Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin knows the legacy of his World Cup will be judged partly by the fate of the stadiums after the tournament and he is determined they are put to good use.
Russia has spent at least USD 4 billion (3.4 billion euros) on arena construction and refurbishments for the month-long showpiece.
Stunning venues rose from the ground in developed cities far from Moscow such as Nizhny Novogrod on the Volga River and in small and isolated places like Saransk.
Putin’s last TV phone-in show held a week before the tournament was unremarkable — until the moment he decided to underscore the importance of 12 stadium’s fate.
Russia’s dominant leader for most of the past two decades suddenly turned serious and even emotional. The regional bosses he was lecturing via video link froze behind their respective desks.
“I want to address colleagues from the regions,” Putin said. “No matter what, you cannot allow these venues to turn into some sort of markets like those in the mid-1990s.”
The idea of Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium becoming the go-to destination for second-hand clothes might puzzle fans lucky enough to have tickets for Sunday’s final between Croatia and France.
The 80,000-seat arena will be the focus of global attention and packed to the rafters. But this will be Luzhniki on its good day.
The venerable crucible of Soviet sport entered the era of Russia’s independence in the 1990s looking scruffy and bleeding cash. The country was mired in poverty and the only way to pay for Luzhniki’s upkeep was by parcelling off space to fly-by-night merchants who set up stalls across its vast grounds.
It stood as the unsightly symbol of Russia’s problems until being torn down in 2011 and lavishly rebuilt as the focus of the World Cup.
While Luzhniki’s future as the national stadium is safe, it is the subsistence model that places such as Saransk and Samara are forced to consider as they inherit grand stadiums that will be home to teams that draw a few thousand fans.
