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World Cup 2018 – One Year On, Kaliningrad's Legacy
http://russianfootballnews.com/world-cu ... ds-legacy/
JULY 11, 2019
The 35,212 capacity stadium changed names to the Arena Baltika following the tournament and is home to FNL stragglers Baltika Kaliningrad. The westernmost football team in Russia constantly struggles financially due to its isolation. When Baltika moved into the stadium in July 2018, initial plans including lowering the capacity to a much more manageable 25,000 by removing the upper tier – however, these plans (unsurprisingly) never came into fruition.
Cursed by construction issues, the Baltika Arena was seemingly destined to become a white elephant – and that is the aptest way to describe the issue of the stadium now. The average attendance last season was just 5872 (17% of capacity) and had a high of 10,456 (31%) throughout the season. That was in the immediacy of the World Cup and as the season continued, attendances waned. Sports.ru contributor & Kaliningrad native and Baltika fan Maximillian claims the ownership even attempted to lure more supporters throughout the season:
A cross-section of the Arena Baltika, including the remaining upper tier which was supposed to be removed after the World Cup | StadiumDB
The Future
Unfortunately, Kaliningrad is expected to be the most likely World Cup stadium to become a white elephant. The attendance, in actuality, is rather good for a struggling FNL side – but nowhere near good enough to legitimise the huge costs and ecological issues. As aforementioned, the upper tier was not removed and therefore the capacity still sits at well over 30,000. Maximillian explains why the attendances are so low, but not seen as disappointing (in context):
"This is the Russian reality. First of all, it was influenced by the fact that Baltika has no free tickets at all. As far as I know, in other cities with the World Cup stadiums, especially in Saransk, a large percentage of tickets were distributed free of charge. In the future, much depends on the result and on the leadership of the side. The higher the team in the pyramid – the more fans willing to go to games."