St. Petersburg World Cup Venue Opens To Mixed Reviews

A Russian stadium built for the 2018 World Cup and "dogged by problems has opened to the public with mixed reviews," according to the AP. The 68,000-capacity stadium in St. Petersburg hosted 10,000 locals for a free extreme sports show designed to test the arena's "security system, logistics and other systems," according to Deputy City Governor Igor Albin. The stadium has been "almost a decade in construction and experienced repeated problems including worker deaths, soaring costs, fraud investigations and frequent delays." Some visitors were "impressed with the stadium's spaceship-like design and lighting," but others criticized the 43B ruble ($738M) price tag. Andrei Zaraisky, a construction specialist, said that he would have preferred "to have the money spent on new schools, help for orphans, pensioners and disabled people instead" (AP, 2/11).