Zenit St. Petersburg football club has grown tired of waiting for its stadium on Krestovsky Island to be rebuilt, a project that began in 2007, and has signed a contract with a Swiss company to construct a new ground at breakneck speed.
Swiss construction company Nussli has agreed to build the new 25,000-seater stadium, which will be located on a 25-hectare plot close to Kupchino metro station, by the end of 2014, German magazine Stadionwelt reported.
Town planners are already working on the necessary documentation for the build.
Construction time will be reduced because the changing rooms, toilets and club merchandize shops are already available as ready-made modules, and the club will fund the project itself.
The stadium will primarily be built for the club's second team, but because the pitch will be made from quality artificial turf, the first team will also be able to play there, Fontanka.ru reported.
Oleg Deripaska's Transstroi started the reconstruction of Zenit's traditional home venue on Krestovsky Island, formerly known as the Kirov Stadium, seven years ago, but costs quickly spiraled from 6.7 billion to 43 billion rubles ($200 million to $1.2 billion). That figure was later reduced to 34.9 billion rubles.
In November Transstroi won a 12.5 billion ruble tender to finish the job, with the stadium slated for completion by the end of 2015.
Zenit have been based at the city's Petrovsky Stadium since the historic Kirov Stadium was demolished in 2006.
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