Metallurgist (stadium, Samara)

November 7, 1956, the leadership of the construction trust Metallurgstroy, which is building the Kuibyshev Metallurgical Plant named after V.I. Lenin, an order was signed to build a new stadium. During the construction of the plant’s workshops, the land from the excavated pits was taken out to the site reserved for the future stadium and used to build stands. On August 10, 1957, the grand opening of the Metallurg stadium took place. Wooden benches were installed on the earthen ramparts. The stands were designed for eight thousand fans. At the stadium, the Metallurg team played their home matches, and along with other city stadiums, the backup team of Krylia Sovetov played on it.

The Wings of the Soviets held their first official match at Metallurg on July 6, 1965, in the 1/4 finals of the USSR Cup Wings defeated Dynamo Leningrad 3-1. Wings began to play at home at the Metallurg stadium in 1970. The first match took place on May 2, Kuibyshev took the Astrakhan “ Volgar ” and won 3-0. The author of the first Wings ball in the national championships at the Metallurg stadium was Ravil Aryapov .

Gradually, the earthen stands of Metallurg were replaced by reinforced concrete ones. In the spring of 1976, the Eastern Grandstand was built and an electronic scoreboard was installed, which lasted 30 years and was replaced only in 2006. In the next two off-seasons, the West and North stands were built - the capacity of Metallurg reached 38,000 spectators. Considerable merit in the development of the stadium was made by Gennady Pavlovich Chernykh, who worked as director of the stadium for almost 16 years - from May 1970 to March 1986.

At the first match of the season in Samara, “Wings of the Soviets” hosted Vladikavkaz “ Alania ” (1: 3) on April 5, 1997, and a record was set for attendance at Metallurg - despite the official capacity of the stadium at 38,000, 44,000 spectators watched the course of the match, people filled all the walkways and steps.

On September 20, 1997, the Samara Regional Sports Committee and the Swiss company Motomatik signed a protocol fixing the installation of artificial heating in full on the pitch of the Metallurg stadium. On November 1, for the first time in the history of Krylia, they held a home match at their own stadium with heating turned on (Krylya Sovetov - Rostselmash - 3-0).

In 1998, the Western tribune of the stadium was equipped with individual plastic seats, in 2001 the East, in 2005 the North. In 2006, a modern color video display (6.43 x 11.76 meters) was installed at the stadium.

On November 19, 2010, the commission of the Russian Football Union for the certification of stadiums assigned the first category (category "B"). This category allows you to hold at Metallurg any competition held under the auspices of the Russian Football Union. The certificate was valid until June 1, 2012 ^{[2] [3]} .

The last game, “Wings of the Soviets,” was held at the stadium on April 15, 2018, in the 33rd round of the FNL, defeating the Krasnoyarsk Yenisei . ^[4] After that, the Samara Arena became the club’s home arena.

In September 2018, work began on replacing the natural coverage of the stadium with artificial in order to reduce field maintenance costs ^[5] . In October 2018, work on replacing the lawn was completed ^[6] .

On April 25, 1959, in their second home game of the season, the Krylia Sovetov doubles played for the first time at Metallurg. The match was watched by 10,000 spectators, and the Samara team lost to the CSKA double 3-4. In 1959-1962, backups of “Wings of the Soviets” took their rivals in three Samara stadiums - Dynamo, Metallurg and Wings of the Soviets.

The main composition of “Wings of the Soviets” began to play on “Metallurg” in 1970 .

As of June 1, 2007, Krylia Sovetov held 679 official matches at the stadium: 644 matches in the framework of the USSR and Russia championships and 35 cup matches, including four UEFA and Intertoto cup matches.

Key matches:

• Number of seats - 33,001
  • Western stand (1-7 sectors, VIP B) - 11 741
  • East stand (13-19 sectors) - 12 384
  • North stand (8-12 sectors) - 8 876
  • Guest sectors (11-12 sectors) - from 1 476 to 3 402
  • Wheelchair Seats - 20
  • Places for journalists - 34
• Field dimensions: 101 × 72 m
• The lawn is artificial
• Lighting - 1400 lux
• Scoreboard - color, video, 6.43 x 11.76 meters

The field is equipped with artificial heating and a drainage system. Asymmetric light distribution artificial lighting system to ensure the best quality television performance.

On the 8th sector of the North Stand are the most active fans of the hosts.

Fans of guests are accommodated in the 12th sector of the North Grandstand (if necessary, they will also be assigned 11th sector).

At the entrance there are 25 turnstiles.

In 2004, it became the most visited stadium in Eastern Europe ^[1] .

• S. Orlov. New stadium // Volzhskaya Kommuna : newspaper. - Samara, August 11, 1957. ( Official site of PFC Krylya Sovetov Samara)

• Metallurg Stadium
• The article “New Stadium” on the opening of Metallurg in the Volzhskaya Kommuna newspaper
• Metallurg (Samara)
• Metallurg Stadium
• Russian stadiums
• The stadium "Metallurg". Kuibyshev