I was the designer of all the lighting, sound and video systems in the Boby Centrum. It was nuts - 3 discotheques, a roller rink, concert hall, recording studio and a radio station. £1.8M contract. I had to live in Brno for about six months during the build and commissioning. This wasn't long after 'the wall' came down and we all assumed there was some great expansionist plan going on - German money in particular was pouring in. Alas it seems there was no plan. Boby himself was a quiet, small but extremely muscular man. It all went together reasonably smoothly and we got paid. Best gig ever. The Czech people were lovely and two of our crew eventually had Czech wives! The week of the opening we saw Metallica in that very stadium and they did their TV and Press in the Centrum. The 80s - good times.
@@usget You absolutely can though! There's an upload of some Amiga music where the original composer commented on the process of making music back in the 80's!
@@vinnieRice you can edit you original comment so more people can read your ramblings if you wish ! it's very intersting and lovely to have such an insight of how crazy it was at the time !
@@TheTimTraveller If imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, then accidentally imitating someone else is also a pretty good form of them flattering you.
Hello Tim, I was there in October 1996 during the match. Not as visitor, but as part of teams who supplied the boards with adverts around the playground. I spend all the game close to one of the gates. It was first football match I visited and I was shocked. The crowd was so loud...
Dammit, Tim. "You all ready for this?" Now that's gonna be stuck in my head all day. (Also, the URL for that concert...could generate some misconceptions.)
I was just in Europe (I'm Australian) and because of Tim's videos, I made sure that I visited Urk on Flevoland. I also rode on the suspended train in Düsseldorf and saw the Deltaworks. Thanks for all the geeky tips Tim! Urk was a beautiful little town. They had a market on when we visited and my Dutch friend told me all about how the people there are a little... unusual.
The part about how people volunteered to fix the place up for one last game for a player made me smile. That sounds really nice! I do hope they could permanently rebuild the place to become as good as it once was though. And oh... part 2? Interesting and exciting!
I lived in Brno at the time and actually remember it - I think some of my friends went to help with the cleanup, too. They're not even football fans; it really was an effort to revive a Brno icon and that's why they went. (I can't remember what I was doing that I wasn't there myself, I may have been sick.)
It reminded me of when the Charlton fans cleaned up the Valley in 1989 during our exile. Part of that ground actually reminded me of our old East Terrace.
Isn’t it time you visited the abandoned railway station of Canfranc on the Franco-Spanish border? The one that looks like it should be a royal and very palatial château worthy of a place along the banks of the River Loire. Plus it’s very close to the Pyrénées so great for hill walking / mountain climbing for you too!
If you didn't know, the entire station has been fully renovated into a hotel, and a brand new station has been built behind it to serve the Spanish trains (lacking a lot of charm however). I think some tracks and the roundhouse are still there but much of the aging rolling stock and infrastructure next to the station has been removed unfortunately. So sadly far less interesting than it once was.
There are also talk of renewing the connection to France. It was hoing well untill the French decided that they're delaying the high dpeed connections, that the've been unofficially delaying for years even thogh they are obligatrd to complete by 2030, to Irun (in Basque country) and Barcelona (where there is a connection but still no high speed line between Nimes and Peroignan). They said they'll do it by about 2045. With that the Canftanc talks also stopped. Now the EU is working tommakenthem fulfill their obligations an maybe with that Canfranc will also reconnect to France.
@@liamastill6733 Yeah, sadly the renovation took a lot of the railway infrastructure. Luckily you still have a good chunk of the french side that remains untouched tho. The closest station in the french side, forges d'abel, still has its tracks IIRC.
This is pretty surreal, I lived 10 minutes walk away from the place and I would have never guessed it's something you'd might visit one day. And here we are! Thanks a lot for the video, you clearly did your research and I'm glad you enjoyed the visit.
The story is even more tragic. There also used to be a hockey arena Za Lužánkami. Similar story. They just forced the hockey team to leave only about 2 years before the football stadium was abandoned (however unlike Zbrojovka the hockey team hasn't died because of it). Now after more than 20 years city leadership still keeps the entire area frozen to make people forget and once they stop caring they will sell it to unaffrodable housing developers. Petr Švancara planned to rebuild the football stadium to a football academy. His project was extremely popular and it basically became the number one on city's participatory budgeting website. But instead of getting the money it deserves (and has a right to) the city consideres it as "impossible" and they plan to demolish the stadium. Yeah I guess that expensive apartments would be more possible for city leadership members' wallets. Injustice. It's unfair and wrong in so many ways.
It's not as simple as city leadership keeping it frozen, there are long standing ongoing legal disputes about the ownership of the land it stands on and some of the buildings. The city leadership is flip/flopping between wanting to sell the place to developers and rebuilding the stadium depending on who gets voted in, but can't really do anything until the legal issues are cleared up. One of the issues about who owns the roads and parking lot standing on the land just recently got picked up by the Highest Court after god knows how many rounds of appeals.
@@fhlostonparaphrasewell the team isn't dead, but their performance is tragic (i believe they ggot relegated very recently) and they're always short of money.
@@TheYrthenarc Say what you will about the Soviet Union, but they would've cleared those ownership disputes RIGHT up. "Comrade, all belongs to the country. Is communism. If you continue to argue, we send KGB. Very persuasive men."
Hello Tim! Thank you for the video. If you would plan any next trip to Brno, just hit me up! Not only for the festival, but also for other interesting stuff in Brno and its surroundings.
