The multifunctional center O2 Universum near the O2 Arena will open in September

Prague - The multifunctional and congress center O2 Universum, connected to the Prague O2 Arena, will open in September. At a press conference marking the 15 years of operation of the O2 Arena, Robert Schaffer, the CEO of Bestsport, announced this today. Bestsport, which is a member of the PPF group of the wealthiest Czech Petr Kellner, owns and operates the arena. According to Schaffer, construction of a hotel with 300 rooms will begin in May at the site of the current parking lot and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2021. The cost of its construction is 1.3 billion CZK.

The cost of constructing the multifunctional and congress center connected to the O2 Arena is 1.2 billion CZK, and the construction firms Metrostav and Syner have been building it on the site of the originally planned "small arena" since October 2017. The rough structure, which was originally intended for a small arena with a hockey training area, was put on hold in 2004.

The new complex, which connects to the southern side of the O2 Arena, will cover an area of nearly 50,000 square meters over four floors. Upon completion, it will feature up to 21 halls of various sizes with a capacity for 10,000 visitors. The largest hall, with a capacity of 4,500 people, will also be used for hosting medium-sized concerts and sports events. The stands will be retractable, and the height of the hall at 12.5 meters will allow for hosting events such as tennis, basketball, floorball, or volleyball matches.

One of the first events at the O2 Universum will be a concert by the Prague Philharmonic on November 13, featuring Beethoven's 9th Symphony. The first confirmed international congress is the 17th World Congress of Anesthesiologists WFSA from September 5 to 9, 2020.

The new hotel will also have seven conference rooms for 50 to 300 people, a hotel restaurant, fitness center, café, and bar.

"The hotel will rise just a few dozen meters from the O2 Arena, so access from the hotel to the hall will be exceptionally convenient, seamless, and quick. After the congress center is built, we aim to reach a total attendance of around one and a half million people annually at the O2 Arena and O2 Universum," Schaffer stated.

Over its 15 years of existence, the O2 Arena has been visited by more than ten million people. The record year was 2015, with approximately 1.1 million visitors, primarily due to the hosting of the Hockey World Championship. The visitor record is held by the band Metallica, who welcomed 20,174 spectators at their concert on April 2, 2018. Among Czech bands, Kabát leads the statistics, with 20,083 people attending their concert in November 2017. The arena originally belonged to the betting company Sazka and was named after it. Since February 29, 2008, it has been called the O2 Arena after the operator O2.

The PPF group invests in various sectors, including banking and financial services, telecommunications, engineering, biotechnology, insurance, real estate, and agriculture. PPF operates in Europe, Russia, Asia, and North America. As of the last half-year, the group owned assets worth 975 billion CZK.