Two artificial turfs for Dynamo Stadium increased tender costs 1.5 times
Belarus chose a wrong time to finish the reconstruction of the Dynamo Stadium in Minsk. All the world famous companies were busy making turfs for the FIFA World Cup arenas in Russia when Belarus decided to order one for its long-suffering arena…
Two tenders were organized to buy the turf for the Minsk stadium. The Belarus state rejected the services of the Austrian company that had made the turf for the Olimpiyskiy in Kyiv and Luzhniki in Moscow. In the end, a company from the Russian city of Volgograd agreed to make the turf two months before the opening of the arena.
Furthermore, the second pitch was added to the tender. As a result, the turfs of the main and training fields at the Dynamo Stadium have been bought for 432 000 euros. The contract price ‘went up’ 1.5 times although each turf cost less than 282 000 euro in the first tender.
The Russian company’s portfolio: training arenas only
Football players and athletes will be sharing the pitch of the main Minsk stadium. It needs to be of a very high quality to be able to host high-level competitions. Belarus could not chose the winner of the tender in 2017 (Austria, Holland and Russia took part in it). The tender was cancelled and the task was put off until spring 2018.
The Austrian company Richter Rasen GmbH suggested a turf to Belarus for 571 thousand euro. However, officials liked the offer made by the Russian company Krona Sport (432 thousand euro) better.
Euroradio has asked Krona Sport CEO Aleksei Zaitsev to name the biggest orders fulfilled by the company. He only mentioned… second-grade training arenas:
“Our turfs are used at the training pitch of FC Krasnodar, at the training pitches of the world championship in Gelendzhik, Kabardinets, Anapa and Vitezevo. They are also used at training pitches in Volgograd, Ulyanovsk and Samara.”
Even Volgograd Arena (where England and Tunis played their first match of the 2018 World Cup) is using a turf made by a different company!
“Requirements for track-and-field athletics turf are not too high”
The new Dynamo pitch to last for 8 years
“There is one goal for us all: the stadium needs to meet the standards of the International Association of Athletics Federations and FIFA. This is very serious so I do not think that somebody would invest into a turf that is not suitable,” Vadzim Dzevyatouski added. “Nevertheless, the quality of the turf can be tested only during competitions.”
How long can a turf last? If the pitch is looked after, the turf will last for 8 years, Krona Sport CEO said. The Russian company has trained the personnel that will look after the stadium.
The renovated Dynamo Stadium will hold a first competition on 21 June. It will host the 2nd European Games in 2019.
