Dynama Stadium makeover: Who will pay €123m?

The best reconstruction design project has been chosen. The company GMP has won. But will the Germans be allowed to reconstruct the stadium?

Minsk City Architecture and Town Building Committee is not commenting on it. They say that the boss, Alyaksandr Pyatrou, is ill.

The main office of GMP in Hamburg has not managed to comment on the reconstruction of "Dynama" either. But the Germans are still hoping for the realization of the project and are calculating the cost. 

“The preparation of the architectural and construction project is the next stage, – director of "Dynama" Yury Kryvadubski explained, – The issue is being discussed now. We need to chose the realization algorithm – everything will be done step by step. It is a large-scale project that has never been realized before. That is why there are certain problems about it."

The administration of the stadium have already packed to free the territory for builders. "Misnkprambud" has installed the project passport near the central entrance: "Dismantling the second level platform of the western stands". The community work day when all the seats were removed was organized on December 1 (more than 2 months ago). Little has changed in the stadium since then. 

The repairs of "the abat-jour ". Photographed on February 5.

The passport says that the abat-jour will be dismantled in March 2013 - in a month or in a month and a half. 

“Lift cranes will be installed there in March and a building site  will be created. This is preparation. The next three months will be used for dismantling,"  Dzmitry Karas, deputy director of the Building department #25, told Euroradio. His workers are dismantling "the abat-jour".    

Alyaksandr Lukashenka demanded to finish the reconstruction of "Dynama" within 2 years  at the end of October 2012. Two months has passed and it is evident that it will be hardly possible to stick to the President's plan.

It is still not clear whether the German project will be used for the  reconstruction. We still remember the Hungarian company "Groboplan" - Belarus refused from its services although it seemed that everything had been decided and the project was ready. About 140 million euro had to be spent on the reconstruction then. Hungarian banks were ready to invest in the project. They say that Belarus did not reach an agreement with investors and insurers.

But the GMP project will hardly be cheaper. One seat is expected to cost 3000 euro. If we multiply the number by 41 thousand seats we will get 123 million euro. And this is the minimal cost. Germany built an arena in Manaus, Brazil (43 seats) with the money. GMP's stadium in Kiev (for 68 thousand viewers) cost 440 million euro! Who will pay and will Belarus reach an agreement with insurers?

It is still open to question. The reconstruction of Belarus' main football arena resembles a detective story – you cannot predict the outcome.