The first game of the season on natural grass at the legendary Latvian Skonto Stadium will be played already today as Riga FC face FK Grobiņa
One of the benefits of an abnormally mild winter and a record-breaking warm Spring to fans of Latvian football is that the games are set to transition to natural grass pitches much earlier than in the season before. It is thus symbolic that the first game of football in Virslīga 2025 on a natural pitch will be played at what is widely considered to be the best football stadium in Latvia – Skonto.
Today, on the 19th of April 2025 at 16:00, Riga FC will host FK Grobiņa for the first game at Skonto.
Last year, the first game of the season at Skonto was the Big Riga Derby between Riga FC and RFS, played on the 27th of April – eight days later than this year. That fixture drew a crowd of 5314 on a cool afternoon. At the time, such an early start was hailed as a significant achievement of the ground keeping staff and it was weeks until other clubs transitioned to natural grass.