The Zenit-Arena stadium in St. Petersburg is becoming the most expensive sports facility not only in Europe but also worldwide. The construction on Krestovsky Island has been going on for more than ten years, and has become a topic for jokes. Last year, the city authorities once again changed the contractor instead of Transstroy, beloning to Oleg Deripaska and Egor Andreev, which failed miserably, the project was entrusted to Metrostroy owned by Vadim and Nikolay Alexandrov. Shortly before that, in Nevastroyinvest Bank owned by Nikolay Alexandrov, there were searches associated with the disappearance of the money allocated for the construction of Leningrad NPP-2. Metrostroy hides the real state of affairs in the stadium with the help of PR-actions. Among them we can recall a football game held without any spectators, or the December official statement of Metrostroy that work at the facility was completed.

In fact it is not. The city administration posponed the date of acceptance to March 31, 2017, and concluded with Metrostroy two more contracts (total amount is 3 billion rubles) for the construction and installation works, equipment purchases and other activities. Thus, by the beginning of 2017 the expenses on Krestovsky exceeded 47 billion rubles (considering currency fluctuations, it is more than $1 billion).

Another Governor, Valentina Matvienko, decided to build the stadium back in 2004. According to Forbes, in 2006 it was envisaged to spend 6.7 billion rubles under the state contract for the design and construction works. The commissioning date was scheduled for spring 2009. LLC Synthesis-MIS owned by Gregory Feldman was the contractor. In autumn 2008, due to quadruple rise in the price of the project, the Petersburg Administration unilaterally refused to pay the money, but then the parties agreed on the voluntary termination of the contract, setting the marginal cost of work performed in the amount of 5.45 billion rubles. On December 20, 2008 Gregory Feldman died in a traffic accident. There is a version that the accident was rigged.

In 2008, FSI Russian Glavgosexpertiza assessed the construction at 23.7 billion rubles. The original project was modified with a withdrawable field and roof-transformer. The general contractor was the company Transstroy owned by Oleg Deripaska. According to the plan the construction was to be completed in 2011.

In 2011, Glavgosexpertiza adjusted the cost of the work to 33.1 billion rubles. The FIFA and UEFA standards were taken into account (capacity up to 69 thousand people, the use of concrete instead of metal in the stadium bowl, and so on). Completion date object was shifted to 2014.

In 2013, the project costs rose to 34.9 billion rubles. Rise in price was due to the change of constructive solutions. The contract with Transstroy was terminated, but the new tender for the completion of the projects was won by Transstroy once again. The new deadline was set to 2015.

In 2016, there was a new reassessment of the construction. The St. Petersburg Administration's Construction Committee, taking inflation into account, named the amount of 42.5 billion rubles. The general contractor was OJSC Metrostroy owned by Vadim Alexandrov. In the summer of 2016 the stadium was 85% completed; the FIFA demanded to commission the object in December, otherwise the city would lose the right to host the Confederations Cup in the summer of 2017.

To date, the contractors were paid 47.1 billion rubles, including 30.9 billion to the companies of Transstroy holding (the general contractor from 2008 to 2016), 7.8 to Metrostroy (contractor from 2016), 5.4 billion to Synthesis-MIS (general contractor in 2006-2008).

Conflict with Poltavchenko
St. Petersburg administration demands that Transstroy return advance payments for 3.6 billion rubles. A subsidiary of ETS-SPb (carried out works in 2014-2016) insists on taking into account works worth 1.8 billion rubles. The dispute is being solved in court. If ETS-SPb' rightness is recognized , and the former general contractor will return only 1.8 billion rubles, the total cost of the arena will be 45.3 billion rubles. If the process is won by the government of St. Petersburg, the general contractor will return 3.6 billion rubles, and the Krestovsky Stadium will cost the city budget 43.5 billion rubles.

It is worth noting that this is not the only conflict between Deripaska's company and Georgy Poltavchenko's administration. According to Vedomosti, Transstroy contested termination of the contract for the construction of the Southern electrodepot and demands to collect 413,3 million rubles from the customer. The company filed two lawsuits to the Transport Construction Authority (TPA, under the jurisdiction of the St. Petersburg Committee on Transport Development, CTID), as follows from the website of the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg and Leningrad region.

Petersburg Administration in December terminated a contract with Transstroy worth 6.6 billion rubles. The contractor plucked deadlines, some of the works were performed poorly, officials said. By December, works worth 2.7 billion rubles were performed under the contract; 359 million rubles was the amount of advance payment not paid off by the contractor, as follows from the public procurement website. TPA sent three claims for breach of contract in the total amount of 445,000 rubles to Transstroy, follows from the documents on the public procurement website.

Albin and chairs

The works of Metrostroy on completion of the stadium and landscaping were originally estimated at 7.8 billion rubles, but at the end of December 2016 the administration of St. Petersburg signed two more contracts with the company: 952 million (December 20) and 2 billion rubles (Dec. 29). The contracts were dedicated to construction and assembly works, purchase of equipment, etc. The need for the additional expenses, as expained the vice-governor of the city Igor Albin, was caused by the requirements of law enforcement agencies, and he promised to voice the final sum closer to the date of the Confederation Cup. However, the final figure should not differ greatly from the last approved one, because the customer expects to recover some advances not spent by the previous contractor.

287 million rubles spent stadium builders in 2007 for the purchase of 63 thousand plastic seats. Two years they were kept in the room, then a polyethylene at a construction site. In 2013, according to the auditor of the St. Petersburg Chamber of Control and Accounts Yury Illarionov, chairs were recognized UEFA unsuitable, but in 2015, after the certification of an additional installed in the stands.

45.1 billion yen ($364.8 million, at the rate of June 2001), cost the construction of Toyota Stadium in Toyota City, Japan, including the purchase of land and the landscaping. The design of this arena becamse the basis for the project of the stadium on Krestovsky. The author of both projects is the Japanese architect, Kisho Kurokawa. Toyota Stadium stands are designed for 42 thousand 562 persons (with the possibility of increasing to 45 thousand), the roof is compound, the field is stationary.

The Russian President Vladimir Putin never visited the construction site. He personally inspected Otkrytiye Arena (a few days before the official opening) and Luzhniki (along with the then FIFA president Sepp Blatter), and participated in the events at Fischt and Kazan-Arena stadiums.