Lokomotiv Stadium (Moscow)

RZD Arena (Russian: «РЖД Арена») is a football stadium in Moscow, Russia. Formerly known as Lokomotiv Stadium, it is the home stadium of Lokomotiv Moscow and was the home ground of the Russian national team for the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification matches. The stadium was reconstructed in 2002 and holds 27,084 people, all seated. The reconstruction of the stadium was funded by the Russian Transportation Ministry at a cost of $150–170 million.

History

Stalinets

In 1935, at the site where the Lokomotiv Stadium resides today, an electric workers union decided to build a stadium which was named "Stalinets" or "Stalinist Stadium". At the time, Stalinets held about 30,000 spectators.^[5]

Development of Lokomotiv Stadium

After holding several matches, Stalinets was demolished to make way for a more modern stadium. Thus, Lokomotiv stadium was built. It was opened on 17 August 1966 with a capacity of 30,000 people.^[6] However, in the mid-1990s the capacity of the stadium was reduced by 6,000 to 24,000, as the wooden benches were replaced by plastic seats.^{[citation needed]}

The inaugural match played at Lokomotiv Stadium was between

Lokomotiv was designed solely for football matches and thus has no running tracks. In all the stadium holds 30,000 people. Moreover, beside the stadium one can find the

• List of football stadiums in Russia
• List of European stadia by capacity

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lokomotiv Stadium (Moscow).

• RZD Arena
• (in Russian) Article about the stadium