Anzhi Arena (russian: «Анжи Арена») or Anji Arena is an
all-seater
An all-seater stadium is a sports stadium in which every spectator has a seat. This is commonplace in professional association football stadiums in nations such as the United Kingdom, Spain, and the Netherlands. Most association football and Ame ...
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
stadium in
Kaspiysk,
Dagestan
Dagestan ( ; rus, Дагеста́н, , dəɡʲɪˈstan, links=yes), officially the Republic of Dagestan (russian: Респу́блика Дагеста́н, Respúblika Dagestán, links=no), is a republic of Russia situated in the North C ...
, Russia, and was the home of
Russian Premier League club
Anzhi Makhachkala. The stadium was built on the site of Anzhi's former home, Khazar Stadium. It was opened after its renewal on 17 March 2013 and has a capacity of 26,500 spectators. It replaced
Dynamo Stadium as the home of FC Anzhi.
History
Anzhi played their home games at the
Dynamo Stadium in the center of the city of Makhachkala, but due to its small capacity, they decided to build a new stadium that could provide a bigger audience. The stadium was built in 2003 in
Kaspiysk (10 km southeast from
Makhachkala) due to small sources of land in the city of
Makhachkala, the stadium was named Khazar. It was inaugurated on 22 July 2003. Later, Anzhi left the Khazar stadium and returned to play at their old
Dynamo Stadium due to the difficulty of playing football under the strong winds blowing from the Caspian Sea.
Opening
The arena was opened with a mini concert by
Cher
Cher (; born Cherilyn Sarkisian; May 20, 1946) is an American singer, actress and television personality. Often referred to by the media as the Honorific nicknames in popular music, "Goddess of Pop", she has been described as embodying female ...
and
Flo Rida
Tramar Lacel Dillard (born September 16, 1979), better known by his stage name Flo Rida (, ), is an American rapper and singer. His 2007 breakout single " Low" was number one for 10 weeks in the United States and broke the record for digital dow ...
. The concert was filmed but for legal reasons, Cher was not shown on Russian TV.
Reconstruction
Since acquiring the club in 2011,
Suleyman Kerimov planned on building a stadium that would include all
UEFA Stadium Regulations, since Anzhi's home ground
Dynamo Stadium was not permitted to host European matches. It was decided that Khazar stadium would be remodeled into a European level stadium, which upon completion will be called Anzhi Arena. The official opening after its renewal was held on 17 March 2013.
External links
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References
Football venues in Russia
Sport in Dagestan
FC Anzhi Makhachkala
Buildings and structures in Dagestan
Sports venues completed in 2003
{{Russia-sports-venue-stub