Ak Bars Arena (; , formerly known as Kazan Arena (; )) is a

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

Kazan Kazan; , IPA: Help:IPA/Tatar, ɑzanis the largest city and capital city, capital of Tatarstan, Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka (river), Kazanka Rivers, covering an area of , with a population of over 1. ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. It was completed in July 2013, and hosts

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

matches, especially

FC Rubin Kazan FC Rubin Kazan (; ) is a Russian professional association football, football club based in the city of Kazan. They play in the Russian Premier League. Founded 1958 in Russia, in 1958, Rubin played its first-ever top flight season in 2003 Russia ...

's home games in the

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

. The stadium has the largest outside screen in the world. Its capacity is around 45,379.

History

The stadium was constructed for the

2013 Summer Universiade The 2013 Summer Universiade, officially known as the XXVII Summer Universiade (; ), was held in the city of Kazan, Russia, the most northerly city ever to host a Summer Universiade. Over 10,400 university athletes from 162 countries participated ...

. On May 5, 2010, president

Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

held the groundbreaking ceremony. The construction of the stadium was completed in 2013. The total cost was 15.5 billion

rubles The ruble or rouble (; rus, рубль, p=rublʲ) is a currency unit. Currently, currencies named ''ruble'' in circulation include the Russian ruble (RUB, ₽) in Russia and the Belarusian ruble (BYN, Rbl) in Belarus. These currencies are su ...

. The stadium hosted the

opening and closing ceremonies, and

2017 FIFA Confederations Cup The 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup was the tenth and final edition of the FIFA Confederations Cup, a quadrennial international men's Association football, football tournament organised by FIFA. It was held in Russia, from 17 June to 2 July 2017, ...

. On August 17, 2014, the first football match of the Russian Championship was hosted in the Ak Bars Arena. The 16th FINA World Championships were held in Kazan, with some events held at the Arena. It saw twelve swimming records. In 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 ...

, the stadium hosted six matches, including the ones where three past champions (

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, and

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

) were eliminated from the tournament. UEFA announced in March 2020 that the stadium would host the

2023 UEFA Super Cup The 2023 UEFA Super Cup was the 48th edition of the UEFA Super Cup, an annual football match organised by UEFA and contested by the reigning champions of the top two European club competitions, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Europa League. ...

; however, due to the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, the venue was later moved to the

Karaiskakis Stadium The Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium (), commonly referred to as the Karaiskakis Stadium (, ), is a Association football, football stadium in Piraeus, Attica, Greece, and the home ground of the Piraeus football club Olympiacos F.C., Olympiacos. It i ...

Piraeus Piraeus ( ; ; , Ancient: , Katharevousa: ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens city centre along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf in the Ath ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

. Moreover, this was supposed to be the location for the

2025 World Aquatics Championships The 2025 World Aquatics Championships, the 22nd edition of the World Aquatics Championships, will be held in Singapore, from 11 July to 3 August 2025. Originally to be held in Kazan, Russia, the championships were relocated to Singapore on 9 F ...

, but it was later moved to Singapore.

Design

The architectural concept has been designed by Populous; according to lead designer Damon Lavelle, the stadium is a unique response to the local culture and place. As a multiple-purpose venture, Ak Bars Arena can be used as football matches and other sporting events, cultural events concerts. With a capacity of 45,379 seats and 28 ha stadium territory, Ak Bars Arena is one of the UEFA's highest category stadium. The stadium has also 72 skyboxes and a

fitness center A health club (also known as a fitness club, fitness center, health spa, weight room and commonly referred to as a gym) is a place that houses exercise equipment for the purpose of physical exercise. In recent years, the number of fitness an ...

. The general design stage: "TatInvestGrazhdanProekt", "Intex", "TsNIIpromzdany". It replaced Central Stadium as Kazan's main football stadium.

2017 FIFA Confederations Cup

2018 FIFA World Cup

Gallery

Kazan-arena-stadium.jpg, General view of the stadium Kazan-arena-screen.jpg, Media Facade Kazan-arena-stroitelstvo.jpg, General view during construction Opening of the Summer Universiade in Kazan 6 July 2013 01.jpeg, Stadium at the Universiade 2013 Opening Ceremony Футбольный стадион на 45000 зрителей - panoramio.jpg, during construction Kazan-kazanarena-skyboxes.jpg, Kazan 2015 - Kazan Arena Panorama Sector 306.JPG, Pools at the arena during the World Water Sports Championship Kazan-kazanarena.jpg, Kazan Arena in

Closing of 2013 Summer Universiade 79.jpg, Kazan 2015 - Kazan Arena Panorama.JPG, Panorama view of Kazan Arena during 2015 World Aquatics Championships

References

External links

*
Official website

Stadium information

Stadium construction progress

{{Authority control FC Rubin Kazan Sports venues in Kazan Sports venues completed in 2013 2013 establishments in Russia