Ownership of non-performing asset – Petersburg SCC – will be transferred to the City

At the end of August, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev gave orders to  transfer the ownership of FGUP Sports and Concert Complex to the Saint Petersburg authorities. The arena will be transferred before the end of the year, and the Federal Property Management Agency and the City Administration will handle the legal procedures.

Back then, a Stalin skyscraper was planned at the site of today’s SCC near the Moscovsky Park Pobedy, but, on the occasion of the Olympic Games-80, it was decided to build a sports and concert complex named after V.I. Lenin. The project was identical to the Moscow "Olympic", but the Leningrad SCC seating capacity was lower: as many as 25 thousand spectators. The construction started in 1970 and was completed in nine years, and the opening of the complex took place on May 19, 1980. The Complex saw the pioneer and komsomol festivals, concerts and children's New Year parties, and the Zenit had the official matches  at the indoor stadium.

In 1991, the Complex was renamed as Petersburg SCC. From this moment on, practically no sports events were held in the building, and it has become a concert venue and exhibition area.

Since 2010, Nikolai Sklyarenko is in charge of SCC. Previously, Nikolai Sklyarenko worked in the Dynamo Football Club, and from 2004, was the director of the Petrovsky Stadium. Sklyarenko used to state that he had found a depressing situation in SCC and he had set the stabilization of the financial position of the Complex as its main task indicating that the Complex was operated on a basis of the full self-repayment. According to abnews.ru, the SCC net profit was 57 thousand rubles at the revenue of greater than 133 million rubles at the 2014 year’s end.

However, it appears that the arena has become a loss-making project: in 2011, the Russian Ministry of Sports and the SCC Management announced a competition to determine the title sponsor. After having paid 1 million over five years, a winner would have had the right to paint the facade of the building and to rename the Complex. It was planned to announce the competition winner in November of that same year, then the  announcement was moved to February, but no volunteers were found, and the competition was declared cancelled.