The construction of this stadium, which will cost "Shakhtar" owner Rinat Akhmetov 200 million dollars, was announced back last year. All this time, "Shakhtar" executives were choosing this project from 20 sketches by leading world architects and chose the design proposed by the company ArupSport. The start of stadium construction was somewhat delayed by the change of power in Ukraine and attempts to ban this construction. But this barrier was also overcome.
After the conclusion of the introductory remarks, the presentation participants handed to the general director of FC "Shakhtar" Serhiy Palkin the officially approved stadium project. According to Palkin himself, construction on the already allocated plot in Lenin Komsomol Park will begin in the near future and will be completed at the end of 2007. Moreover, Mr. Palkin sees no problems with disrupting the construction of this structure. Furthermore, Palkin noted that this project construction will also help Ukraine in the struggle for the right to host Euro 2012.
At the very beginning of the press conference, ArupSport director Stephen Burrows and construction manager Briton Austin Reilly spoke about the scale of this structure.
The future stadium will contain service premises for players, spectator seats, sectors for the disabled, media representatives, VIP zones for sponsors and honored guests, areas for the building of a museum and the official store of FC "Shakhtar".
The press box will accommodate 144 journalists, for whom 72 monitors with television images reflecting the twists and turns of the match will be provided. Special viewing platforms designed for 150 seats will be created for the disabled, and people with weak vision and hearing will be provided with binoculars and headphones respectively. According to Burrows, who promised that the Donetsk arena will definitely become the best in Europe, "the main feature of the new stadium is that it is not the landscape that is adjusted to it, but vice versa," "Sport-Arena" reports Burrows' words.
Moreover, it is worth noting that Mr. Austin Reilly, who at one time was a player for the Scottish "Queens Park Rangers," had a hand in the construction of such modern stadiums as the national stadium in Scotland and "Estadio" in Portugal. According to Mr. Reilly, the construction of the stadium for Donetsk "Shakhtar" is one of the most important projects of his life.
"This was not an easy task, but we handled it with dignity," Reilly notes regarding the approval of the stadium project. "Approval of the project at all stages of state expert review is a significant step toward successful implementation of the project. Ukrainian business has its own peculiarities: in the West, the most important thing is approval of the design by the client, but when you are in Ukraine, the main thing is approval of the project by state expert review."
After that, all the main participants of the press conference were presented with a bottle of collectible "Artemivske Champagne" aged 17 years, which was suggested to be opened only after the stadium is fully built.