The Croatian national football team is set to play a crucial qualifying match for the 2024 European Championship against Armenia on Tuesday at 8:45 p.m. The match will take place at Maksimir, a stadium that is in dire need of renovation. For years, discussions have been ongoing about the reconstruction of Maksimir, with talks of building a completely new stadium. It appears that the City of Zagreb, the state, and the Zagreb Archdiocese have finally come to an agreement. According to Sportske novosti, an agreement on the necessary land for the stadium’s construction in Maksimir is set to be signed in December. In exchange, the Archdiocese will receive new land in the city for building new churches.
In addition to Maksimir, another stadium in need of renovation is Kranjčevićeva street, currently home to HNL matches between Lokomotive and Rudeš. The stadium has little over 5,000 seats but is planned to have between 10,000 and 12,000 seats after renovation, which is set to begin in the spring. The newly renovated stadium in Kranjčevićeva would serve as Dinamo’s home during the construction of the new stadium in Maksimir. However, the budget for the City of Zagreb for 2024 only includes three million euros for the renovation of this stadium, which may not be enough for such a large-scale project.
French construction company Bouygues, known for building iconic structures like Stade de France and Franjo Tuđman Airport in Zagreb, is one of the candidates for the new stadium project in Maksimir. Other options are also open for potential investors. Despite these challenges