MOSCOW, September 9 (R-Sport) – Dynamo Moscow fans’ campaign to alter the design of their football club’s new stadium was rewarded Tuesday as the project’s masterminds agreed to give them more influence.
Many Dynamo fans had been upset by plans for the rebuild of their stadium, which would have seen the West Stand, the traditional home of some of Dynamo’s most loyal supporters, given a smaller capacity than the East Stand reserved for away fans.
“A result of the emotional dispute is the decision to change the project to restore the western wing and also to include a architects and builders representing the fan club in the working group,” the project’s backer VTB Bank said in a website statement.
“The architects and authors of the project should respect Dynamo’s history and understand the value of the West Stand for the fans, and heed their opinions and desires,” Dynamo director Georgy Verenich said in the same statement.
The state-controlled VTB Bank is the majority shareholder in the club and is funding the development of the 26,000-capacity new Dynamo stadium as part of a wider development of shops and sports facilities slated to cost around $800 million and open in 2017.
Dynamo’s new stadium was one of the candidates to host games when Russia holds the 2018 World Cup, but it was overlooked in favor of the new home of rivals Spartak Moscow.
The original Dynamo stadium on the site was built in 1928 and hosted football at the 1980 Olympics. The West Stand is the only part of the original structure to be retained in the ongoing redevelopment.
