Arena Khimki

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Arena Khimki

Next, we visit the Arena Khimki, currently the home of the football club, Dinamo Moscow. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a new wealthy class emerged from the shambles of communism, the so-called “New Russians.” Seeking to maintain the status they acquired, the New Russian class sought to distance themselves from the Soviet command economy and can thus be credited with bringing capitalism to many domains of Russian society, including its sports culture. In an effort to bury their assets from tax authorities, significantly wealthy Russians invested into sports clubs, and used them as a front through which to launder their money and to grow their social status[1]. Dinamo Moscow was one of such football clubs, among the many owned by billionaire Russians. The Arena Khimki, completed as recently as 2008[2], stands as a testament to this extraordinary wealth.

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The Dinamo Moscow football team in 2015.

Thus, post-Soviet sports culture had been largely commercialized by the end of the twentieth century, the somber escape from a domineering government replaced by fixed games, big names, and an unscrupulous flow of riches between those that were already rich[1]. In sports culture, the worst of communism was exchanged for the worst of capitalism. Spectatorship suffered, because of disapproval over the course popular sports had taken and – perhaps more significantly – because of the new means of entertainment that the former Soviet people were exposed to after their nation toppled. The escape that spectator sports offered was no longer as necessary without the Soviet ideal pervading overhead, and they faded into just another commodity.