AP, Volgograd :
Russia looks set to pack fans into the stadiums for the World Cup. But what happens then?
Several of the 12 stadiums look set to remain largely empty after the teams have left Russia and the tournament is over.
It’s a problem both for Russia – whose $10.8 billion World Cup price tag could be inflated by loss-making arenas – and for FIFA, which has a history of leaving host nations lumbered with under-used stadiums, so-called white elephants.
Club team Rotor Volgograd will occupy a new 45,000-seat World Cup stadium despite averaging home crowds of just 3,800 this season, while Baltika Kaliningrad will inherit a 35,000-seat arena with average crowds of 6,100. Sochi has a 48,000-seat stadium but no professional team.
Older fans in Volgograd remember Rotor knocking Manchester United out of the UEFA Cup in 1995, but the club last played top-flight football in 2004 and has longstanding financial problems. It’s facing relegation to the Second Division South – Russia’s lowest professional level.
Fans say that if Rotor is to rise again it’ll need government money to maintain the stadium and sign star players.
“When we played against Manchester and Nantes, I was at those games and it’s something you can’t express, those golden times,” longtime supporter Nikolai Seleznyov told The Associated Press.
Rotor could pack arenas “if there’s success for the team,” he added. “It all depends on the authorities here in Volgograd, and whether they help. If they don’t, it can’t work.”
Volgograd mayor Andrei Kosolapov is hunting for a sponsor for Rotor. In Russian soccer, that often means the regional government, or else a state-owned company prepared to tolerate heavy losses. Russian billionaires typically prefer investing in glamorous foreign clubs like Chelsea, Arsenal or Monaco. “I hope that we’ll resolve some issues with investors in the near future,” Kosolapov said last week.
Russians are keen to see World Cup games and lead the world on ticket sales. But few go to see local clubs play.
In a country of 144 million people, the average Russian Premier League attendance this season rose to 13,971, the highest in two decades but still far below Europe’s top leagues. The second tier averaged just 2,552.
World Cup organizers hope new stadiums will attract fans turned off by old, crumbling facilities. “Test games” at the new stadiums had large crowds, though spectators were often let in for free.
“A new stadium instantly attracts more people to watch football,” World Cup organizing committee CEO Alexei Sorokin told the AP last month, but admitted the government may have to subsidize under-used arenas.
