By Paul Nicholson
January 14 – Russian 2018 World Cup focus is increasingly turning to budgets and costs as the national economy falters under the pressure of declining energy prices and Western sanctions. But the government’s commitment to deliver seems undiminished despite the financial hardships.
The 2018 infrastructure build provides for a number of new stadia across the country and while it had been reported that contracts for the construction of stadiums in Yekaterinburg and Kaliningrad had been signed, that isn’t the case. Contracts are now expected to be signed in the Spring.
The Arena Baltica on Kaliningrad’s October Island will have a capacity of 35,000 seats and construction is scheduled to being in April-May. The new stadium in Yekaterinburg is designed for 45,000 spectators and has faced questions over build cost that now appear to have been settled.
But building material costs are a major issues in a market where the value of the Ruble has plummeted. The general contractor for the Zenit Arena has said that materials costs are increasing. While the builder has tried to rely on domestic suppliers (increasing the share of Russian materials to be used by 150%), it reports a lot of suppliers, including Russian, have already announced prices increases for materials of between 20-30%.
Current estimates of Russian infrastructure spend by city for the 2018 World Cup are:
– Moscow RUB 290bn (stadium 22bn)
– St. Petersburg RUB 87 bn (stadium 34.9bn)
– Volgograd RUB 41bn (stadium 16.5bn)
– Yekaterinburg RUB 15 bn (stadium 5bn)
– Kazan RUB 52 bn (no stadium costs)
– Kaliningrad RUB 75 bn (stadium 15bn)
– Nizhniy Novgorod RUB 70 bn (stadium 17bn)
– Samara RUB 77.2 bn (stadium 13.4 bn)
– Saransk RUB 15 bn (stadium 16.5 bn)
– Rostov on Don RUB 85 bn (stadium 20.2 bn)
– Sochi RUB 3-4 bn (stadium 3-4 bn)
At current exchange rates 1 Ruble is worth $0.015.
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