Dinamo Stadium

The city's main stadium

Dinamo is the largest stadium in Samarkand and the whole region. It stands in the centre of the new town on Mirzo Ulugbek Street (formerly Karl Marx Street). It was built in the early 1960s — Russian-language sources say 1962, Uzbek and English ones 1963 — and has been home ever since to FC Dinamo Samarqand, a club founded in 1960 that plays in the Uzbekistan Super League.

The stadium was renovated in 1989, 1997 and 2011. Since the major rebuild of 2011 it holds 13,800 spectators (previously 16,000). The 112 × 72 m natural-grass pitch is ringed by a running track, and the stands house a stadium and club museum, a restaurant and a café.

In 1992 it hosted the very first Uzbekistan Cup final, in which Navbahor and Temiryo'lchi drew 0–0 after extra time before Navbahor won 6–5 on penalties. In 1999 Uzbekistan's national team played friendlies here against Azerbaijan (5–1) and Malaysia (3–0). On the north side the stadium backs onto the Samarkand brewery, one of the oldest in Central Asia, whose tanks are a familiar sight from the stands.