There are many sports arenas in the northern capital of Russia. All stadiums in St. Petersburg have their own special charm and great history.
Sports and Concert Complex "Petersburg"
The construction of the stadium began in 1970. The arena was commissioned 10 years later. This sports facility is one of the largest sports facilities in Europe. The capacity of the complex is 25 thousand places. The SCK Petersburg is only inferior to the Moscow arena SK Olympic, which is capable of accommodating 35 thousand spectators.
Almost every year major events of both a sporting and cultural nature were held in the arena. In 1980, the complex gave a concert to the Russian rock band Time Machine. A year later, Valery Leontiev gave a concert. Also in 1981, the USSR Fencing Cup was held.
In 1982, the sports and concert complex saw performances by famous skaters as part of the Stars of the World program and basketball matches of the Cup Winners' Cup. In 1983, 28 concerts in Petersburg were given by Yuri Antonov. A year later, a similar story repeated - in July 13 concerts of Alla Pugacheva took place here. The arena also hosted matches of the USSR football championship.
Over the past 25 years, concerts at Scorpions, Kino, Alisa, Nautilus Pompilus, Lyube and others have been held at the Petersburgsky SCK. In 1993, a concert was held in memory of John Lennon. In 2017, as part of a world tour, a concert in St. Petersburg will be given by the British cult band Depeche Mode.
The Zenith Palace
This St. Petersburg sports complex was built in 1976. The design of the Sports Palace was laid two years earlier. The arena is able to accommodate 3 thousand 500 spectators.
Due to the lack of intermediate supports, a standard-size football field with synthetic coating was placed in the building. The arena is illuminated by stained-glass windows, which ensure that natural light enters the palace. The entrance to the “Zenith” is highlighted by an ornament on which there is an image of a soccer ball.
Stadium "Petrovsky"
St. Petersburg is rich in football stadiums. There are two teams in the city that play in the Russian Football Premier League: FC Zenit and FC Tosno. The latter entered the top football division for the first time in its history. Until 2017, Petrovsky was the home arena of Zenit, but this year the construction of a new club stadium was completed ahead of the 2018 World Cup. Thus, Petrovsky became home in the match of the Tosno football club.
The stadium is located on the Petrovsky island of Malaya Neva. Its capacity is almost 21 thousand people. Until 1992, the arena was called the "V. I. Lenin Stadium."
Russian national team games in St. Petersburg
Petrovsky is one of the best stadiums in St. Petersburg and Russia. It was held many key matches of the national team. The first match the main team of the country held in this arena in 1997. The rival was the team of Yugoslavia, which won a minimal victory in the match.
In early summer 2005, the Russian national football team held its first official game in St. Petersburg at the Petrovsky Stadium. It was a qualifying match for the 2006 World Cup, in which the Russians beat the national team of Latvia with a score of 2-0.
In total, the Russian team held 8 official matches at this stadium. The Russian team won all the fights.
Stadium "St. Petersburg Arena"
The stadium project was developed in 2007. It took 9 years to build. At the moment, this is the best stadium in St. Petersburg. It seats almost 65 thousand spectators at football matches and 80 thousand at concert events.
The customer of the main stadium of St. Petersburg is the city Construction Committee. The bowl of stands is blocked by a dome, the diameter of which is more than 280 meters. The dome is supported by 8 masts and can be moved apart. The height of the entire building is 79 meters. The area of all premises is 287.6 thousand square meters. m. 48 billion rubles were spent on the construction. This stadium is located in St. Petersburg on Krestovsky Island and is the home arena of the Zenit football club.
In late summer 2007, Valentina Matvienko announced that the first game in the arena would be held in 2009. A year later, the date of the debut match was postponed to 2010. Already in 2010, the press service of the Transstroy Corporation announced that the arena would be open at the end of 2011. In November, it was reported that the stadium would not be commissioned until the end of 2013, and in 2012 it was announced that no games would be played in the arena until 2015.
Until the beginning of 2016, the date of commissioning of the stadium was delayed. The final permission to use the arena was issued at the end of 2016, but work to improve the stadium continued. In the spring of 2017, the first match was played at the stadium. The match was attended by Ural and Zenit. The St. Petersburg club won the game, but the first 90 minutes showed the poor quality of the St. Petersburg Arena lawn. In this regard, it was decided to transfer the match of the Russian Premier League “Zenit” - “Krasnodar” to the former stadium of the St. Petersburg club.
After one of the Confederations Cup matches in 2017, Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo complained about the quality of the lawn. According to the four-time owner of the Golden Ball, it is difficult to show high-quality football in such a field.
