The old Dynamo Stadium was closed for demolition in 2008, and the new VTB Arena was built in its place. The final design of the new stadium was done by David Manica of MANICA Architecture, and the construction was originally scheduled to be finished in 2016 and then 2017, but continued into 2018. The project is called VTB Arena, even though VTB Bank attempted to sell the naming rights. The football stadium has the capacity of 27,000, that can be adjusted up to 45,000, or down to an undisclosed number, while the indoor arena has a base capacity of 12,273 that can be expanded up to 15,000, or down to another undisclosed number. The new complex also includes a shopping and entertainment center, office buildings, apartment buildings, a 5-star hotel, and a 1,600 car parking garage. The total investment is estimated to be 1.5 billion.
Design
The VTB Arena's initial concept was drawn by Dutch architect Erick van Egeraat, who does designs mainly for buildings in Russia and Germany. His vision of comprising both a football stadium and an ice hockey arena inside the bowl of the former Dynamo Stadion won the authorities' approval. Other architects who submitted their projects for tender, but lost out on the final bid, included Perkins Eastman, Populous, and Gerkan, Marg and Partners. However, some of the elements from the losing bids were used in the final design. The final design was prepared by the American firm Manica Architecture. As compared to the project's initial design, the project's final design lost its retractable roof, and some facade features. The audience layout was also subject to changes, ending up with two tiers of seating, instead of three.
The VTB Arena's new football stadium was included in the Russian bid for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, to possibly host the opening game, as the Luzhniki Stadium is set to host the final. However, in late September 2012, FIFA announced the list of host cities and venues, which excluded VTB Arena from the host list. This decision came as no surprise, after it turned out that the Otkrytie Arena would be ready ahead of the VTB Arena, being put into operation already in 2014, as opposed to 2016, for the VTB Arena.
On 27 November 2018, the arena confirmed that the first football game after reopening was to be played between FC Dynamo Moscow and FC Spartak Moscow, it was scheduled for 10 March 2019. On 28 February 2019, Russian Premier League announced that its inspectors did not find the state of the pitch acceptable for play and the derby was moved to a backup stadium. The pitch was reinstalled from scratch. On 16 May 2019, the league approved the new pitch for use and announced that the first game at the stadium played by Dynamo was to be the closing game of the 2018–19 Russian Premier League season against FC Arsenal Tula on 26 May, which ended with a 3–3 draw, in front of a crowd of 23,340.
