2012-03-18 Dynamo

Dynamo Kyiv, arguably Ukraine’s top football team. They used to play in an small old stadium in one of those parks on the hills I have mentioned. Now they play in the newly built glass and steel Olympic Stadium. It will host the Euro 2012 Final, it is 2 blocks from my hostel, and I saw Dynamo play there tonight for $25. Mind you… I bought a seat in the most expensive sector of the arena. $24 more than the cheapest ticket. Which does not seem right… But yes. The cheapest ticket is a mere $1. So I figured if I could not buy the cheap $1-$10 tickets which were sold out, to my dismay, then I looked at the expensive tickets from $20-25. Well for $25, I get the best seats in the house, a VIP pass apparently, and a free dinner. So… okay? 

I ate my free dinner in the clubhouse, which is sparkling new. At every possible corridor intersection is a different Ukrainian girl, fully-clad in business casual to help you with your every whim. I paid $25 for this all-inclusive service that one can only get for a minimum of a few hundred dollars in the states. I befriended an American chef, named Michael, after we realized we were the only foreigners there. 

Dynamo won 2-0, easily. The atmosphere is brilliant, but only due to the stadium. The second Zenit gets their new stadium built on Krestovskiy Island they will be able to compete, the superfans (or Ultras) of Zenit are much better than Ukraine’s, but the small roofless, acoustic-less, 20,000 seater Petrovskiy does not help. The Olympic stadium tonight held 68,000. Not too shabby. 

Dynamo Kyiv has won their place as number 4 of my favorite soccer teams. Behind Zenit, Liverpool, and New York. And all I have learned is that Kyiv is still very cheap.