Arena Lviv () is a football stadium in

Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. It was one of the eight

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venues, where it hosted three of the group-stage games. According to the official plans, the stadium has a total seating capacity of 34,915. Both clubs FC Lviv and Rukh Lviv use the stadium for home games. Due to the

Russo-Ukrainian War The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...

, the stadium is used by

Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk () is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club that was based in the city of Donetsk until 2014 when, due to the War in Donbas (2014–2022), War in Donbas, the club was forced to move to Lvi ...

since 2014.

Home field

It was the home field of FC Karpaty Lviv in 2011–12.FC Karpaty to play at Arena Lviv stadium

Kyiv Post The ''Kyiv Post'' is Ukraine’s first and most prominent English-language newspaper. It was founded in 1995 in Kyiv by American businessman Jed Sunden. In 2018, the publication was acquired by prominent Ukrainian businessman Adnan Kivan, foun ...

(29 November 2011) But Karpaty only played five games at it and returned to its original home field due to the lease price. Another club Hoverla Uzhhorod also played a home game at the stadium, due to reconstruction of Avanhard Stadium in

Uzhhorod Uzhhorod (, ; , ; , ) is a List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality on the Uzh, Uzh River in western Ukraine, at the border with Slovakia and near the border with Hungary. The city is approximately equidistan ...

. Due to the

played its home games at the stadium between July 2014 and December 2016, and after the full-scale invasion in 2022.

Overview

Construction work began on 20 November 2008 and was completed by October 2011. The opening ceremony took place on 29 October, with a vast theatrical production dedicated to the history of Lviv and with the concert of the pop-star

Anastacia Anastacia Lyn Newkirk ( ; born September 17, 1968) is an American singer-songwriter. Her first two studio albums, '' Not That Kind'' (2000) and '' Freak of Nature'' (2001), achieved chart success with the singles " I'm Outta Love", " Not That Ki ...

. The first football match in the stadium was played on 15 November 2011, between

and

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, ending with a score of 2–1. The first player to score a goal in the new stadium was Artem Milevskyi in the 16th minute (the second was an own goal and the third was scored by Marko Dević in the 91st minute).

Construction

The original architectural firm for the project was ''

Hochtief Hochtief AG is a global provider of infrastructure technology and construction services, with locations in North America, Australia, and Europe. The Essen based company is primarily active in the fields of high tech, energy transition, and sustai ...

Construction'', which had completed the Dnipro Arena. They made a presentation of their design on 21 May 2007 and proposed the name of Lemberg. The capacity of the stadium was originally planned to be 32,000, at a total cost of 70.4 million

euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

s. It was planned that the stadium would be erected prior to 2010. The Hochtief representatives met with Andriy Sadovy and Myroslav Senyk (the head of the local regional council). Lviv officials claimed that the arena would cost 60 million euros, with 75% of the amount to be paid by an investor and 25% by the city government. In early 2008, Hochtief was replaced by the Austrian company ''AlpineBau''. After almost a year of discussions, no works had begun and by 10 October 2008 AlpineBau had rejected the city's bid of 85 million euros, requesting at least 100 million. On 23 October 2008, Lviv's administration contacted ISD (Industrial Union of

Donets Basin The Seversky Donets () or Siverskyi Donets (), usually simply called the Donets (), is a river on the south of the East European Plain. It originates in the Central Russian Upland, north of Belgorod, flows south-east through Ukraine (Kharkiv ...

). ISD is a major transnational industrial corporation in Eastern Europe, combining several industries including mining, construction, metallurgy, machine-building, and others. As time was limited, municipal officials held talks with another Austrian architectural company, Albert Wimmer, which designed the Hypo-Arena in Klagenfurt. Together with another local company ''Arnika'', they came up with the design for the Ukrainian stadium. On 7 November, the Ministry of Economics appointed the project-construction company ''Azovinteks'' as the general contractor which immediately sent about one hundred of its workers, along with equipment, to Lviv. Azovinteks is based in

Mariupol Mariupol is a city in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It is situated on the northern coast (Pryazovia) of the Sea of Azov, at the mouth of the Kalmius, Kalmius River. Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it was the tenth-largest city in the coun ...

