<\/p>\n

Key facts<\/h3>\n

Club: FC Ural | Opening: 1957 | Capacity: 45,000 seats<\/p>\n

History and description<\/h3>\n

The Ekaterinburg Arena, then still called Central Stadium, was built between 1953 and\u00a01957. The stadium was initially a multi-sports arena, also hosting athletics and ice skating events.<\/p>\n

Central Stadium, with a capacity of 27,000, remained largely unchanged in the next decades until plans were made in the mid 2000s to extensively redevelop the stadium. Works started in 2007, and, after multiple delays, were completed\u00a0in 2011, giving the stadium an extensive make-over, but keeping the athletics track and sticking with a similar capacity as before.<\/p>\n

Round the same time, Russia got awarded the 2018 World Cup<\/a>, and soon after Yekaterinburg was shortlisted as one of the host cities for the tournament, which got confirmed in 2012.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the recently renovated Central Stadium did\u00a0not meet FIFA standards, and thus new redevelopment plans had to be made. The protected external facade would have to be preserved, but otherwise the entire interior had\u00a0to get rebuilt, boosting capacity to 45,000 seats.<\/p>\n

It took a long time for the project to be given the go ahead, even casting doubts on Yekaterinburg’s status as a host city, but building works eventually kicked off in the spring of 2015.<\/p>\n

The new\u00a0and rebranded Ekaterinburg Arena reopened on 1 April 2018 with a league match between FC Ural and Rubin Kazan, though still at limited capacity of 20,000.<\/p>\n

During the 2018 World Cup, the Ekaterinburg Arena will host four first round group games. After the World Cup, capacity will be reduced to 35,000 seats by removing the temporary seating behind both goals.<\/p>\n

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