Key facts

Capacity 100,000 seats
Build Date 1950
Demolished 2006
Record Attendance 110,000

Description

Kirov Stadium used to be a stadium located in St. Petersburg, Russia. It was one of the biggest stadiums in the world. It was named after Sergey Kirov. The design of the stadium was developed by the architect Aleksandr Nikolsky, and construction of Kirov Stadium started in 1932, but it was interrupted by WWII. The work resumed only in 1945, when thousands of recruits could be engaged in construction.

Kirov Stadium was open in 1950, and the first match that took place in the ground was between Dynamo and Zenit, both were Leningrad teams. Initially, a capacity of the stadium was 100,000 people, 16,000 of which were standing places.

In 1951, the capacity of the stadium was increased up to 110,000 by adding temporary stands. All of the tickets were sold out, and the highest attendance in the ground and for the Soviet football reached 110,000 people. To prepare for the Summer Olympics in 1980, the stadium was reconstructed, and its capacity was reduced to 72,000.

In 1994, the ground was chosen for the Goodwill Games, a major international event with participants from more than 50 countries. Over the next several years, Kirov Stadium was used for football matches, and a range of athletics and other events. In 2005, it was decided to be demolished so that a new stadium could be built instead of it.

The last match at the stadium was held between Petrotrest F.C. and Spartak Shelkovo in the summer of 2006, and the ground was demolished in the same year. In 2017, the Krestovsky Stadium was opened on the site.