and is part of the ISD group. The website, turnir.com.ua, referencing the declaration of the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers said that in April 2010 the government of Ukraine transferred the stadium into the sphere of control of the Ministry of Sport, Family, and Youth in order to stabilize and accelerate the construction of the stadium. Previously, the stadium was the property of the Lviv communal venture "Directorate for construction of a stadium in Lviv". On 23 June 2010, the deputy chairman of the Lviv Oblast State Administration (LODA) Volodymyr Hubytsky informed the members of Lviv's council that the financing of Euro-2012 in the city of Lviv had been increased by five billion hryvna (from 5.3 to 10.3 overall). Hubytsky also said the government had confirmed the State Aiming Program for the preparation of the final stage of Euro-2012. The Lviv Oblast was assigned up to 16.4 billion hryvnas to completely cover the construction of the stadium and the city's airport. The head of the oblast administration also stated that rates of construction were increased and by August 30 the stands' carrying structure for the second tier would be installed. Hubytsky said that a consensus was found with the state company "Lviv Armored-Tank maintenance plant" which agreed to surrender part of its territory for the construction of approachable road access and various engineer networks for the stadium. ;Construction financing The deputy chairman said that 345 million hryvnas were spent on all construction projects in 2010, which was one and a half times more than the previous couple of years (216 million). The state program estimated the financing of all Euro-2012-related projects at 5.7 billion hryvnas, out of which 4 billion would come from the state budget, 1.35 from investors, and the rest .36 billion from the local budget. For the stadium only, the program assigned some 1.65 billion hryvnas, out of which .31 billion (.23 - state, .08 - Lviv) were released at the start of construction and 180 billion in 2010.

Plans

The stadium's capacity is anticipated to be 34,915 spectators including 450 VIP sittings as well. All seats will be covered, while part of the roof assembly will be transparent to provide sufficient sunlight for the turf. The stadium's parking will be located underneath the arena which will consist of three levels. The parking for VIP will include 1,593 spaces. Parking for tele- and radio-media agencies will include (). There also will be parking for the disabled and special elevators will provide passage to seats that are also designed and reserved to accustom the necessary personnel. The western portion of the stadium long will include: *concert-halls, *VIP clubs and restaurants () *media-center () *various training centers () *administration offices () *offices with a restaurant ()

Location and transportation

;Roads The stadium is located in the southern part of Lviv city, near the intersection of the city's

beltway A ring road (also known as circular road, beltline, beltway, circumferential (high)way, loop or orbital) is a road or a series of connected roads encircling a town, city or country. The most common purpose of a ring road is to assist in reducin ...

() M10/ M06 and the route E471/ M06 (locally, Stryiska Street). Note that the city's beltway is part of the route E40 that connects

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

Rzeszów Rzeszów ( , ) is the largest city in southeastern Poland. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River in the heartland of the Sandomierz Basin. Rzeszów is the capital of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship and the county seat, seat of Rzeszów C ...

, Lviv,

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, and

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

. The location of the stadium is part of the Sykhivskyi District of

, while the stadium is situated right next to the Sykhiv residential massif. The stadium is located next to a

hippodrome Hippodrome is a term sometimes used for public entertainment venues of various types. A modern example is the Hippodrome which opened in London in 1900 "combining circus, hippodrome, and stage performances". The term hippodroming refers to fr ...

. ;Airport The easiest access to the Lviv International Airport is by the beltway and the route M11. The airport lies northwest from the stadium. ;Metro/trams The city of Lviv is famous for its trams network. Since Ukraine won the bid for the Euro-2012 there were discussions on extending the network to the southern edge of the city under the name ''Trams to Sykhiv'', as well as revival of the idea of a local subway system. Neither went forward due to "money vacuuming" out of the local budget. On 1 December 2009, the city of Lviv opened a line of a ''railbus'' that ran from Sykhiv to Pidzamche stopping at the Lviv Rail Terminal as well. However, on 15 June 2010, the line was closed down due to being unprofitable.

Other stadiums in Lviv

There are two other major stadiums in the city. One of them is the Ukraina Stadium which is leased to FC Karpaty Lviv until 2018. Ukraina Stadium is also one of the main alternative stadiums of the

Ukraine national football team The Ukraine national football team ( ) represents Ukraine in men's international Association football, football, and is governed by the Ukrainian Association of Football, the governing body for football in Ukraine. Ukraine's home ground is the ...

. Another major stadium in Lviv is the SKA Stadium. Both Ukraina and SKA are located in much closer proximity to the centre of Lviv than Arena Lviv.

UEFA Euro 2012 matches

The stadium was one of the venues for the

. Three group B matches were played there (with the other matches in that group played at Metalist Stadium, Kharkiv). The following matches were played at the stadium during the UEFA Euro 2012:

2018 World Cup qualifications disqualification

On 27 September 2013, FIFA Disciplinary Committee adopted a decision about disqualification of the stadium starting from 27 September 2013 and throughout the whole period of preliminary qualification for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded t ...

.For what really they punished Ukraine
tribuna. 30 September 2013

Gallery

File:Завжди вірні.jpg, Fans of Karpaty Lviv: "Always Loyal" File:Arena Lviv 2015.jpg, 2015 match