A football pitch in Chișinău most often costs 750 to 960 lei an hour, with a median of 820. These aren't estimates — they're the prices actually paid for 171 matches booked through Sporta MD, pulled on 17 August 2026.
One thing to establish first: the price is per pitch, per slot, not per player. Split the bill across everyone who turns up and you get a much smaller number, and a more stable one than you'd expect.
What a group actually pays
| Sport | Matches measured | Usual range | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| Football | 132 | 750–960 lei | 820 lei |
| Volleyball | 14 | 750–1120 lei | 900 lei |
| Basketball | 18 | 485–980 lei | 700 lei |
| Tennis | 7 | 150–230 lei | 180 lei |
"Usual range" is the middle half: a quarter of matches cost less than the lower bound, a quarter more than the upper. That's a more honest measure than minimum and maximum, which describe a quiet morning slot and a Friday night on a full-size pitch — two situations almost nobody meets.
For football, 132 matches is enough to lean on. For volleyball, basketball and tennis, where we measured between 7 and 18 matches, treat the number as a bearing rather than a rate. There aren't yet enough bookings in those sports to quote a range with the same confidence.
Cost per player barely moves
This is the genuinely useful part, and it runs against intuition. A bigger pitch costs more, but it also brings more people to split the bill — and the two very nearly cancel out:
| Format | Matches | Median per pitch | Players | Per person |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5-a-side | 39 | 600 lei | 10 | 60 lei |
| 6-a-side | 16 | 720 lei | 12 | 60 lei |
| 7-a-side | 64 | 840 lei | 14 | 60 lei |
| 9-a-side | 8 | 1470 lei | 18 | 82 lei |
Three different formats, the same individual cost: 60 lei. Choosing between 5-a-side and 7-a-side is not really a financial decision. It's a decision about how many people you can actually gather on a Tuesday evening.
The exception is 9-a-side. There the pitch price climbs faster than the headcount and you land at roughly 82 lei per person, a third more. The format needs large pitches, which are fewer and dearer. Demand reflects that: only 8 of the 132 football matches were 9-a-side, against 64 at 7-a-side.
Not every pitch rents by the hour
Of the 44 football sections listed in the app, 12 have no 60-minute rate at all. They sell 90- and 120-minute slots only.
This is the detail that breaks a budget worked out on paper. If you've planned 800 lei for an hour and that pitch starts at 90 minutes, the real bill is around 1200 — not because the rate is higher, but because the unit sold is different. Ninety-minute rates generally sit at exactly one and a half times the hourly one.
For a 7-a-side match with substitutions, ninety minutes is closer to how long people actually play anyway. But it's better known in advance than at confirmation.
The full football price list starts at 600 lei an hour and reaches 1760. The spread comes from pitch size and facilities, not from which district you're in.
When people actually play
Demand is far more concentrated than it looks, and not in the window most people assume.
Across 184 scheduled matches:
- 18:00 — 74 matches. The peak, by a distance.
- 19:00 — 48
- 17:00 — 27
- 20:00 — 18
So the real peak is 17:00–19:00, not late evening. By 20:00 demand has already halved against 19:00, and after 21:00 it all but disappears — one match started at 22:00. Anyone looking for a pitch at 20:30 has far more options than someone chasing 18:00.
By day, the ranking is:
| Day | Matches |
|---|---|
| Sunday | 37 |
| Thursday | 32 |
| Tuesday | 28 |
| Saturday | 26 |
| Friday | 23 |
| Monday | 22 |
| Wednesday | 16 |
Sunday is the busiest day, not Saturday. And Wednesday, at 16 matches, is the quietest — less than half Sunday's level. A flexible group that moves its game from Sunday evening to Wednesday evening gets materially more pitches to choose from at the same time of day.
How to work out your budget
Three questions, in the order that matters:
- How many people are certain? That number decides the format, and the format decides the pitch. Cost per head stays near 60 lei regardless, so don't optimise the price — optimise how many confirm.
- Does the pitch sell an hour, or a 90-minute minimum? Check before you quote a figure to the group. For a quarter of football pitches the answer is 90.
- Does it have to be 18:00? That's the only slot where you're seriously competing with other groups. At 20:00, or on a Wednesday, the choice is much wider.
Each pitch's exact price by slot and duration is shown before you confirm. The figures here describe the market as of August 2026 and will shift as new venues come on — treat them as a bearing for budgeting, not a guaranteed rate.