Traktor Stadium
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Traktor Stadium, formerly Stadium of the VSS Red Banner (Russian: Стадион ДСО «Красное знамя») is the second largest football stadium in Belarus. It was built in 1968 as part of the citywide plan to create sport complex areas in every new suburb of Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic capital and to accommodate rapidly growing Minsk population (from 1960 to 1980 Minsk population grew from 500000 to 1,500000 people).
Traktor Stadium was designed in 1966-1967 by well-known soviet architects V. Min'kin and v. Sadykov from Minsk Architecture and Design Institute. Initial plan included building athletic complex "Krasnoe Znamya" and was never completed.
The stadium was reconstructed right before the 1980 Summer Olympics and served as a backup ground for the Dinamo Stadium.
Second reconstruction started in 1997 and included minor changes along with installation of the fence and plastic seats to satisfy UEFA new standards.
New history of stadium began in 2005. Owner of football club MTZ-RIPO Minsk Vladimir Romanov met with the president of Republic of Belarus and discussed the possibilities of Traktor stadium expansion. Aleksandr Lukashenko, the Belarusian president, liked a project of a new sports and amusement centre in Minsk proposed by Ukio Banko Investicine Grupe (UBIG). The leader of Belarus pledged to keep an eye on the construction operations himself. As the presidential office of Belarus endorsed this project in fall 2005, the Lithuanian company has been given the green light to launch the construction next spring. The new facility should mushroom in the territory of the present stadium Traktor. UBIG controls MTZ RIPO, a Belarusian football club. Vladimir Romanov, the owner of this financial group, also holds a third of the Scottish club Hearts including Tynecastle,a football stadium situated in the Scottish capital. In Lithuania, this businessman is a sponsor of FBK Kaunas, a combined baseball and football club.
