Sparta Stadium at Letná is a football stadium in Prague near the Letenská vodárna. AC Sparta Prague plays its home matches there, as does the national football team. Since 2009 it has been called Generali Arena.[1]
Sparta's road to Letná
From its founding in November 1893, Sparta used several pitches in Prague. The first places were the military drill ground at Invalidovna, Císařská louka, Střelecký ostrov and Bubny. In 1905 came the pitch at Letná, on the spot where the National Technical Museum now stands.[1] According to another text from Czech Television, however, Slavia had leased land in the south-east of the Letná Plain as early as 1897. A club of Prague Germans, DFC Prag, also played on the plain.[2]
Sparta moved permanently to the present site during the First World War. Preparing the pitch and the first stands took three years because of the war. The first match there was played on 13 May 1917, and Sparta beat Viktoria Plzeň 3:2 in it. The opening goal of the match was scored by Antonín Janda-Očko.[1]
Reconstructions and capacity
The original stands were designed for a capacity of up to 30,000 spectators. The pitch measured 110 × 85 metres, whereas the present one measures 105 × 68 metres. In 1934 the capacity rose to 45,000 places, but in the same year the main stand burned down. A new, reinforced-concrete one went up in 1937. After the Second World War, standing terraces were added to the stand, and up to 45,000 people came to matches against Slavia or Slovan.[1]
The reconstruction of 1967 to 1969 replaced the wooden stands with reinforced-concrete ones, and the stadium held 35,900 spectators. The same number of people came at the start of the 1990s to the matches against Olympique Marseille and FC Barcelona, played in the first season of the Champions League. In 1994 another modernisation ended; seats replaced standing places and the capacity fell to almost 19,000 spectators. A heated pitch was added in 2002.[1]
Under socialism, Communist officials used the outer side of the stand facing the Letná Plain for May Day parades and military parades. A number of notable people spoke to the crowds from the same stand, in November 1989 including the later president Václav Havel.[1]
Letná as a centre of Prague football
Interest in the matches was so great that, for the convenience of spectators, moving stairs were built leading from the Vltava up to the Letná Plain. League derbies, international matches and European cup matches were played at the Letná stadiums. Sparta won the Central European Cup (Mitropa Cup) here in 1927 and 1935, and Slavia in 1938. Players for Sparta included Oldřich Nejedlý and Karel Pešek-Káďa, and the actor Vlasta Burian also played in goal. Players for Slavia included Josef Bican, František Plánička and Jan Košek.[2]
On 6 May 1945 German soldiers set fire to the wooden stand of the Slavia stadium, and Slavia then used Sparta's stadium for three years. In December 1950 it played its last match at Letná, because the plain was to be redeveloped around the Stalin Monument. Three years later a new home was built for it in Vršovice, to which the wooden stand was also transported.[2]
Names of the stadium
The stadium has changed its name several times. From 2003 the name Toyota Arena was used among fans, from 2007 AXA Arena and from 2009 Generali Arena.[1]
The Czech Television text mentions that there is increasing talk of the club's intention to build a new stadium elsewhere in Prague. Next to the present arena, on the site of the former training pitch, the owner of Sparta is building a new hotel.[2]