Russia says it will not repeat Brazil's problems with "white elephants"

The Russian authorities guarantee that they will not have the same problems as Brazil after the 2018 World Cup, particularly with regard to the underutilization of World Cup stadiums. "We do not anticipate any problem like Brazil," said the chairman of the local organizing committee of the Cup, Arkady Dvorkovich, in reference to various problems with the stadiums used at the 2014 World Cup. Between them are abandoned four years later, while others remain a financial challenge for clubs and cities.

"In our case, most stadiums have teams," said the Russian. "The majority of these clubs have stable sponsors and support from local authorities, and the combination of the two factors will make it possible to use these stadiums," he said, noting that even the Luzhniki stadium will be partially funded by Moscow authorities

Alexey Sorokin, CEO of Copa, believes that the existence of a new stadium will increase by 40% the presence of supporters in the games

Despite the official speech, the reality is that the clash between the cities and the central government is constant. The Local Organizing Committee explained to the state that a fund with public resources was created to maintain the arenas for two years. Until then, local clubs and town halls need to find a plan to take over the stadiums and start using them in a financially viable way.

The Russian government is expected to allocate to the stadiums a total of 31 million US dollars (119 million R $) by 2020 in operating expenses. But seven of the twelve World Cup stadiums will be fully funded by the new Kremlin fund, spending up to $ 8 million ($ 30.8 million) on maintenance only in 2019. In addition to four stadiums that leave the World Cup after the initial phase, will still benefit the arenas of Nizhny Novgorod and Samara.

In the case of Kaliningrad, even before the start of the World Cup, local governor Anton Alikhanov held a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to ask for money. The only local club is second-division FC Baltika, which has no illusions about its ability to fill a stadium with 35,000 seats.

In Volgograd and Nizhny Novgorod, local clubs can not pbad in front of an average audience of 5 thousand people. In the case of Saransk, the team of the city is in the third division.

In Sochi, which does not have a club today, the negotiation is for St. Petersburg Dynamo to install at the station in 2019. According to the president of the LOC, a team will Is already registered and should start operating in the city starting next year.

But the teams working in the first division of Yekaterinburg and Rostov do not sell more than 9 thousand entries per game. Therefore, in the case of Yekaterinburg, the stadium was built with moving tiers – a kind of "pull". Thus, the capacity of 35 thousand places will be reduced to just 23 thousand, in an effort to keep it sustainable.