 capacity stadium "will be linked to major roads leading to the airport and the nearest city of Tolyatti." Arena-2018 General Dir Aleksey Milovanov said that the projects for the stadiums in Yekaterinburg and Kaliningrad "are being reviewed by central government scrutineers following an agreement to reduce capacities to 35,000 places." All the other stadium projects "are said to have received government approval." The stadium in Krestovsky Island in St. Petersburg "was said to be 60% complete." In Saransk and Volgograd, temporary stands "will be installed to increase capacity, which will be removed after the World Cup" (INSIDE WORLD FOOTBALL, 11/28).