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MOSCOW — For the 42,000 English football fans arriving to watch the Champions League final Moscow has said it will expedite visas, clear runways, extend subway hours and build a bridge.
Hotel rooms to accommodate Manchester United and Chelsea supporters descending on the Luzhniki stadium on May 21 were more of a problem, however.
Moscow has about 34,000 hotel rooms for about 75,000 guests according to U.S. State Department statistics. Some 5,500 are so-called Western-standard hotel rooms and local media say almost all are booked during the Champions League final.
"It's a well documented fact that Moscow does not have enough hotel rooms for an event of this magnitude. Especially in the three to four-star range, where most football fans are likely to stay," said Natalya Anashkina, Editor in Chief of the Russian Hotel Association's magazine 'Concept Hotel'.
Workers are seen placing pieces of turf to cover the artificial grass soccer field at the Luzhniki Olympic Stadium in Moscow, Monday. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP)
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"There are a lot of five-star hotels now but the prices there are expensive even by European standards," said Anashkina.
Calls to two Moscow five-star hotels, the Baltschug-Kempinski and the Ritz-Carlton, showed no available rooms. Not even the $3,920 per night Honeymoon Suite was available for the Champions League final.
One idea floated by deputy mayor Valeriy Vinogradov, the man organising the city's efforts for the championship, is for fans to fly in the morning of the match and leave Russia immediately after.
Such a plan would mean the city would not reap the benefit of extra tourist spending, however.
"I think the city administration is thinking more about the kinds of fans who come to football matches and probably wants them to stay for as little time as possible," Anashkina said.
"I've been to a few football matches myself and I can tell you, they are not always filled with the most desirable clientele," she added.
The Russian foreign ministry has dispatched teams of extra embassy workers to Manchester and London to expedite entry formalities and officials said all fans would get their visas on time.
On Monday, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov told Russian news agency RBK they would build a temporary footbridge over the busy road along Luzhniki Stadium and officials said the city would open its smallest airport Bykovo to comply with a UEFA requirement that opposing fans arrive separately.
The city's vast and sprawling metro would also run an extra three hours into early hours of the morning after the game, the first Champions League final between two English sides.
