Russian Premier League side FC Dinamo Moscow, banned from Europa League for breaking financial fair play rules, has said the club’s revenues are set to increase substantially as of '17, when its new arena is scheduled to open.
"We expect a breakthrough in revenues in two year's time when the new Dinamo stadium is put into operation," said a statement, published on FC Dinamo's website.
A spokesperson for FC Dinamo told SBD Global that the club expects, in addition to regular ticket sales, to draw revenues from running a museum and a store at the premises and renting out the stadium to non-sports events, such as concerts.
He was unable to give any projected revenue figure at this point or say what proportion in the club's total budget revenues from the new arena could account for.
VTB Arena is being built on the site where the stadium Dinamo, built in the '20s, used to be located. The project is being financed by FC Dinamo's owner, VTB bank, and foreign banks, including Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Intesa Sanpaolo, Société Générale and KfW IPEX-Bank. The inaugural match at the stadium is tentatively scheduled for Oct. '17.
FC Dinamo took fourth place in the league during the '14-15 season. The club's annual budget is about $150M.
Vladimir Kozlov is a writer in Moscow.
