Kirovets

The name on the gate is a poor guide to what came before it. Long before the Kirov Works claimed the ground and left its mark on the signage, the same pitch on Perekopskaya Street answered to three other names in turn — Krasny Khimik, then Krasny Treugolnik, then Kauchuk — each shift tracing back to whichever factory collective kept the place running.

The ground itself dates to the years just before the war, when architects Alexander Nikolsky and Konstantin Kashin-Linde drew up the plans between 1933 and 1936. It survived into the postwar period under Kirov Works administration, which is when the current name settled and stuck.

A first phase of reconstruction wrapped up in 2021, bringing new stands to the ground — work that, in trimming the layout, left the arena with a smaller official capacity than it once carried. At 3,000 seats, Kirovets now plays at the scale of a neighbourhood venue rather than the works stadium its Soviet-era names suggest.