Generali Arena (Prague)
| Generali Arena | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Generali Arena (then still Toyota Arena), March 24, 2007 | |
| Earlier names | |
|
Letná Stadium (1917–2003) |
|
| Data | |
| place |
 Prague , Czech Republic
|
| Coordinates | 50 ° 5 '59 " N , 14 ° 24' 58" E |
| owner | AC Sparta Praha fotbal, as |
| opening | 1917 |
| First game | May 13, 1917 Sparta Prague - Viktoria Pilsen |
| Renovations | 1937, 1967, 1994 |
| surface | Natural grass |
| architect | 1921: Lev Lauermann |
| capacity | approx. 20,000 places |
| playing area | 105 × 68 m |
| Societies) | |
The Generali Arena , formerly the Letná Stadium , in the north-western part of Prague in the Czech Republic, is the home of the Sparta Prague football club and the Czech national team .
history
In 1914, the City of Prague provided AC Sparta Prague with a place near the waterworks on the so-called Letná site . It took three years to build a stadium, and it opened on May 13, 1917 with a game against Viktoria Plzen, which Sparta won 3-2.
Four years later, a wooden grandstand with 1,600 seats was built, the architect was Lev Lauermann , the cost was 900,000 Czech crowns . At that time it was the largest grandstand of its kind in Central Europe. It opened with the game against Danish champions KB Copenhagen , which the Czechs won 2-0.
Since the team's successes attracted more and more spectators, it was decided in 1934 to increase the capacity from around 25,000 to 45,000. The work was in full swing, but on April 10, 1934 the main stand burned down, with it the club archives and the trophy collection was destroyed. It is still unclear what triggered the fire. One suspicion is that the fire was caused by a short circuit, another theory is that the furnace was overheating. The damage ran into the millions, the sum insured, according to the media, was only 650,000 crowns. Twenty months later, a new reinforced concrete grandstand was completed in place of the burned down wooden grandstand .
In the last days of the war in 1945, the stadium was badly damaged, but then restored.
Between 1967 and 1969 the stadium was extensively modernized. With the exception of the main grandstand, all remaining grandstands were replaced by reinforced concrete structures. A second tier with seats, a kind of gallery , was built above the first tier with standing room . The official opening of the renovated stadium took place on May 7, 1969. In an evening game, Sparta Prague lost 1: 2 to the Austrian champions FK Austria Wien . The new capacity of the building was 35,800 spectators.
After the velvet revolution , the entrepreneur Petr Mach took over the club and in 1994 had the stadium rebuilt by the Metrostav company in just seven months without a building permit . The capacity fell to 21,362 seats; the stadium was now a so-called all-seater. The opening took place on September 9, 1994, in the Prague derby Sparta and Slavia parted goalless.
In 2001, underfloor heating was installed and a new lawn laid.
On March 24, 2007, the German national soccer team played for the first time as part of the European Championship qualification against the Czech team in the AXA Arena and won 2-1 (1-0).
From autumn 2004 to June 2007 the stadium was called Toyota Arena. In July 2007, the French insurance group AXA acquired the naming rights to the stadium. Since July 2009 the stadium has been named Generali Arena.
In the near future, the national stadium of the Czech Football Association with a capacity of 40,000 spectators is to be built on the same site, the previous stadium would be demolished .
literature
- Tomáš Habrcetl: Fotbalové stadiony v České republice. Volvox Globator, Praha, 2001, ISBN 80-7207-448-2
- Vítězslav Houška: Železná Sparta. Praha, Olympia, 1992, ISBN 80-7033-186-0
- Igor Mráz, Jindřich Pejchar, Josef Pondělík, František Žemla: Svět devadesáti minut. Z dějin Československé kopané. 1. díl / 1901–1945. Olympia, Prague 1976.
- František Nepil: Má stoletá lásko !. Praha, Olympia, 1993, ISBN 80-7033-284-0
Web links
- Information on the official website of AC Sparta Prague Czech
- Virtual tour in Czech
- Picture gallery and information on erlebnis-stadion.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Sparta a Generali = silné spojení ( Memento of the original of July 23, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Announcement on the official website of AC Sparta Prague from July 22, 2009, last accessed on July 23, 2009 (Czech)
- ↑ Národní stojí stadium. Zatím jen v maketě Article on the fotbal.idnes.cz portal from March 21, 2007, last accessed on July 23, 2009, in Czech
- ↑ Líbí se vám? Otázek o stadionu je však víc Article on the fotbal.idnes.cz portal of March 22, 2007, last accessed on July 23, 2009, in Czech
