VTB Arena

The VTB Arena - Dynamo Central Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Moscow, Russia. It consists of an ice hockey and an association football venue. The football stadium is officially named Dynamo Central Stadium. The ice hockey venue is known as the VTB Arena.

History
The old Dynamo Stadium was closed for demolition in 2008, and the new VTB Arena was built in its place. The final design of the new stadium was done by David Manica of MANICA Architecture, and the construction was originally scheduled to be finished in 2016 and then 2017, but continued into 2018. The project is called VTB Arena, even though VTB Bank attempted to sell the naming rights. The football stadium has the capacity of 27,000, that can be adjusted up to 45,000, or down to an undisclosed number, while the indoor arena has a base capacity of 12,273 that can be expanded up to 15,000, or down to another undisclosed number. The new complex also includes a shopping and entertainment center, office buildings, apartment buildings, a 5-star hotel, and a 1,600 car parking garage. The total investment is estimated to be $1.5 billion.

At the end of 2020, a facial recognition system was installed at the stadium to keep unwanted fans out. It is also expected that biometrics will replace tickets in the future.

On results of 2020 the football stadium and ice arena became the winners of the IV Sport Business Awards.

Design
The VTB Arena's initial concept was drawn by Dutch architect Erick van Egeraat, who does designs mainly for buildings in Russia and Germany. His vision of comprising both a football stadium and an ice hockey arena inside the bowl of the former Dynamo Stadion won the authorities' approval. Other architects who submitted their projects for tender, but lost out on the final bid, included Perkins Eastman, Populous, and Gerkan, Marg and Partners. However, some of the elements from the losing bids were used in the final design.

The final design was prepared by the American firm MANICA Architecture. As compared to the project's initial design, the project's final design lost its retractable roof, and some facade features. The audience layout was also subject to changes, ending up with two tiers of seating, instead of three.

Hockey arena opening
Ice hockey club HC Dynamo Moscow played their first game at the arena (which is named "Arkady Chernyshev Arena" for hockey games) on 4 January 2019 against Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg, winning with the score of 2–0 and attendance of 10,797. On 17 February 2019, the arena hosted the VTB United League allstar game.