Ironically, today the city hasn’t got a football club, but will have a new stadium for football. Demolition of the historical Ion Oblemenco should start within weeks and end by the end of 2012. Then construction is to commence – evz.ro reports.

The Ion Oblemenco Stadium celebrated its 45^th anniversary on Monday and it seems this will be its last. Municipal authorities of Craiova informed that one of Romania’s largest venues will be dismantled by the end of this year to make way for a new one.

Feasibility study is already done and accepted and work on the new 30,000-capacity venue should start soon. If no delays occur, the structure should be ready for opening in 2014.

What would the stadium look like? No renderings have been disclosed so far (thumbnail above presents a different stadium design, for Arad), but mayor Olguta Vasilescu claims it would show similarities to the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Stuttgart. Obviously the similarities might be limited since capacity will be twice smaller and construction cost is expected to stay within €25 million – low even for Romania.

What may seem problematic is the fact that Craiova hasn’t got a football club since 2011, when Universitatea was first suspended and then excluded from the domestic federation. But mayor Vasilescu promises to supporters he will reactivate the team from 2013/14 season, with or without private support.