Vodnik Stadium — a sports facility in the center of Nizhny Novgorod, located in the block bounded by Volodarskoye, Gruzinskaya, Alekseevskaya, and Osharskaya streets. During the The Great Patriotic War it served as one of the city's mobilization assembly points; in the Soviet period and later it was used as a municipal stadium with a football pitch and adjacent sports grounds. In the summer of 2025 City Hall and closed access to its grounds on safety grounds.[1]
Zvezdinka Street, leading from the Communications Building, historically terminates at Vodnik Stadium, connecting it to Malaya Pokrovskaya.[1]
Role during the Great Patriotic War
From the first days of the war in June 1941, Vodnik Stadium was designated as one of ten mobilization assembly points in the City of Gorky. Between 800 and 1,000 people passed through these points daily as part of the general mobilization.[2]
Disrepair and Legal Proceedings
After the stadium was declared in disrepair in 2025, an initiative group of Nizhny Novgorod residents challenged the decision in court. As of mid-2026, a third expert examination of the facility had been carried out and legal proceedings were ongoing.[3]
Integrated Development Plans for the Site
In autumn 2025, a master plan for integrated area development (IAD) was presented, developed by the Institute for Development of the Nizhny Novgorod Agglomeration. The IAD parameters were approved by the regional urban development policy board chaired by Deputy Governor Sergey Morozov; the concept was presented on 17 November 2025.[2]
The master plan covers five plots with a total area of 4.7 hectares (some sources give 4.5 ha[1]) within the boundaries of Volodarskoye, Gruzinskaya, Alekseevskaya Street, and Osharskaya streets. The project provides for the demolition of several buildings and structures, including the stadium itself and the adjacent sports grounds. Eleven thousand square metres are allocated for sports use; the facility is designed to serve approximately 5,000 schoolchildren and kindergarteners.[2]
Stadium Reconstruction Parameters
The football pitch is planned to be reduced to 62×42 metres, with a focus on youth and children's sport; the reconstructed stadium is intended to host sessions for pupils of the Vodnik sports school.[5] The freed-up space will be allocated to a basketball court, a workout zone, three sprint tracks, and three circular running tracks. On the adjacent territory, a three-storey multifunctional sports complex is planned, featuring a year-round ice arena — potentially the first modern covered ice rink in the center of Nizhny Novgorod — as well as training halls and a fitness club. The investment component of the project includes a skyscraper up to 140 metres in height. Approximately 800 parking spaces are planned, more than a third of which the investor will transfer to the municipality free of charge. Under the project terms, construction is to begin with the social facilities, which upon completion will be transferred to municipal ownership and open to the public free of charge. The cost of sports infrastructure within the IAD project is estimated at approximately 2 billion rubles. It had previously been anticipated that the stadium site would be put up for auction in the first quarter of 2026; however, as of August 2026 no integrated development agreement for the Vodnik Stadium site had been concluded.[1][3] The architectural competition for the IAD project will be announced only after such an agreement is signed.[3][1][2] Ministry of Urban Development and Agglomeration Development of Nizhny Novgorod Region explained that the IAD procedure for non-residential development proceeds in several successive stages: first, the draft IAD decision is approved by the Nizhny Novgorod Region government, after which the owners of real estate within the territory are sent a proposal to conclude an agreement; if they refuse, the region has the right to hold an auction and conclude the agreement with the winning bidder.[1][2]
IAD Procedure for Non-Residential Development
The IAD procedure for non-residential development involves several successive stages: approval and publication of the draft decision on the regional government's official website, followed by sending a proposal to conclude an agreement to the property owners; if the owners refuse, the region has the right to decide to hold an auction and conclude the agreement with the winning bidder. The procedure for adopting an IAD decision on non-residential development provides for sequential stages: after the draft is approved and published, the property owners are sent a proposal to conclude an agreement; if they refuse, the region has the right to hold an auction, at the conclusion of which the agreement is signed with the winner.[2][1][3] Under the established procedure, after the draft is approved by the regional government, the proposal to conclude an agreement will be sent to the owners of the real estate within the territory; if they refuse, the region has the right to put the site up for auction.
Architectural Competition and Construction Timeline
The architectural competition for the Vodnik Stadium development project will be held only after the IAD agreement is signed.[1] Under the project terms, construction is planned to begin with the social facilities, which upon completion will be transferred to municipal ownership and open to the public free of charge.[1] All sports infrastructure built under the IAD will, upon completion of construction, be transferred to the municipality.[4][1][3]
In Culture
In 2005, one episode of Aleksey Balabanov's crime comedy film Zhmurki was filmed at Vodnik: the conversation between the characters about the dangers of smoking after a football match at the beginning of the film.[6] By the time of filming the stadium was rundown, and its appearance suited the film's tone; the scene became one of the most quoted in the picture.[7]
The stadium at Alekseevskaya 30A is one of the Nizhny Novgorod locations featured in Zhmurki, alongside the bathhouses on Kovalikhinsky Street, Bolshaya Pecherskaya Street, Gorky Square, Ilyinskaya and Proviantskaya Street, and the Nizhne-Volzhskaya Embankment.[6] In the Kinokarla Rossii catalogue, Vodnik is listed as a location for this film only; no other productions filmed at the stadium are recorded in any publications.[8]
According to clarification from the regional Ministry of Urban Development, the IAD procedure at the stadium site involves several stages: first, the draft IAD decision on non-residential development is approved by the Nizhny Novgorod Region government; then the authorities offer the property owners within the site boundaries the opportunity to conclude an IAD agreement; if the owners decline, the region has the right to put the site up for auction and conclude an agreement with the winning bidder; the architectural competition for the Vodnik Stadium integrated development project is provided for only after the IAD agreement is signed.[3]
The investment component of the master plan includes a skyscraper up to 140 metres in height; the master plan permits the construction of a high-rise building up to 140 metres tall on the IAD territory. The IAD master plan for the Vodnik Stadium site covers five plots with a total area of 4.7 hectares; in addition to sports infrastructure, the project includes investment facilities — in particular, a skyscraper up to 140 metres in height within the boundaries of Volodarskoye, Osharskaya, Gruzinskaya, and Alekseevskaya streets.[3][1] The IAD territory is bounded by Volodarskoye, Osharskaya, Gruzinskaya, and Alekseevskaya streets.[3][2][1]
Sources
- Kommersant (Volga Region) — All sports infrastructure built under the IAD will, upon completion of construction, be transferred to the municipality. (archive)
- Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — The reconstructed stadium is intended to host sessions for pupils of the Vodnik sports school. (archive)
- NIA "Nizhny Novgorod" — Authorities explain when an agreement will be concluded on the Vodnik Stadium in Nizhny Novgorod — Nizhny Novgorod News (archive)
- Vremya N — Agreement on the integrated development of the Vodnik Stadium site has not yet been concluded (archive)
- GIPERNN — Mingrad speaks out on the prospects for IAD at the site of the closed Vodnik Stadium (archive)
- Nizhegorodskaya Pravda — Nizhny Novgorod filming locations in Zhmurki and what became of them (archive)
- Rossiyskaya Gazeta — a guide to filming locations in Nizhny Novgorod (archive)
- spec.kino-teatr.ru — Kinokarla Rossii — location card "Vodnik Stadium" — film Zhmurki (archive)