By Duncan Mackay
November 6 – Samara is to build its stadium for the 2018 World Cup on a different site to the one approved by FIFA, it has been revealed.
Samara, situated in the southeastern part of European Russia at the confluence of the Volga and Samara Rivers on the east bank of the Volga, is one of 11 host cities after three others were dropped in September.
A $29 million (£18 million/€23 million) tender to design the stadium posted on a state contracting website states that the 45,000-seater stadium will be near the airport rather than on the island the FIFA delegation visited.
The price has increased to around $430 million (£269 million/€336 million), which is $100 million (£63 million/€78 million) more than regional Deputy Governor Alexander Nefedov said last month, and more than double the figure of $180 million (£113 million/€141 million) widely mentioned in Russian media in December 2010, after Russia was awarded the tournament.
The original site had been criticised for being far from city transport links and hotel accommodation, ruining a river view and requiring port traffic to be rerouted.
The decision is also in response to floods that killed 172 people in and around the town of Krymsk in July.
Afterwards Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree specifying any new large building near water must be at least eight meters above the water level.
With Samara’s 45,000-seater stadium originally set to be built on an island (pictured above) where two rivers meet, these new rules would have made the project far too expensive, regional Governor Nikolai Merkushkin claimed
“It would take another 10 billion rubles (£20 million/$32 million/€25 million) of additional investment,” said Merkushkin.
“For that money, we would be able to landscape not only Samara and Tolyatti [a city in the same region] but could landscape practically the entire region.”
The new site is near a major highway and the city airport.
Most of the host cities are far ahead of Samara in their preparations, with construction work well under way on new stadiums in Moscow and St Petersburg.
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