Shakhtyor

The stadium replaced an earlier Dynamo ground that had stood on the same Kazybek Bi district site since 1947, and when it reopened in 1958 it held just 10,000 spectators, a fraction of what it would later become.

Growth came in the 1960s, when reconstruction pushed capacity to 28,000. That number came back down after a 2001 rebuild tied to Karaganda's bicentenary, when plastic seating went in, the running track was renewed, and the Swiss firm Motomatic AG laid the natural turf that still covers the main pitch today. That project also earned the venue UEFA licensing, and it hosted a Europa League qualifier in July 2011, when Shakhtyor faced Ireland's St Patrick's Athletic. A youth international between Kazakhstan and Russia had already been played there in 2007, part of qualifying for the 2009 European Championship.

The largest crowd on record came on 29 October 2011, when 18,900 turned out to watch Shakhtyor beat Astana 2:0. Ice hockey also had a spell here, with Stroitel and later Liteyshchik playing home games on the reserve pitch.

Work now underway, running from 2024 into 2026, is billed at more than 2 billion tenge and includes underfloor heating pipework stretching close to 40 kilometres, English-made floodlights, an upgraded athletics sector and a covered training hall, aimed at bringing the ground up to UEFA Category 4 standard.