Football fans traveling to St. Petersburg for the 2020 European Championship will benefit from state regulated hotel prices.
As the second-largest Russian city prepares to host the UEFA league tournament, the Russian government will cap accommodation costs, the RBC business newspaper reported Wednesday.
St. Petersburg is one of 13 European cities set to share hosting duties for the 60th UEFA Euro Cup. Marketed as “a EURO for Europe,” the 2020 tournament aims “to see football acting as a bridge between nations, and to carry the competition closer to the fans, who are the essential lifeblood of the game,” said UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin.
Between June 12 and July 12, three group stage matches and a quarterfinal fixture will be played in the city’s 67,000-seat Zenit Arena.
A proposal published on the official government regulation website last week offers to impose state control on hotel prices in St. Petersburg during UEFA Euro 2020, RBC reported Wednesday.
Hotel price regulation during international sports competitions is standard practice in Russia, according to RBC. It cites a December 2012 decision to cap hotel prices in the resort city of Sochi during the 2014 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
In February 2016, Moscow decreed that prices would be capped for the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup and 2018 FIFA World Cup.
The average hotel price in St. Petersburg this year is estimated at 6,400 rubles ($110) by the consultancy firm JLL, RBC reported.