Stadionul Viitorul – stadium description

Today its western grandstand houses actual apartments, while remaining stands are unused and slowly falling into despair. No wonder, because this stadium built in 1970s is simply too large (had a starting capacity of 30,000) for any team to make proper use of it.

The idea of building it came from no other than communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu, who was born in the exact village of Scornicești, just meters away from the stadium. We call it a village, because it took quite some effort to officially declare Scornicești a town. Despite there being only one main road, the place received administrative surface of 170 square kilometers (65 sq mi), thus including residents of surrounding villages in its formal capacity.

Ceaușescu wanted the place to become a model socialist town, so he ordered tearing down the houses to replace them with blocks of flats. He also commissioned the stadium, one called “Stadium of the Future”. Even today its far reduced capacity is beyond the actual population of the town.

The stadium was used by FC Olt since opening. The club, commonly believed to receive much support from officials, won rapid promotion to the Romanian top league and played there until 1990. By that time the regime and Ceaușescu himself were dead, which led to rapid decline of the team, now playing in local amateur league.