VTB Arena – construction description

Initial concept was presented in 2010, before Russia officially announced their bid to host the 2018 World Cup. The plan was to fit a new stadium and indoor hall inside the existing historical bowl of Stadion Dinamo. The new football-specific stadium was to hold up to 45,000 people, while multi-sport hall another 12,770.

In 2011-2012 the design was evolving, which in practice meant mostly scaling down by Manica Architecture. This was partly associated with the venue not being selected for the 2018 tournament by FIFA, making its satisfying capacity below 30,000. Staircases were fitted inside the bowl instead of outside, retractable roof was scrapped, while external cladding got simplified. All this allowed for estimated cost to halve.