In the near future specialists of Rostekhnadzor will make a conclusion about the readiness of the stadium in Samara for further operation. Last Saturday the last of the six World Cup matches took place, after which the authorities of the Samara region faced two serious problems: where to take money to complete the construction of the sports facility and its further maintenance.
According to the acting vice-governor of the region Alexander Fetisov, only the cost of operating the stadium is estimated at 500 million rubles a year, and the completion of construction work will require at least a billion, the correspondent of The Moscow Post.
At the same time last year, it was said that the Russian government will decide that within two years new stadiums will receive subsidies covering up to 95% of the costs of their maintenance. Vitaly Mutko, who at that time was in charge of sports in the Cabinet, then called the figure of 750 million rubles, which allegedly will be put into the budget for the maintenance of new stadiums in working order.
As a result, the Samara authorities have two years to learn how to use the arena with commercial benefits. Which still does not cancel the other problem - for the World Championship the stadium in Samara is built only by 70-80% and it needs to invest additional funds.
And now, itself, Samara?
To the sorrow of the regional authorities, the time when the stadiums at which the 2018 World Cup was scheduled to be held, the "blood from the nose" was surrendered. And Samara missed it. By the beginning of the tournament, the arena was taken in a hurry, with unprecedented relief, while 70% of the internal premises were simply mothballed.
Claims were to the fire-fighting system, sewerage, power grids and, what was the main thing for FIFA, the disposal of which for the time of the championship passed all the stadiums, to the lawn of the football field.
In the end, everyone understood that it was impossible to eliminate all the shortcomings of the arena before the start of the championship and it would be necessary to finish it after the tournament had finished. It is unclear just what the regional authorities expected in this situation, because even then it was clear that the arena would require additional investments - from 1 to 3 billion rubles, and they simply do not exist in the regional treasury. Back in May, the general contractor of the construction of LLC PSO "Kazan" asked to allocate another billion, but got a turn from the gate. It's unlikely that the structure of Ravil Ziganshin will finish building the arena at his own expense, after all, Kazan has already accumulated about 200 million debts to subcontractors and suppliers for the amount of about 200 million rubles.
Wait for money from the federal budget, too, is not necessary. Obviously, the financial flow from Moscow under the motto "any money, just not to hit the dirt in the face of the World Cup" with the final whistle, which July 15 will be heard in Luzhniki, will dry up. Money to bring "Samara Arena" to the mind will have to look in their own pockets or look for a rich investor, which is even more problematic.
Finish, or you will lose
Headache vrio governor of the Samara region Dmitry Azarov, the stadium was also because of his election in September. And the stadium, the problems with which began from the first days (the same Azarov, still being the head of Samara, because of the lack of necessary documentation did not issue a building permit), has already "sunk" his predecessor. It is rumored that it was the protracted landmark for the region that cost the former governor of the Samara region Nikolai Merkushkin his post last year.
In addition, the stadium was in the middle of a corruption scandal when last year the main subcontractor "Tatdorstroy" appealed to the police with a request to start a case against the general director of the firm "Stalmontazh-Elektrostal" - the supplier of metal structures for the arena. "Stalmontazh" received up to 2.6 billion rubles in advance, but only performed work for 87.8 million, after which it initiated its own bankruptcy. According to the general contractor of the PCO "Kazan" arena, this was done deliberately.
And Alexander Mordovets, Deputy Director of the Federal Special Construction Agency (Spetsstroy), which was abolished at the time, supervising the construction in Samara, Alexander Mordovets was detained in Moscow at the end of May. True, not for Samara affairs, but as an official who headed the operational headquarters for the construction of the cosmodrome "Vostochny". According to the investigation, he unreasonably advanced some companies that completed various objects at the cosmodrome. There is a suspicion that in Samara something similar happened. Another curator of construction in Samara - Vice-Governor Alexander Fetisov. He hastened to declare in the government of the region, he was only concerned with the improvement of the territory adjacent to the arena, but this work is also incomplete, although about 3 billion rubles have been allocated for it.
All this may well affect the elective positions of Dmitry Azarov, especially if you do not already have a clear program for what money stadium will be built and maintained. Apparently, therefore, the decision was made that their first match in the new season returned to the elite division "Wings of the Soviets" will be held at the "Samara Arena". The game with CSKA is scheduled for July 31, it is obvious that nothing will be decided and corrected by that time, so the match will soon become a public relations action by the provisional governor.
"Manilov" plans of the Samara authorities
When it comes to the stadium, the leadership of Samara "switches arrows" to St. Petersburg. Like, there the situation with the stadium was even worse, but could also turn the arena into one of the best and most visited in the country. Say, and we will all be fine, give only a term.
At the same time, they keep silent in Samara that they do not have such a rich and popular club as the Petersburg "Zenith" is. And they forget that the refusal to move to the new stadium before all the shortcomings, including the problem with the lawn, have been eliminated on it, cost him last spring the director general of Zenit, Maxim Mitrofanov.
Sergei Fursenko, who came to replace him, agreed to all the conditions of Smolny and the owners of the club invested more than one billion rubles in the stadium for the year. On the eve of the World Cup, the authorities of St. Petersburg and the football club signed a concession agreement, according to which the stadium is transferred to the management of Zenit for 49 years for a symbolic rent, and for this the club undertakes to invest 500 million rubles in the stadium and keep it completely.
The cost of the annual maintenance of the arena with a closing roof and a rolling-out field is determined at 600 thousand rubles. What is called, compare with the requests of the authorities of the Samara region of 500 thousand. It seems that the figures were named in terms of the feds and their help.
In anticipation of this assistance, Dmitry Azarov voices plans to use the stadium in the spirit of Gogol's character Manilov. Say, we will hold business meetings, forums and cultural events here. Experts to such statements are extremely skeptical. And it's not even that 70% of the internal premises of the arena require an alteration to begin their commercial use. Samara, as is known, is not yet the center of the country's business life. Economic forums or meetings of the SCO are not held here, and one can not gather 500 million a year in public festivities on the territory adjacent to the stadium.
One could, of course, turn an arena into an office center, but it is unlikely that there will be enough companies in Samara that will want to move to the outskirts of the city where the arena is located. Moreover, even CSKA Moscow, whose stadium in Moscow was being built with the expectation that most of the space will be rented out to offices, is experiencing great problems with the implementation of this plan.
Of course, the easiest way is to bet on your football team. In previous years, "Wings of the Soviets" collected in its old stadium up to 20-25 thousand spectators. With competent marketing, the local team's popularity can be successfully monetized. But here the key ones are "marketing" and "literate" - words for most Russian officials from the Chinese charter.
By the way, the acting minister of sports of the Samara region Dmitry Shlyakhtin himself let slip, telling journalists that the government does not yet understand how the arena will be operated. Jokers at the same time sneer that it is unlikely to be stolen on construction, but it's impossible to rust behind bars, if security officials start digging into financial documents, it's still possible. Especially if very persistently begging for money from the state budget.