By Paul Nicholson
November 18 – Russia’s first deputy prime minister Igor Shuvalov has said that the construction spend on stadia for the 2018 World Cup will remain fixed at 300 billion roubles ($6.4 billion) – the same figure that was set in 2010. Shuvalov made his remarks on a visit to Moscow’s recently complete Okritie-Arena, one of two venues in the capital that will host matches in 2018.
Shuvalov acknowledged that there were cost issues at other stadiums but said that Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko would soon decide on the site.
“As concerns other stadiums, the biggest problems are with the ones in Rostov and Kaliningrad,” said Shuvalov noted. “Vitaly Mutko will soon visit Kaliningrad to make a final decision about the site for the future stadium.”
This opens speculation that the 2018 World Cup hosting plan could in fact be reduced by one stadium. Mutko has insisted that the World Cup would be hosted in 12 venues in 11 cities. FIFA president Sepp Blatter had suggested that Russia could reduce the number of stadia required after the Brazil world Cup in the summer.
However, Mutko rejected the plan, But since then construction companies have complained that the stadium budgets in Kaliningrad in particular are not large enough to complete the projects. Mutko had initially said that the budgets would be increased if the central government planning committee agreed it as appropriate.
A reduction by one venue could help with cost over-runs in over venues.
A FIFA inspection committee last month visited four cities and five stadia. Kaliningrad was one of the sites that was viewed ‘virtually’.
Volgograd build live, on-line
You can watch the build of the stadium in Volgograd live online. The old stadium in Volgograd has been dismanteled and from December, the new stadium, entitled ‘Arena Pobeda’ (Arena Victory) will begin build.
The contractor, Stroitransgaz said the stadium is planned to be completed in 2017, costing RUB 16.5 billion.
You can watch the stadium construction live at http://www.smotri34.ru/index.jsp If you don’t read Russian the press the bottom button, which doesn’t require a log-in, to view the live stream.
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