Dinamo Stadium (Minsk)

Dinamo Stadium

Location	Minsk, Belarus
Coordinates
Capacity	34,000
Surface	Grass
Construction
Opened	1934
Renovated	1939, 1947–1954, 1978-1980, 2012–2014
Tenants
Dinamo Minsk (1934–2008) Minsk (2009–) Belarus national football team

Dinamo Stadium (Belarusian: Стадыён Дынама, Belarusian pronunciation: [stadɨˈjɔn dɨˈnama]) is a multi-purpose stadium in Minsk, Belarus. It is currently undergoing renovations and may be converted into a track and field arena. Earlier it was used mostly for football matches and was the home ground of FC Dinamo Minsk, FC Minsk and Belarus national football team. The stadium officially seated 40,000, but because part of the upper stand had not been used since the mid-90s for safety reasons, the capacity before renovations was only 34,000.

History

Dinamo Stadium was constructed and opened in 1934 and expanded in 1939. It was destroyed during World War II and rebuilt during 1947–1954. It was further renovated during 1978–1980 in preparation for 1980 Summer Olympics. In October 2012 the stadium was closed for major reconstruction works. It will be reopened in 2014 as a soccer-specific stadium.

Domestic use

During Soviet years the stadium was a home venue for Dinamo Minsk, which continued to use the stadium until 2008. Since 2009 Dinamo Minsk has relocated to a smaller Dinamo-Yuni Stadium, while Dinamo Stadium became the primary home venue for FC Minsk. The stadium is also a traditional venue to host the final match of Belarusian Cup, which was held here almost every year since 1992, with the exception of 2002 and 2011.

International use

The stadium was one of the venues of the football tournament at the 1980 Summer Olympics. It hosted 6 group phase matches and one quarterfinal. It was one of the venues at 1984 UEFA U18 Euro and 1985 FIFA U20 World Cup, both held in Soviet Union. Since 1992 the stadium is a primary home venue for Belarus national football team.

Over the years the stadium has been used by a lot of Belarusian clubs in European Cups in cases when the clubs' own stadiums did not meet UEFA criteria. In recent years it was used as the home venue by BATE Borisov in UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League games, including group phase of both competitions, Champions League qualifying round and Europa League knockout phase.

See also

• Dynamo (disambiguation)

External links

• Stadium profile at pressball.by
• Stadium profile at FC Dinamo Minsk website
• Stadium profile at FC Minsk website