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Vladimir Putin: 2018 World Cup stadiums overall on track, but delays "unacceptable"

2017-10-04T14:44:00-04:00

Russian president Vladimir Putin has warned 2018 World Cup officials that delays to preparations for the tournament are "unacceptable", although they are not yet "critical". Russia will host its first World Cup from 14 June to 15 July using 12 venues in 11 cities across the country. Putin, 64, said that while work was "entirely satisfactory" overall, "there are nevertheless some delays".

With the world's biggest soccer event officially kicking off in June 2018, Russian President Putin is whipping his officials in formation to have construction on the twelve venues in eleven cities across Russia completed without any delays — and avoid the fiasco from the Sochi Olympic Games.

Not everyone's happy about the new stadiums though.

This Russian farmer built a stadium out of straw to satirize the new Zenit Arena in Saint Petersburg

2017-07-24T13:13:00-04:00

A farmer in Russia has built a football stadium out of straw to mock the ballooning cost and corruption surrounding the construction of St Petersburg’s Zenit Arena, recently opened for the 2018 World Cup. Although the straw version in the Stavropol region lacks the extra-terrestrial elegance of the Kisho Kurokawa’s design, and while its seating capacity is rather less than 68,000, it was a great deal cheaper: $673 compared with the original’s $720m.

Here's an image of the IRL Zenit Arena:

And here's a video of the construction of the straw parody:

Stadium Sticker Shock: Costs Explode for Russia's 2018 World Cup

2014-07-17T14:19:00-04:00

Moscow wants to make Russia the "center of the sporting world," but the price tag will be steep. Four years before the 2018 World Cup, costs are exploding in the next host country, with the two most important stadiums each costing more than a billion euros.