The largest building intended for athletic purposes, erected over the last 30 years in Romania, will be inaugurated today on the occasion of the football game between the national teams of Romania and France, which counts for the qualifying rounds of the European Football Championship of 2012. The event has attracted huge interest, far more than the match itself, especially since the initial attempt to inaugurate it was a failure due to the unreliability of the leaders of the Argentine Football Federation.
In spring 2007, the Mayoralty of Bucharest signed a contract with Max Bogl&Astaldi for the construction of a stadium with 50,300 seats, for a total price of 119 million Euros. The initial estimate proved too conservative, as the entire construction cost almost double, (approximately 234 million Euros). This budget overrun aroused public indignation, but also increased interest in the project, as proven by the fact that, on the two occasions that the mayoralty opened the gates of the arena to the public, several hundred thousand people went in to see what their money was being spent on.
Despite the enormous investment, it still can not match the combined value of the players on the two teams, who together are worth 400,000,000 Euros. Truth be told, the team trained by Laurent Blanc accounts for the bulk of that sum, as the French team is valued at no less than 348,000,000 Euros on transfermarkt.de. Together, the Romanian team is worth 52,500,000 Euros, as its value decreased after Chivu and Rădoi retired and Mutu and Tamaş were expelled from the team.
Not everything is perfect when it comes to the new stadium. Even the authorities admit that. In the event of major incidents, the evacuation of the spectators from the National Arena could prove very dangerous. During the simulations performed over the last few weeks, the Gendarmerie practiced sever
