CSKA Moscow vs Tottenham: Spurs aren't the only side trialling a new stadium - a look inside the Arena CSKA
Tottenham's Champions League match against CSKA Moscow on Tuesday will be the third ever competitive game at the new Arena CSKA, which only opened 11 days ago
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Your support makes all the difference.Tottenham started their Champions League campaign at Wembley, but their second game will be at an even more novel ground. Tuesday’s match with CSKA Moscow will be the third ever competitive game at the new Arena CSKA, which only opened 11 days ago.
This is the first time since 2000 that CSKA have a real ground to call their own. Since knocking down their old Grigory Fedotov Stadium, they have had to use others instead. They played at the echoey old Luzhniki Stadium, which is currently being redeveloped to be ready for the 2018 World Cup. They played at the Arena Khimki, a two hours’ drive outside the city, sharing it with Dynamo Moscow. But they could rarely if ever attract more than 10,000 fans there.
This is why CSKA fans are so pleased to be back where they belong, playing in a ground that was built on the site of the old Grigory Fedotov Stadium. This stadium was meant to be ready by 2009, but construction was halted and did not resume until 2013.
And yet the construction of the Arena CSKA is still a success story. Unlike many of their rivals, CSKA are not wholly state owned. Club owner Evgeny Giner has paid for the development himself. It has proceeded faster, and closer to the plan than many recent stadium re-builds there. The Luzhniki is being slowly rebuilt for the 2018 World Cup, and is meant to host the final and one semi-final. The project to build a new stadium in St Petersburg has been beset by problems. Arena CSKA, and Spartak’s new Otkrytiye Stadium, have been smooth in comparison.
But while the Otkrytiye will be used in the World Cup, the Arena CSKA will not. It is simply not big enough. CSKA decided they were better with a small ground they would often fill, than a big empty vessel. They attracted 26,000 for the opening game, a 3-0 win over Terek Grozny earlier this month. But when Kuban Krasnodar came to the Arena CSKA on Saturday, only 14,000 fans attended. The match ended as a 1-1 draw.
With rebuilding the stadium proving so expensive, Giner has not been able to invest as much money in the team as before. CSKA sold Ahmed Musa to Leicester City this summer and their big summer signing was Lacina Traore, once briefly of Everton, on loan from Monaco. They have players and of course a coach in Leonid Slutsky that many will recognise from Russia’s side at Euro 2016. But their home is new.
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