November 20 – Russia’s sports minister Vitaly Mutko has said that the construction contract to build the 17 billion ruble ($365 million) stadium in Nizhniy Novgorod will be signed on November 25-26 with 50% of the payment being upfront.
But if the Russians were hoping for a cost break by reducing capacity on two other stadia, those plans have been dashed as FIFA’s general secretary Jerome Valcke said that FIFA could not accept any further reduction in stadium capacities.
FIFA has already agreed to the reduction in capacity of Moscow’s Luzhniki – currently being rebuilt. The Luzhniki will host the 2018 World Cup final. FIFA also agreed to the reduction of two further stadia by 10,000 seats to a 35,000 capacity.
However, the request for a further reduction in stadium capacity was denied as Valcke said FIFA had commitments associated with tickets sales and the capacity was already at the lower threshold of those commitments.
The Nizhniy Novgorod stadium will be completed in 2017. Alongside the stadium there will a further 12 billion Rubles ($257 million) spent locally on infrastructure projects to cover the purchase of the new building for Nizhniy Novgorod customs, metro and the reconstruction of the airport runway.
Government investment into Nizhniy Novgorod is estimated to eventually total 36 billion Rubles ($774 million).
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