Rostov Arena ia a football stadium located on the left bank of the Don River in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. It is one of the stadiums selected to host the upcoming 2018 FIFA World Cup. It also serves as a home stadium to the Russian Premier League team, FC Rostov.
For the World Cup, the seating capacity of the stadium has been increased to 45,000 which was 37,868 initially. However, this increased seating will be on the temporary basis and this may be decreased back to 42,000 after the tournament.
The stadium is designed by Populous, a global architectural firm and it has grass surface. According to the arena's main architect, its design is inspired by the ancient mounds of earth, Kurgans, which can be found in the locals.
History
Groundbreaking for the arena started in 2013 and interestingly while doing it workers have found five shells from the World War II. After two years of continuous work, the authority revised the stadium project and reduced the cost of the construction.
It was planned to inaugurate the stadium in 2017 but the delay in completing the construction of the stadium let to the delay in the inauguration. On 15 April 2018, the stadium was officially opened for the public with a league match between FC Rostov and SKA-Khabarovsk.
Major Matches
Being a brand new stadium, Rostov Arena has not hosted a lot of games. However, it has hosted some of the Russian Premier League games. On 29 April, the stadium got its second game between FC Rostov and Tosno, with about 23,000 people witnessing the play at the stadium.
Upcoming Matches
After a few Russian Premier League matches, this glittering stadium is all prepared to host four group stage matches as well as one round of 16 match of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
The first match in this stadium will be played on 17 June 2018 between Group E teams of Brazil and Switzerland. In the second game on 20 June, Uruguay will face Saudi Arabia in Group A clash. On 23 June, Group F teams South Korea and Mexico will lock horns and on 26 June the stadium will host its last group match between Group D teams Iceland and Croatia.
The last match on this stadium will be played here on 2 July. The winners of Group G and runners up of Group H will fight against each other in this fixture to move forward in the tournament.
