Game for money

That the right to hold the 2018 football championship will turn into another robbery for the Russian taxpayer from the first minutes after the announcement of the historical decision of the FIFA Executive Committee on December 2. Then, I remember, Vladimir Putin spoke about 10 billion dollars, which are planned to be spent on the mundial, and independent experts - about $ 50 billion, believing that the championship will cost much more than the Winter Olympics in Sochi ($ 30 billion). And, apparently, they are right.

The 2018 World Cup Russia is going to spend in sixteen stadiums in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Kaliningrad, Kazan, Krasnodar, Sochi, Saransk, Yekaterinburg, Rostov-on-Don, Moscow Region, Yaroslavl, Volgograd and Samara. Of these, only one - Moscow "Luzhniki" exists and satisfies the requirements of FIFA.

The Russian application indicated that the total cost of building stadiums will amount to $ 3.8 billion. In particular, the construction of the stadium in Kaliningrad will need $ 210 million, Kazan - 250 million, Krasnodar - 260 million, Nizhny Novgorod - 240 million, Rostov -on -Don - 415 million, Samara - 180 - 180 - 180 - 180 Milln, Saransk - 180 million, Sochi - 225 million, Volgograd - 210 million, Yaroslavl - 200 million, for the construction of the stadium in the Moscow region - 260 million, for the stadium for Spartak in Moscow - 290 million, for the reconstruction of Luzhnikov and Dynamo - 240 million and 280 million, respectively, what we are now observing that we are now observing the fact that we are now observing the fact that we are now observing that Petersburg, these costs can be safely doubled, and even triple.

The fact that in St. Petersburg for Zenit it is necessary to build a new stadium for a long time before the idea of ​​inviting the mundial appeared in 2004. The city government adopted a resolution - to consider the construction of a new stadium on Krestovsky Island by a "strategic investment project" implemented at the expense of Gazprom.

In November 2005, a competition was announced, in February 2006 it summed up its results, called the cost of work: 6.7 billion rubles, $ 250 million. After that, the unique creation of the Architect Nikolsky was famously demolished - the Kirov stadium, which in 1950 in Leningrad was erected literally the whole world and rejoiced to tears when he was open: after the war and the blockade, this was the first large construction, and football in the post -war Leningrad was loved selflessly. And then Gazprom, which belongs to Zenit, refused to pay for construction, and it completely led to the St. Petersburg budget. Like, "Company No. 1" (in fact, Gazprom, but only Gazprom Neft) pays taxes in St. Petersburg - so build the stadium for this money. At the same time, promising to build a stadium for his money, Gazprom received land plots from the city as a “compensation” on Krestovsky Island, in Komarov and in the Tauride Garden, on every corner continued to call himself a benefactor of the city, and insisted that the new stadium call Gazprom-Arena.

The cost of the stadium, which is characteristic, grew all the time: the last voiced figure is almost 24 billion rubles. And this week the city woke up from the news of "adding": the governor introduced a draft law on increasing financing to the city parliament. And rather big: for 9.4 billion rubles. Like, I had to process the project even as part of the preparation of the Russian application for the Mundial, to fulfill the recommendations of FIFA and UEFA, which "are largely tightened by the requirements for football arenas, for the safety of spectators of all categories in the stands, as well as the level of their comfort." They had to, explained in Smolny, increase the capacity of the stadium, reduce the planned evacuation time, ensure spare exits, including the roof (as if they are evacuated from this roof, it remains a mystery).

Seeing this project, the deputies of the St. Petersburg parliament, usually flexible as folding umbrellas, demanded that they create a commission and entrust it to the test of estimates. The commission gathered - but approved everything! The officials who came to her meeting explained that the stadium will have a sliding roof and a retractable field that will be dried in the sun so as not to change the herbal coating "every week", since in the usual time few sunlight will fall on it. And to increase the capacity of the stadium from 62 to 69 thousand spectators (which is the main factor in the rise) is necessary because in St. Petersburg it is planned to conduct the semifinals of the World Cup, and FIFA requires 70 thousandth stadiums.

In other words, for the honorable right to hold one match of the mundial, St. Petersburg taxpayers must lay out the extra nine billion. Will it cost a little expensive? Who interferes (given the system of the World Cup, where the semi -finals are played on different days) to hold both semifinal matches in Moscow - at 90 thousandth "Luzhniki"? And in general, where such total expenses for the St. Petersburg stadium come from (per auditorial place, 16 thousand dollars, or 12 thousand euros, is the calculation of UEFA, it considers 3 thousand euros to the place).

Recall that the Paris "Stad de France" for 80 thousand seats costs $ 380 million, the 70,000th Munich "Alliance Arena" - 470 million, the 60 thousand Emiris in London - 631 million. Well, and the 40 thousandth new stadium of the Espanyol club in Barcelona costs only $ 108 million, one place is six times cheaper than the Krestovsky stadium.

And Ukraine, where the 2012 championship is planned, where it is necessary during the construction of the stadiums to fulfill exactly the same “tougher” UEFA requirements and where no less acutely than in Russia, is the problem of corruption, kickbacks and postscribes? We evaluate the numbers: the 50,000th stadium in Donetsk is $ 400 million, the 80 thousandth stadium in Kyiv - 560 million. Based on one place is 7-8 thousand dollars. And on Krestovsky, as already mentioned, 16 thousand. However, this is not the only St. Petersburg example: a kilometer of the "construction of the century" - Western high -speed diameter - in St. Petersburg costs $ 70 million: six times more than in Europe, and twenty times more than in Ukraine. Is it because they are smeared less and better controlled?

The mundial is even more than seven years old. And no one will be entrusted now that the announced prices and costs are final. But we do not get used to surprising the world with generosity and merchant scope. Although the victory on the mundial does not shine for us, we still won’t stand at the price. This, from the point of view of the authorities, is much more important than the treatment of deadly ill children (for which the state usually does not have money). After all, football is more than a game.