Brno city councilors want to repair the football stadium for two billion

Brno - Brno city councilors want to repair and modernize the unused football stadium Za Lužánkami in the coming years, which has been deteriorating for years, and until now demolition and the construction of a new arena for the top league club and national matches had been considered. According to today's statement by Mayor Roman Onderka, the costs will reach two billion crowns, with the capacity being reduced by ten thousand to 30 thousand seats. The councilors will present a proposal for the preparation of a new technical-economic assignment at the next council meeting.
For modernization, which would cost the city less money than new construction, the council decided after receiving an assessment from the investment department of the municipality. "It says that the stadium can be adjusted. It can be turned into a stadium that will have European parameters and meet the standards, and that's what we are primarily concerned about," Onderka told ČTK. However, fans should not expect the comfort and technical sophistication of arenas that "people are used to in England or France."
According to Onderka, matches could be played at Za Lužánkami again as early as 2011. A contribution of about one billion crowns from the state budget is a condition for the reconstruction to take place. The councilors want to obtain approximately 200 million crowns from private investors, who could participate in the construction of parking facilities or commercial areas. There is also consideration of using European funds or a smaller sum from the regional budget.
Technical details of the reconstruction will only be indicated by a more detailed study, for which the coalition wants to allocate one million crowns from the city budget this year. According to Onderka, it is planned that all seats will be for sitting and that there will be 750 parking spaces under the stands, with additional spaces around the stadium.
The stadium used to be one of the symbols of Brno sports. Zbrojovka Brno won the league championship there in 1978. At one time, it could hold up to 50,000 people and still holds the record for attendance in the Czech league. A total of 44,120 spectators attended the match between Brno and Slavia Prague in October 1996. The top league club 1. FC Brno now plays in the small Srbská stadium in Královo Pole, which fans have never fully accepted. The absence of a suitable arena with European parameters is also the reason why the Czech national team does not play in Brno.