Arena CSKA: PFC CSKA Moscow

Mos.ru [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

PFC CSKA Moscow is a football team whose name is essentially made up of acronyms. If you’re wondering what they stand for then wonder no more, we’re here to help. The PFC stands for Professional Football Club and the CSKA means Central Sport Club of the Army. Moscow, as you will almost certainly have worked out without our help, is the city that the club is based in. Interesting, hey? Ok, so we’re playing fast and loose with the word ‘interesting’ there, but come on a journey with us.

CSKA Moscow’s nickname was ‘Horse’ because the club’s original football stadium was built on the site of the city’s old racecourse. It was initially used as an insult but has been taken on and embraced by the fans and players in recent years. The need for a new stadium for CSKA Moscow had been pressing for years, mainly because the club’s ground, called the Light-Athletic Football Complex CSKA, could only house around 4,600 people. That meant that they played their games in numerous locations, such as the Arena Khimki, until Arena CSKA was opened in 2016.

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Arena CSKA Photos

• View of the stands View of the stands
• Arena CSKA Under Construction Arena CSKA Under Construction
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Arena CSKA Seating Plan & Where to Sit

CSKA Arena was initially planned to be built with a continuous bowl of seating similar to most new European stadiums. Then a decision was taken to add a skyscraper into one of the corners shaped like the UEFA Cup and to have office buildings in the other corners. Consequently the ground ended up with four individual stands with two tiers separated by a row of 127 Skyboxes. The upper tiers can hold 14,500 people in total and the lower ones can welcome 12,500 guests throughout the ground.

CSKA Moscow Ticket Prices

Ticket prices for CSKA Moscow games vary wildly depending on the opposition, where about in the ground you’d like to sit and who you are. The least popular games cost between ₽300 roubles (around £3.90) through to ₽8000 roubles, or £104, for an average fan. The most popular games against opposition like Barcelona and Fenerbahce cost from ₽500 roubles (£6.50) to ₽12,000 roubles (£156) for the normal punter. If you’re a World War Two veteran, disabled, retired or under twelve-years-old then you can get a 30% discount on the cost of your tickets.

How To Get CSKA Moscow Tickets

CSKA Moscow are no different to any major football team around the world: They want your money as quickly and easily as possible. Consequently, the best way to get them is via the club’s official website. There is a normal ticket office too, with a phone number and email address you can contact them on. If you don’t speak Russian, however, you may want to keep a translation device nearby…

Where to Buy

Getting To Arena CSKA

Moscow isn’t one of the easiest city’s to get to, though it’s well worth a visit if you’ve never been before. Here’s some of the travel options you might want to avail yourself of:

Train - A train journey from London to Moscow will take just under two days, so it’s probably not the most ideal way to travel. You’ll go from St. Pancras to Brussels, Brussels to Cologne and head from Cologne to Warsaw. From there you’ll get one more train to Moscow itself. The stadium is then about an hour from Leningrad Station, with Metro Line 1 onto Metro Line 2 being your best method of travel.

Bus - If you’d rather avoid the Metro then bus numbers 318, 6 and 43 all run from the centre of the city out to the stadium.

Car - Russia is notoriously difficult to drive in. If you’re determined to have an adventure, however, then you’re probably best off picking up a sat-nav and sticking in the address. Be careful to keep your eyes on the road, though!

By Air - There are three main airports competing for your business if you’re flying into Moscow. Sheremetyevo is around eighteen miles from the city centre, with Vnukovo being a mile closer. Domodedovo is the furthest afield at 26 miles, meaning it’s the most likely destination for unscrupulous budget airlines.

Taxi - A cab from Leningrad Station to near to the ground will set you back in the region of 600 roubles.

Parking Near Arena CSKA

Parking in Russia is a tricky one. There will be spaces close to the ground but you’ll be parking at your own risk. You’re best off parking in a monitored garage in the centre of Moscow or where you can find one nearer the stadium.

• See Available Parking Near Arena CSKA

Useful Resources

Arena CSKA Hotels

Moscow is the capital of Russia. Consequently there are plenty of places to get your head down for the night. Here are some of the better ones close to the centre of the city:

Marco Polo Presnja Hotel - £60+

9, Spiridonjevskij per., Building 1, Moscow

The Marco Polo isn’t the most luxurious hotel in Moscow but it’s a pleasant place to spend some time. There’s free Wi-Fi, complimentary newspapers in the lobby and breakfast available at extra cost. There’s also private parking if you’re willing to pay for the pleasure. More details.

