This is the optimistic scenario, possible only if contractors aren’t changed and don’t work slower than they do now. Then October 2015 is the expected deadline for the arena that was due in late 2009…

Though it’s already freezing in Saint Petersburg, work on Krestovsky Island is going forward every day. It has to, because delays and postponements already caused a 6 year slip! General contractor was expected to be changed in November as Transstroy wasn’t handling the project too well (although much of the blame has to go on designers as well).

But the switch didn’t happen, because it would inevitably mean further months of delays as one company would need to leave the construction site and another moving in.

As works are going fast right now, there’s still hope to meet the ‘optimistic’ deadline of late 2015 (pessimistic one is 2017). Talking to BaltInfo press agency, head of municipal Construction Commission Andrey Arteev assured that so far it’s going well. “If the contractor won’t be changed, then – at the current rate of construction – the deadlines will be met and the stadium will be completed in October 2015,” he stated.  

“We are continuously monitoring the works on the site,” Andrey Arteev told BaltInfo. "As a result of the check, the Russian Accounts Chamber has issued a number of observations, which are now being fixed. By the end of the year we expect to receive the conclusion of the state's examination.”