December 8 – After much on/off deliberation, the site for the new stadium in Kaliningrad for the Russia 2018 World Cup will be on the Oktrabrskij Island, rather than on the site of the existing stadium.
Speculation had grown that Russia could drop Kaliningrad from the 2018 schedule with cost proposals being a fundamental hurdle.
However, according to Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko the 35,000-capacity stadium will not cost more than the originally planned RUB 15 billion ($279 million). The original stadium capacity was set at 45,000, but required a budget of RUB 16.5 billion ($307 million) to build.
Mutko said that the plans bring the stadium within the acceptable cost range but that construction needs to begin quickly to avoid any inflationary costs. He also said that the Oktrabrskij Island location was easily the best stadium option for the city.
Kaliningrad’s governor Nikolay Tsukanov said that the region has already began to form a task force for the project and next week it will be agreed with Russia’s sports ministry.
The project will be completed in two phases: the first phase of laying the foundations for the stadium has to be ready for April next year. That will be followed by the general stadium construction.
Russia will host the 2018 World Cup in 12 venues across 11 cities. 20 cities will serve as hosts for the 32 qualifying nations.
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