How does it feel to be on the outside looking in?
Fans visiting Russia’s Yekaterinburg for next year’s World Cup will find out when they get seated in one of two temporary stands that fill empty plots of land next to the arena — originally too small to fit FIFA rules.
Openings at each end of the stadium’s facade offer a remote view of the pitch, but no protection from the sun or rain.
Photo: AFP
Those with tickets for the extensions’ uppermost rows will stare directly at the outer edge of the refurbished Yekaterinburg Arena’s circular roof.
The Guardian said the entire ensemble might have come from “outer space” while USA Today said it “couldn’t look any scarier.”
All of which has left the construction company behind the 42m-tall extensions sounding bemused.
“This is a typical solution for sport facilities built for major international competitions,” Sinara Development director-general Timur Ufimtsev said.
The whole seating section is protected by tall railings to make sure no one falls off, he added.
The additions are to make the arena into a 35,000-seater that will shrink back down to 23,000 once the stands are dismantled when all the tourists go home.
The world media’s skeptical gaze fell on the 60-year-old stadium once it was selected as the eastern-most venue of the 12 hosting the marquee event.
The Kremlin wanted to show off Russia’s cultural diversity and settled on Yekaterinburg — the mining capital of the tsars, which has a team that played middling soccer during the Soviet era and in 2013 won promotion to the Russian Premier League.
However, the stadium’s size fell short of FIFA’s carefully spelled out “minimum capacities of 30,000” requirement for stadiums hosting group-stage World Cup matches.
Sinara Development said it also could not rebuild the arena, because it was listed as a cultural heritage site that needed to be preserved in its original form.
FIFA not only agreed, but applauded the unique way Yekaterinburg worked its way out of a potential mess.
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