Golden Apple Boutique Hotel - £80+

11 Malaya Dmitrovka, Moscow

The Golden Apple is a pleasant hotel that has plenty to recommend it. There’s a health club with a sauna, a restaurant and bar, a business centre and free Wi-Fi. There are also soundproof rooms available, though if you’re after one of them we don’t want to know why… More details.

Marriott Moscow Grand Hotel - £110+

26/1, Tverskaya Street, Moscow

The Moscow member of the Marriott Hotel chain is a family friendly place with an indoor pool, a business centre with a conference space and 387 rooms to choose from. There’s free Wi-Fi as well as wired internet for a surplus, with a buffet breakfast available for an additional cost. More details.

Pubs & Bars Near Arena CSKA

Moscow is a great place to go for a drink, with vodka bottles on every shelf. Here are some decent sports bars worthy of your attention:

Facilities

As a very new stadium, it’s fair to say that the facilities at Arena CSKA are fairly impressive. The views are good from virtually every corner of the ground, with plenty of places available to buy food and drink, too.

Hospitality

The Skyboxes that run around the ground between the two tiers are capable of holding between twelve and eighteen people. If you want a proper hospitality experience whilst watching a CSKA Moscow match then this is where you’ll almost certainly find yourself. For more information your best bet is to contact the club’s hospitality department who will be happy to run you through your various options.

Private Hire

The stadium will be available for hire for all sorts of occasions, but you will have to contact the stadium direct for details.

Stadium Tours & Museum

PFC CSKA Moscow offer a number of different tours, but the basic one lasts about an hour and costs ₽400 (Russian rubles). That's only about £2.80 in 2022, so it's super cheap. You can also do a tour with a player or famous club associate, a tour that focusses on the history of the club, a matchday tour, or a tour that goes up to the highest point in the stadium called the Tower Tour.

About CSKA Moscow

The reason the letters ‘PFC’ stand before the name of CSKA Moscow is to let you know which branch of the CSKA Moscow sports club it is. You may remember from the introduction that CSKA stands for Central Army Sports Club (translated, obviously) and Moscow is the location of that club. As well as football there’s also departments for futsal, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s volleyball, handball, bandy, beach soccer, water polo and ice hockey. Each of them has their own set of initials to let you know what people are talking about in any given circumstance.

Of course the football team is the most popular of all of these sporting ventures, perhaps because it was the official team of the Soviet Army when the Soviet Union was still in existence. Nowadays it is privately owned, though the Ministry of Defence in Russia still maintains shares. They have won thirteen top-flight divisions, finishing as runners-up on ten further occasions. They’ve won the Russian Cup, previously known as the Soviet Cup, twelve times, reaching final but missing out seven times. They’ve picked up seven Russian Super Cups and also won the UEFA Cup in 2005. In short, they’ve been not too shabby over the years.

Arena CSKA History

Russia is currently a boon for people who love new stadiums. In preparation for the World Cup in 2018 brand new grounds were built all over the country. Arena CSKA isn’t actually one of them though, with the initial plan being to have it open by 2009 - before Russia was even awarded hosting status. Instead problems with construction as well as political situations meant that constriction was halted and only began again in 2013. It’s size means that it wasn’t actually used as a World Cup venue. CSKA decided that a smaller stadium often full was better than a bigger one normally empty, even if it meant missing out on the lucrative ability to host World Cup matches.

From 1974 until 2000 CSKA Moscow played their games in the Grigory Fedotov Stadium. That was also a 30,000 seat stadium and was on the site where Arena CSKA now stands. It’s for that reason that CSKA fans feel that they have returned to their spiritual home. That notion is also helped by the fact that CSKA Moscow haven’t had their own stadium since the Grigory Fedotov was demolished at the start of the millennium. They have been using numerous different stadia, such as Luzhniki Stadium and Dynamo Moscow’s Arena Khimki which is two hours from the centre of the city by car. Hardly ideal for a club wanting to return to the top of the Russian game.

Future Developments

Having opened only in 2016 it is extremely unlikely that any major developments will be carried out in the near future.