106. FC Zenit Saint Petersburg & Krestovsky Stadium
St. Petersburg has a professional football (soccer) team known as FC Zenit. They were founded in 1925 and have been quite successful over the years, winning a number of domestic tournaments and even a few international competitions (the UEFA Europa League and UEFA Super Cup in 2008, for example) (yeah, I didn't know what those are, either).
St. Petersburg built a new stadium for Zenit - Krestovsky Stadium - partly in anticipation of the 2018 World Cup. The stadium just recently opened, after years of delays and humongous cost overruns. Apparently, this may be among the most expensive stadia ever built. It occupies the western end of Krestovsky island, on the Gulf of Finland and to the north of the city center. The stadium has a capacity of 68,134, and the relatively steep angle of the upper tier provides a good view for just about every seat in the house. The central roof is retractable, but is closed on rainy days.
This summer, Zenit is competing in the UEFA Europa League, an annual football tournament (still ongoing) with dozens of teams from all over the continent. The second game of the playoff round was contested in St. Petersburg on August 24. Zenit was playing FC Utrecht (from the Netherlands) and had lost the first game against them, 0-1. Zenit needed to win with a score of 2-0 (or better) to advance to the next round. Zenit wanted a full house of cheering fans for a home-field advantage, so tickets were cheap. I went with four of my colleagues to cheer them on. Like other European football matches that I've experienced (in person in Italy and on television at crowded beer gardens in Germany), the boisterous fans were as much the entertainment as the action on the field. There were perhaps over 50,000 fans in attendance, and the special super fan section was packed.
The final score (in stoppage time) was in fact 2-0, so Zenit has advanced to the upcoming group stage. Unfortunately, I did not see either goal. The first came just a few minutes after the game started, when we were still making our way to our seats. The second goal was well into extra minutes, after we had all already left the stadium. It was a weeknight and it takes an hour to get home from the stadium, so none of us were interested in being out past midnight to see a potential loss. So I basically saw 85 minutes of scoreless football. Our seats were only a few rows from the ceiling, but cost just 400 rubles ($7 USD), so no complaints there.
One detail not in the plan for this stadium was any thought of parking. There is no way to get a vehicle onto the island on the west side (the bridge is blocked to vehicles), and a large park occupies most of the island to the east, so everyone basically just parked in neighborhoods to the north and then walked over to the stadium, a 20-30 minute walk. Not so bad, except for the heavy rain in the evening. On the way home, I walked east through the park to the Krestovsky Ostrov Metro station, and then home from there.
St. Petersburg built a new stadium for Zenit - Krestovsky Stadium - partly in anticipation of the 2018 World Cup. The stadium just recently opened, after years of delays and humongous cost overruns. Apparently, this may be among the most expensive stadia ever built. It occupies the western end of Krestovsky island, on the Gulf of Finland and to the north of the city center. The stadium has a capacity of 68,134, and the relatively steep angle of the upper tier provides a good view for just about every seat in the house. The central roof is retractable, but is closed on rainy days.
This summer, Zenit is competing in the UEFA Europa League, an annual football tournament (still ongoing) with dozens of teams from all over the continent. The second game of the playoff round was contested in St. Petersburg on August 24. Zenit was playing FC Utrecht (from the Netherlands) and had lost the first game against them, 0-1. Zenit needed to win with a score of 2-0 (or better) to advance to the next round. Zenit wanted a full house of cheering fans for a home-field advantage, so tickets were cheap. I went with four of my colleagues to cheer them on. Like other European football matches that I've experienced (in person in Italy and on television at crowded beer gardens in Germany), the boisterous fans were as much the entertainment as the action on the field. There were perhaps over 50,000 fans in attendance, and the special super fan section was packed.
The final score (in stoppage time) was in fact 2-0, so Zenit has advanced to the upcoming group stage. Unfortunately, I did not see either goal. The first came just a few minutes after the game started, when we were still making our way to our seats. The second goal was well into extra minutes, after we had all already left the stadium. It was a weeknight and it takes an hour to get home from the stadium, so none of us were interested in being out past midnight to see a potential loss. So I basically saw 85 minutes of scoreless football. Our seats were only a few rows from the ceiling, but cost just 400 rubles ($7 USD), so no complaints there.
One detail not in the plan for this stadium was any thought of parking. There is no way to get a vehicle onto the island on the west side (the bridge is blocked to vehicles), and a large park occupies most of the island to the east, so everyone basically just parked in neighborhoods to the north and then walked over to the stadium, a 20-30 minute walk. Not so bad, except for the heavy rain in the evening. On the way home, I walked east through the park to the Krestovsky Ostrov Metro station, and then home from there.
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