Astana Arena

With its extreme continental climate, Astana is the second-coldest capital city in the world, only after Mongolian Ulanbataar. With an annual temperature amplitude of about 70 °C, Kazakhstan’s capital city isn’t an ideal place to play football, not to mention maintaining a professional grass pitch throughout the year. Hence, when planning the brand new national stadium, it was quite obvious it would require laying down synthetic turf.

Astana Arena was officially opened on 3 July 2009 and became a home ground for two professional teams: FC Astana (current Kazakhstan Premier League title holders) and the First Division side FC Bayterek. 30.000 seats make this $185 million object the second largest stadium in the country. Innovative high-tech and architectural solutions enable all viewers to have an unobstructed view of the play and contribute to the stadium being one of the most modern football ground in that part of the continent.

But what distinguishes this object from other ones is the synthetic turf pitch. It enables for the clubs to use the stadium almost all year round, despite the harsh climate conditions in Astana – during its long and dry winters, the temperature can drop to the levels of -35°C… But the weather doesn’t seem to be a problem for FC Astana who have been showing local supremacy by winning Kazakhstan Premier League ever since 2014 season (Kazakhstan league runs spring – autumn cycles with eachchampionship corresponding to a calendar year) and even qualifying to the UEFA Champions League group stage, as the first ever Kazakh team.