Stadium made of straw? Farmer protests spending with straw replica

KRASNOYE, Russia — His arena made of 4,500 straw bales comes with tiered seating for 300 and flagpoles. It hosted its first tournament — for local teams only — last weekend using modified soccer rules.

“It’s good to get people excited and create a sports atmosphere ahead of the World Cup,” Ponomaryov said in a recent interview.

The real St. Petersburg Stadium has drawn ire for its cost, corruption scandals, delays, and workers’ deaths.

Ponomaryov is a fan of the Zenit St. Petersburg club and says he modeled his straw stadium on Zenit’s new home in a gentle dig at the problems around the construction.

“It seemed pretty strange … how the cost of the stadium and its construction timeframe were increasing,” he said. Russia’s total World Cup budget is around $10.7 billion.

Zenit has accepted the straw stadium with good humor, offering Ponomaryov a ticket to a game at the real thing.

The harvest will keep him on the farm for the next few weeks, though, and he has in mind another project — organizing a Straw World Cup.

In this photo taken on Saturday, June 4, 2016, people ply football at the arena, made of 4,500 straw bales, comes complete with tiered seating and flagpoles in Krasnoye, Stavropol region, South Russia. In a project straight out of the “Three Little Pigs” fairytale, Roman Ponomarev has built a straw replica of the 643-billion-ruble ($700 million) stadium in St. Petersburg which will host World Cup semifinals. (AP Photo/Oleksandr Stashevskyi) ORG XMIT: XAZ125

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In this photo taken on Saturday, June 4, 2016, people ply football at the arena, made of 4,500 straw bales, comes complete with tiered seating and flagpoles in Krasnoye, Stavropol region, South Russia. In a project straight out of the “Three Little Pigs” fairytale, Roman Ponomarev has built a straw replica of the 643-billion-ruble ($700 million) stadium in St. Petersburg which will host World Cup semifinals. (AP Photo/Oleksandr Stashevskyi) ORG XMIT: XAZ126

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In this photo taken on Saturday, June 4, 2016, people ply football at the arena, made of 4,500 straw bales, comes complete with tiered seating and flagpoles in Krasnoye, Stavropol region, South Russia. In a project straight out of the “Three Little Pigs” fairytale, Roman Ponomarev has built a straw replica of the 643-billion-ruble ($700 million) stadium in St. Petersburg which will host World Cup semifinals. (AP Photo/Oleksandr Stashevskyi) ORG XMIT: XAZ127

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In this photo taken on Saturday, June 4, 2016, people ply football at the arena, made of 4,500 straw bales, comes complete with tiered seating and flagpoles in Krasnoye, Stavropol region, South Russia. In a project straight out of the “Three Little Pigs” fairytale, Roman Ponomarev has built a straw replica of the 643-billion-ruble ($700 million) stadium in St. Petersburg which will host World Cup semifinals. (AP Photo/Oleksandr Stashevskyi) ORG XMIT: XAZ128

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In this photo taken on Saturday, July 22, 2017, shows a view of the arena, made of 4,500 straw bales, comes complete with tiered seating and flagpoles in Krasnoye, Stavropol region, South Russia. In a project straight out of the “Three Little Pigs” fairytale, Roman Ponomarev has built a straw replica of the 643-billion-ruble ($700 million) stadium in St. Petersburg which will host World Cup semifinals. (AP Photo/Oleksandr Stashevskyi) ORG XMIT: XAZ124

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