It is hard to find a longer story in our history than the one of the new Slavia stadium. Generations of Slavia fans had been taking about the new Eden whilst fans of other clubs, especially Sparta, had been making fun of them. Especially when the Sparta stadium, newly built in 1969, experienced a full reconstruction in the year 1994, for many years it was called the most modern stadium in the country.

The ex-head manager Vladimír Leška made almost every football fan laugh. He was somewhat naïve when, on 15th December 2003, he announced that the new stadium in Eden would be opened by a match on 19th October 2005 at 17.40 o’clock. No wonder that the media let off so much steam at Slavia´s non event on the day of the supposed opening. They showed photos of the dilapidated stadium covered in weeds! Nobody believed that the situation could change almost exactly one year later.

Difficulties:

  • May 1997 – Architectural and town planning studies of the Eden area were presented in a public competition. However, the first prize was not awarded.
  • October 1997 – The British company, ENIC, gained a major share in the club. One of their priorities was to build a new stadium in Eden.
  • 13th May 2000 – Slavia played their last match in Eden. They beat České Budějovice 4:1. They started using the Evžen Rošický stadium in Strahov, which they had used for the European championship matches before that as Eden was unsuitable for the UEFA competitions.
  • 20th December 2001 – Prague magistrates released “Statement of Location for the Construction of Slavia Football Stadium”.
  • 6th May 2002 – The Statement became effective
  • 13th June 2002 – The parliament passed the key bill about the transfer of certain rights and obligations of the Czech Republic to counties, municipalities and civic associations functioning in the area of sports and physical education. This untangled some of the problems concerning ownership of the Eden lots.
  • 1st January 2003 – The statute became effective.
  • 26th June 2003 – Representatives of the Ministry of Finance and SK Slavia Praha signed the Takeover Report of the property acc. to § 14 and § 15 act nr. 290/2002 col. They solved the on going problems regarding the land acquisition, without which the construction could never have started.
  • 11th August 2003 – planning permission to demolish the old Eden stadium became effective.
  • 20th October 2003 – Slavia applied for planning permission to build a new stadium.
  • 15th December 2003 – The demolition of Eden started with the symbolic removal of one of the lighting poles. The finishing date was also announced. Just in case everything went as planned, a deadline was set at 19th October 2005.
  • 23rd March 2004 – Demolition of the main stand started.
  • 29th April 2004 – The building office of Prague 10 issued planning permission for the Slavia stadium in Eden. However, the license was not effective at this point.
  • 9th June 2004 – The planning permission became effective and could not be revoked. At the same time Slavia ordered an economic feasibility study to be made.
  • September 2004 – Slavia obtained the audit results of the new stadium which was conducted by the international companies, Jones Lang LaSalle and Linklaters. The audit turned out well. The economic return on the resources used to build the stadium was calculated over a 15 year period.
  • October 2004 – The drainage system was almost finished. It was over 300 meters long and 6 meters deep and it was considered to be a major step forward.
  • 19th October 2005 – The intended finishing date came and went. Both the project and the area in Eden are completely prepared. However, Slavia was still negotiating the financing of the construction at this date.
  • 8th September 2006 – The finance issues were solved. E Side Property Limited, which, in cooperation with the project manager provided the coordination of the construction and its financing, and became the investor. The construction company Hochtief VSB signed the Contract of Work during a press conference. The completion date on the contract was set at Mach 2008.
  • 15th September 2006 – Hochtief took over the construction site and started building their facilities.
  • 16th October 2006 – The first foundation stone was laid and almost at the same moment ground work started. First in line was shaping the ground …
  • February 2008 – The stadium is now standing! The finishing date was on course, well 99,9 per cent certain.
  • 27th May 2008 – The Czech football national team played a preparatory match with Lithuania before the European Championships in June.
  • 3rd June 2008 – a concert of the legendary metal band Metallica took place.

What is Eden going to be like

Edenis going to be the most modern arena of its kind in the Czech Republic; at least until the new National football stadium is built. It combines several functions, apart from a football stadium for 21 000 spectators, it comprises of business and office premises, a hotel, underground and above ground parking lots and a restaurant. The premises are seen as an open space which is available for visitors throughout the year.

