Stadionul Ion Oblemenco – construction description

Construction of an impressive new football stadium in Craiova was announced by mayor Lia Olguta Vasilescu before she even took office in 2012. Once in charge, she attempted to find private partners for the project but failed. Eventually a governmental program supporting major projects around the country proved the way out.

Initial design heavily inspired by the art of Constantin Brâncuși proved too expensive. Capacity was downsized from 40,000 to 30,000, design simplified significantly and as a result budget went down from €100 to some €50 million. Of that price tag only 10% will be invested by the city, the remainder comes from the Ministry of Regional Development.

Demolition of the old stadium began in December of 2014 and in May 2015 construction works finally began. With delivery initially planned in just 17 months, the 30,000-seater would have been ready in November 2016. The date was later changed to February 2017, though.