The Metallist Stadium is likely to ring to the noise of music in future, not football chants, it has emerged.
Metallist FC has not been granted a license for the next season, with head coach Sergey Prizetko stating players are already looking for new clubs.
But the Metallist stadium, which was the home of Kharkiv football for nearly 90 years, is now at a crossroads. The has lost its main tenant and there is no new one to cover the considerable costs of facility maintenance, reports Segodnya (RU).
The last football game saw Metallist play Kyiv Dynamo in the Premier League on May 14.
As the director of the regional utility company Metallist, Roman Pec, said, according to the agreement, the Kharkiv club covered about half the expenses on staff wages and payment for utility services, the rest allocated from the regional budget.
“According to my calculations, on average, the stadium needs 10-12,000 UAH a year for its maintenance. But this figure is very approximate,” told Pec.
According to him, Metallist didn’t sign any contracts with other clubs and no one is interested in moving to the stadium.
The company’s commercial director is engaged in attracting events to the stadium. June was successful as the arena was rented for the congress of Jehovah’s Witnesses and the concert of “Okean Elzy”. But Pec recognized it won’t be possible to find such events constantly.
If the stadium won’t acquire a new main tenant soon, the council may decide to reduce the staff or completely dissolve the company.
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