The construction is based on ferro-concrete foundations and combines monolithic prefabricated forms and has a steel roof which shields the spectator area. Liapor ceramic bricks and plasterboard is used for the separating walls. Spectators get to their seats on steps made of preformed ferro-concrete. The remaining floors of the auditorium are concrete and are painted with an antiskid coating. VIP boxes are equipped with a glass fronted wall.

The multifunctional Eden arena is situated in Prague 10-Vršovice. It boarders:

Vladivostocká Street

to the north, the railway to the south (future railway station Slavia),

U Slavie Street

in the west, and practice fields to the east. The stadium is only 4.1 km from the city centre (from the National Museum), which means a seven-minute drive when there is low traffic.

Details:

Number of floors

  • 6 in total, a basement, ground floor + 4 upper floors

Offices, shops and hotel

  • Shops: ground floor of the west wing, 800 square meters.
  • Offices: 1 – 4th floor of the west wing, 2, 400 square meters
  • Hotel with capacity of 150 rooms, north wing

The capacity of the stadium

  • Total of 21 000 seated spectators, all seats are under the roof
  • Club floor, total of 666 seats
  • 40 VIP boxes, total of 400 seats
  • Handicapped: 42 seats (+ 42 seats for accompanying party)

Entrances

  • 4 entrance corridors
  • 36 auditorium entrances

Seats

  • Red, folding
  • VIP grey, padded

Media facilities

  • 90 permanent seats for journalists + 100 temporary seats for special occasions
  • 3 TV studios, one above the playing area
  • Mixing zone
  • Work room and a room for press conferences equipped by AV technology

Playing area

  • 105 x 68 meters
  • heated lawn

Lighting

  • 1,400 lights, lightning placed on the roof

Refreshments

  • 12 stands in the ground floor corridors
  • 2 stands in the corridor on the 2nd floor of the west stand

Large screens

  • 2 full colour LED screens in the auditorium (7.68 meters long and 4.032 meters high) in the northeast and southwest corners
  • 1 full colour LED screen on the west wing façade (6.14 x 3.456 m)

Interesting information

  • The playing area is situated the same direction it used to be at the old Eden, one goal is in the direction of Vladivostocká Street and the other one in the direction of the railway.
  • The substitute’s benches are also where they used to be
  • The field is 5 meters under the level of surrounding roads.
  • The roof is fixed on tension poles outside of the auditorium, which means that no poles block the view.
  • The ceilings are made from the Canadian cedar, the durability ranges from thirty to one hundred years.

Iris Congress hotel ****

A part of the west wing is a four-star hotel with a capacity of 150 rooms. The new hotel offers a lobby bar, restaurant and a congress centre.

Iris Congress Hotel **** offers facilities both for business people and guests coming just to relax or to enjoy the sports events. The conference room can seat 250 people and is fully equipped with audiovisual technology. Internet, satellite TV, mini bar and a safe box are available in the air-conditioned rooms.

McDonald´s

 A McDonald's restaurant will be situated in the commercial area on the ground floor of the northwest wing, right next to the entrance corridor by the

Vladivostocká Street

, and will be open seven days a week.

The restaurant is spacious and, including the utility rooms, occupies 417 square meters. A drive-in window and a play area for children are also a part of the restaurant. McDonald's is situated right next to the club merchandise shop. There are 120 seats inside and 80 seats outside.

Commercial and office spaces are situated in the west wing of the premises. There is an open space in front of the building which will be accessible seven days a week. The commercial zone offers more than 800 square meters and the office area, over 2400 square meters in total. Tenants can use other services offered by the complex as well, for example the conference and corporate facilities or the hotel.

Eden – an inspiration?

To what degree the future builders of the new national football stadium will be inspired by Eden is still in question. The way the Slavia football stadium can be utilized for various events should definitely be followed. The concept of the operators is that the complex should be open twenty-four-seven and will probably be achieved. We can assume that the aim that many non-football events will be taking place there will most probably be realized.

The only disadvantage of the new stadium is its capacity. It is more than sufficient for the national league matches and the stadium will probably be sold out only during the Prague matches between Slavia and Sparta and during matches of international competitions. Nevertheless the interest of the fans of the Under 21 Championship will not be satisfied. Moreover, although the stadium will probably be the most modern one in our country for some time, in case we should ever like to host the European Championship, the stadium could not be used. Its capacity would have to be at least 30 thousand…