"A Day in history": Home game against Reyer Venezia in Moscow

On February 3, 2016, Zenit achieved a home victory over the Italian club Reyer Venezia with a score of 79:72. However, this game was "home" only in name. In reality, the match took place in Moscow, at the A.Y. Gomelsky CSKA sports complex.

The reason for relocating the game was the unavailability of the SIBUR Arena in Saint Petersburg, as well as the lack of another arena in the city that met the tournament's regulations. Moreover, the EuroCup did not allow Zenit to change the dates of the home and away games. Therefore, the club had to hold the match outside of the Northern capital.

In Zenit's history, this was far from the first case of a "home" game being held in another city. There had been two similar instances, both of which took place in Kazan.

The first such case occurred on October 22, 2014, when the home Eurocup game against Turkish club Besiktas was moved to Kazan's Basket Hall due to the unavailability of the arena on Krestovsky Island, which was hosting a Cirque du Soleil performance at the time. In that match, the St. Petersburg team lost in overtime with a score of 86:90.

The situation repeated itself on December 27, 2019. Zenit couldn't hold the EuroLeague game against Serbian club Crvena Zvezda in Saint Petersburg because all three possible arenas — SIBUR Arena, Yubileyny Sports Palace and Ice Palace — were occupied by long-term contracts. As noted by the club's CEO Alexander Tserkovny, "changes to the schedule were impossible due to the dense calendar and the approaching holidays". Once again, the game was held in Kazan at the Basket Hall venue, and once again, the visiting team won — 58:65.

At each of these three games, basketball fans from St. Petersburg were present and loudly supported Zenit, cheering them on.