In the capital, there are many places with fascinating histories that few people are aware of
Kyiv consists of ten administrative units—districts. Each of them is about the size of a small city. The districts have their own history, traditions, and interesting spots. “Kashtan NEWS” shares and reminds us of intriguing facts about Kyiv’s districts. Last time, we talked about areas called Myshelovka, Zvirynets, Batyeva Gora, Lyssa Hora, Chorna Hora, Cherepanova Hora, Korchuvate, Feofania, Ipodrom, and “Expo Center”. Today, we will discuss the Ice Stadium.
Location
The so-called Ice Stadium, or Ice Arena as it is referred to colloquially, is located in the Holosiivskyi district at 9 Hlushkova Avenue. Construction of a covered sports arena began on its grounds in the mid-1980s. In 1984, the then-first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Volodymyr Shcherbytsky, personally decided that Kyiv residents needed a place to engage in sports year-round at the Ice Arena, leading to a competition for its construction. The project budget was 3 million Soviet rubles—a staggering amount for that time. Construction of the arena commenced two years later and... has yet to be completed.
1 The Sports Giant
As is known, Shcherbytsky was a passionate supporter of the capital's football club, Dynamo. Thus, at his initiative, the territory of the Ice Stadium was designated for creating a sports arena intended for competitions and training camps, primarily for football. The field was to be of standard size—120x75 meters. However, the construction technology outlined in the project allowed for multifunctional use of the playing hall for competitions in 15 different sports: hockey, fencing, gymnastics, boxing, weightlifting, archery, and so on. The arena was planned to include two small sports halls, several saunas, a swimming pool, a medical complex, and storage for sports equipment. Simultaneously, the stadium could accommodate up to 10,000 spectators, with 5,000 standing places. Had the project concluded with a ribbon-cutting ceremony, it would have made the sports facility the largest covered structure in Kyiv. This is not surprising since the metal beams supporting the roof had a total length of 135.4 meters and operated on the so-called principle of a tensioned bow. Interestingly, this approach was innovative and was considered an engineering invention.
2 A Stillborn Project
Like many large constructions in the USSR, the building of the Sports Arena progressed rapidly for two years, until 1988. After that, funding for the construction was halted. Several factors contributed to this: funds were redirected to mitigate the effects of the Chornobyl disaster, and the country was engulfed in a severe economic crisis. Concurrently, the Dynamo football club began constructing its own sports base outside the capital. Additionally, Shcherbytsky was dismissed.
3 At that point, all structures had been installed at the arena, leaving only the finishing work and connection of the facility to municipal utility networks.
Efforts to resume construction of the arena were made in the early 1990s. Only a small amount of work remained before it could be commissioned. However, in 1996, the city authorities officially abandoned the project and closed off access to the site. This “managerial” approach had negative consequences. Unscrupulous entrepreneurs and ordinary citizens began to pilfer everything of value from the unfinished site, from decorative tiles to heavy metal structures. It was only then that the facility was placed under physical security.
From Sports to Commerce
During Viktor Yushchenko's presidency, the then-Minister of Youth and Sports, Yuriy Pavlenko, announced an ambitious plan to revive the arena. In 2006, a project for the so-called “Olympic Village” was even presented. At least two billion hryvnias were needed for its construction. Two years after the announcement of the construction plan, initial work on the site commenced but was halted shortly thereafter.
4 In 2010, the government of Mykola Azarov intervened, promising to transform the sports arena into another shopping mall. However, this plan also fell through. By 2017, the controversial businessman Vagif Aliyev obtained the right to lease the property. He also claimed he wanted to open a shopping center here, but—with a sports complex. The total area of the structure was to be 450,000 square meters. Yet, this idea was never realized. The following year, in 2018, a project emerged in the open state procurement system Prozorro to create a National Tennis Center based on the unfinished sports arena.
Thus, instead of becoming the largest covered sports facility in Ukraine, the “Ice Stadium” has become almost the largest unfinished construction in the country.
Strangely enough, this massive sports long-term project gained popularity in the cultural sphere. Various documentaries, music videos, and other productions have been filmed on its grounds. Notably, a video was created here by the music group “Antytila” for the song “Fortress Bakhmut.”
Fate or Misfortune
The fate of a building, much like that of a person, often depends on the convergence of time and circumstances. Such seems to be the case with the covered arena.
The project's engineer, Lev Khazron, stated in an interview with the well-known Kyiv scholar Kyril Stepantsu: “I can responsibly declare that our Covered Sports Arena, as it was officially called, meets all international standards in terms of its properties, originality, and uniqueness.”
According to Khazron, as soon as the idea of constructing a similar facility in Kyiv arose, it faced immediate misfortune.
The issue, as explained by one of the project's authors, was that the construction of such large-scale facilities during Soviet times had to be approved at the level of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
“And Moscow,” Khazron noted, “whether out of jealousy or other reasons I do not understand, did not grant permission for this. But Shcherbytsky managed to obtain approval. However, Moscow immediately set conditions that foreshadowed the building's demise from the very beginning.”
5 First and foremost, Khazron pointed out that the construction was to be financed from the reserve funds of the Ukrainian SSR's budget. These reserves were redirected to address the consequences of the Chornobyl disaster.
The second reason was that Moscow imposed another requirement: the number of spectators in the arena should not exceed five thousand.
“This building could never break even because of this condition. Five thousand spectators are nothing for such a structure. And despite our best efforts to increase the number of spectator seats by all possible hidden means, we only managed to increase it to no more than 6,000. In reality, such stadiums require a spectator capacity of at least 30, preferably 50-60 thousand,” the designer of the well-known Kyiv sports unfinished project stated.
Yevhen DEM’YANOV