Closed as soon as it opened
The Investigative Committee continued to inspect the largest ice stadium in the world – the SKA Arena in St. Petersburg, where after a few matches a fire occurred, turning the pride of the country into a pool of soot. The concessionaires of the facility are the city and the SKA Arena company of Gennady Timchenko. Why did the arena for 22 thousand spectators turn out to be a colossus with feet of clay? And now we can only be glad that the World Hockey Championship did not take place there; it could have been a scandal for the whole world.
After Tsoi and Madonna
“Our version” described in detail how it was built SKA Arenaand why HC SKA showed the “inexpediency” of quickly moving a hockey team there. The construction itself, as usual in St. Petersburg, was accompanied by scandals. The arena was erected on the site SKK “Petersburgsky” in the Moscow region, which, although not an architectural monument, had an extremely rich history. For example, Zenit became the champion there for the first time, and they sang Victor Tsoi And Madonna. Therefore, during the demolition of the complex, the protests of the townspeople, especially residents of the area, were palpable. But what was surprising was that when the demolition began, in Smolny they admitted with a blue eye (or gas) that… they didn’t know who was doing it. The townspeople suggested – Gazprom structures. Dismantling began on January 31, 2020, and a worker died almost immediately.
One way or another, construction proceeded at a really Stakhanov pace. After all, in 2023, Russia, including St. Petersburg, was supposed to host the World Hockey Championship. At first the budget was 37 billion rubles, but then predictably almost doubled – up to 60 billion rubles. This is the final number. For comparison – scandalous Gazprom Arenawhich took 10 years to build and was surrounded by numerous criminal cases, cost 43 billion rubles.
For obvious reasons, the World Hockey Championship in Russia did not take place, and therefore, instead of April, the SKA Arena was opened in November 2023. Only the third project of the building was approved by the City Council; the design was carried out by an Austrian architectural bureau Coop Himmelblau.
Even then, voices were heard that since we were already left without the World Championship, there was no need to rush, as Comrade Saakhov would say, there was time to bring everything to fruition. Despite the name of the arena, SKA leaders also spoke about this. These structures are in no way connected with each other. However, in December of that year, the Russian national team played a match there, and the KHL All-Star Game also took place. And then he moved to the SKA complex, where he played several matches of the Gagarin Cup playoffs in the spring of this year. The army team clearly did not want to leave their Ice Palace for 12 thousand spectators, which also opened for the World Cup, but in 2000. I had to.
But on the night of June 8-9, a fire broke out at the SKA Arena. The fire, covering an area of 225 square meters, was extinguished in 26 minutes.
The main thing is exits
HC SKA predictably announced that it would spend at least the beginning of the season at the Ice Palace, and SK investigators, Emergency Situations Ministry specialists, and fire safety experts began an investigation. They came to the conclusion that the folded billboards started smoking due to faulty wiring. However, the relevant specialists did not stop there – it became known that the Investigative Committee extended the inspection period at least until the beginning of next year. So far these are just rumors, they are also insiders, but it seems that several more potentially fire hazardous places in the area of the wiring have been identified. As they said in Soviet times, don’t buy something made at the end of the block. The emergency at the completion of construction could lead to a terrible tragedy at the World Cup.
In addition, there is evidence that in addition to fire hazards, other problems have also emerged. They relate primarily to exits from the arena. This ice stadium is the largest in the world in terms of capacity, ahead of several Canadian and American ones. Accordingly, the logistics of spectator exit from the stadium are extremely important. Unfortunately, our country has a tragic experience in this regard – in 1982 at the stadium. Lenin (current Luzhniki) in Moscow after the international match, the arena administration opened only two exits. Like, it should be enough – only 16 thousand spectators. And it was late autumn, snow, ice. A crowd formed at the exits, panic began, people began to slide down the steps. According to official data alone, 66 people were killed and even more were injured.
Therefore, exits from the stadium are the most important thing in terms of safety. If before the game people fill the stadium gradually, then after the match they leave it all at once. And here the SKA Arena seems to have passed the test of official matches well, but experts, according to some reports, are now studying this point again. So, from those that remained, records from the matches were requested, more precisely, after them – it was analyzed how the streams of spectators were distributed, whether there were enough exits.
It was even worse just recently in Omsk. In September 2019, the brand new Arena Omsk simply collapsed a few days before the first match. Entirely.
What’s next?
The Investment Committee of the Government of St. Petersburg stated that the concessionaires must now restore the giant ice stadium. And this is the city and the SKA Arena company, owned by an entrepreneur Gennady Timchenko. According to SPARK, SKA Arena currently belongs to JSC “Sports Technologies and Investments”100% of the shares of this company are pledged to Gazprombank. SKA Arena was built Gorka companyaffiliated with the Stroytransgaz company of Gennady Timchenko. At the first stage of construction of the arena, its general director was the former vice-governor Mikhail Lavrentsev. Now he is in custody, accused of especially large-scale fraud, but for other purposes. Although the fact may be telling.
Let us also note the government bodies, which, in theory, should also be held responsible for the most dangerous shortcomings at the SKA Arena. After all, the permit for construction and commissioning was issued by Gosstroynadzor, and Rostechnadzor monitored the construction step by step, and it also issued a conclusion on the compliance of the facility with the previously approved design documentation.
So far, no one has been punished for the failure of the SKA Arena, but a whole group of investigators is working at the facility, as they write in telegram channels – about thirty, not counting the experts from the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Inspections will continue at least until the beginning of next year.
Now there’s definitely no point in rushing to complete the SKA Arena, but in Russian realities this is also dangerous. If in 2023 the stadium was “driven” to the World Cup and turned a blind eye to many things, now, during reconstruction, the construction can turn into long-term construction, and the estimate will only swell.
What about the stadiums for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, on which 244 billion 59 million rubles were spent? Mordovia Arena (Saransk) seats 44 thousand spectators, it was built for 16.5 billion rubles. So, now it is not involved at all; the local professional team has not existed there for several years. With the capital’s Luzhniki the situation may be even worse. 26.6 billion rubles were spent on its reconstruction. This is the country’s largest stadium with a capacity of 81 thousand seats. But each year the arena hosts only the national cup final and several matches of Torpedo, which plays in the lower league. And how much money is spent on servicing and maintaining such a giant in working order…
