The $280M Kaliningrad Stadium will host four matches at this summer's World Cup.GETTY IMAGES
Rising out of a "formerly undeveloped swampy area" in Kaliningrad, Russia, a "gigantic, glistening" $280M stadium "appeared this year," one of six new arenas Russia built for the World Cup, according to Andrew Kramer of the N.Y. TIMES. It is a "bumper crop of new stadiums that, even by World Cup standards, appear out of proportion with the small crowds drawn by local teams" like second-tier club Baltika, which will use the venues after the tournament. Their construction, at a cumulative cost estimated at $11B along with related infrastructure, "illustrates how sports, as with the oil and mining businesses, has become integral to how the Kremlin and Russia's ultra-wealthy financiers, known as the oligarchs, do business together." Anti-corruption group Transparency Int'l Deputy Dir Ilya Shumanov said, "Authoritarian regimes love megasports projects. Huge sums are distributed from the budget. It's bread and circuses at the same time." The stadium in Kaliningrad is among those that went to cities with no top-tier football team. In one instance, a stadium with 45,000 seats was built in Saransk, a city with a population of 297,000. Kaliningrad’s residents "have been scratching their heads over what to do with the stadium when the World Cup is over." The 35,000-seat venue will host four tournament matches in June and then pass to Baltika, which last year drew an average of 4,000 spectators to matches. Regional Governor Anton A. Alikhanov said that the stadium and related football spending "will only benefit Kaliningrad." It helped pay for new ribbons of asphalt on roads, an airport upgrade and the filling of swampland. Adding to the "perplexity" is the fact that Kaliningrad already had a stadium. Opened in 1900, it is "one of the oldest" football arenas in Europe. Critics said that refurbishing that stadium "would have been far cheaper" (N.Y. TIMES, 5/27).