The Great Strahov Stadium in Prague is still used as a training pitch for the local club. Or should I say "pitches" as the main field holds more than 6 standard-sized football pitches. At a capacity of over 250,000 (only 56,000 seated though), it is the largest football stadium in the world, even if it has been over 20 years since it hosted a football match.
Well we don't really count it as a football stadium in Prague. It was built for Spartakiada (giant communist era festivals of synchronised gymnastics) and if there was a league match played there (I don't remember any, but I¨m not a big football fan), it had to be a special event only. The field of the stadium used to be sand, not grass, and the size means that a single football pitch would look lost there. League football (and international matches too) was actually played at Strahov sometimes, usually when some of the Prague clubs lost their home stadium for some reason, but next door, on the Evžen Rošický stadium (capacity around 20 000, similar to the other larger Prague stadiums), now also declared dangerous to use. It was never liked though. For fans, it's quite far (and uphill) from capacity public transport and the players called it Wuthering Heights (for obvious reasons).
@@Gosudar I meant the present form with concrete stands. This is from the 1970s. The stadium for Sokol gatherings was indeed in the same place (and this present form was used for Sokol gatherings at least once in the 1990s). I know it was also very big, but don't know, whether it was this big.
Yup, there was a Sokol gathering in 2000 where I performed as a kid. Still remember being baffled at how big it was (and how disgusting it was to march across the whole huge and sandy place in the sweltering heat)
I'm being kind of self-centered for my nationality but I can't help but feel like you're getting close to Slovakia and I'm excited for the prospect of that happening.
You have caused my dad so much pain 🤣. Because of your videos on our road trip round western europe, we went to the vennbahn and kneiff. He was confused about what was so special about them
During the whole length of the video, I kept thinking "that pitch is in a surprisingly good state for supposedly being abandoned for years". I'm glad you cleared that up at the end, that mystery really would've puzzled me.
As a Brno local, this is the most unexpected video on this channel for me, lol. How did it even come to your mind to cover this story? I'd have never expected it would be of interest to any foreigner. People from other Czech cities don't care. I barely care! And here comes Tim all the way from the UK and makes a banger video about our big, bizarre ruin! Great job! Btw, as some other people have pointed out, there also used to be an ice-hockey stadium next to this one, the story being very similar. And despite it being closed in 2000 and demolished in 2009, the adjacent trolleybus stop is, to this day, still named "Zimní stadion" which means "Winter Stadium". Probably only to confuse visitors, or perhaps the Swedish army, should it ever try to besiege the city ever again, after their last unsuccessful attempt.
I liked the reference to the newspapers that every year seem to be saying that "next year Zbrojovka Brno will be moving back to their original stadium." I've lived in Essex for more than 25 years and I think that for about as long as I've lived here Southend United football team have been saying they're going to move to a new stadium. They still haven't.
Whaattttt... I was just in Brno and stayed at the crazy Bobycentrum hotel. That stadium is literally at the back of a car park! Such a good description hahaha thank you for bringing the rest of this story to light, which was such a mystery to me!
This was an utterly fascinating and very well-presented video, Tim and thank you for that. I spent a week in Brno back in October 2018, but there were all sorts of places I wanted to visit within easy travelling distance of the city so I didn't get to see much of Brno itself for the amount of time I was there, in total. There was one day (the Sunday) on which I didn't do any rail-travelling out from Brno, using the late morning/early afternoon that day to explore the wooded hillside to the west of the River Svratka - that I could see from my hotel, the Garni, on Vinařská in the Masarykova čtvrť - which reminded me of my native Derbyshire, the Svratka there bringing to mind the River Derwent. After having watched the epic steeplechase, the Velká Pardubická in the afternoon in my hotel room I set off to explore Brno's other (big) river, the Svitava, between the Zderadův most and the railway bridge over the river, the ageing industrial architecture around there having the same atmosphere as the Lužánky - very different from the leafy valley of the Svratka! I liked that so much in its own way I even dropped back there on my return from a trip out to Česká Třebová on the Monday! While in Brno I purchased a street plan where the Lužánky stands out, marked as 'býv. stadion' ('fmr. stadium') and I have, ever since, wondered half at the back of my mind what the place was all about.
I particularly like how you introduce Boby with what everybody thinks of when you say "circus music", "Entrance of the Gladiators", which was, appropriately enough, written by a Czech, Julius Fučík.
@@iankemp1131 if that's a joke about his name sounding like the F-word, it really doesn't if you pronounce it correctly, it's not even that hard for English speakers, just imagine it's spelled Foocheek
@@Starkiller935 Well, most of these puns don't work if you pronounce the names precisely correctly. That's the essence of that aspect of humour, almost to imagine what it's like if it wasn't quite pronounced right.
Apparently, thanks to his great output of marching music and probably particularly that one, Fučík is one of the most played composers in the world... ... which I've just found out while trying, instead, to confirm my theory of what his name means. Which I now finally have, and yes, it's from the verbs "fučet / fičet", which is something like "whizz", and Fučík is supposed to be someone madcap. Which is quite fun for someone most famous for composing "circus" music. 😉
Brno is a butt of many jokes in the Czech Republic. And here you can clearly see, why... You made a great job making this video and sharing the story of the stadium!
Sports Report! That takes me back to the days when I went to football matches. Saturday at five o’clock, in the car on the way back from the game, on came the Sports Report music as a prelude to the football results read by James Alexander Gordon. They might still play the music even now.
Hi Tim! I'm from Brno and I must say, that over the years I've enjoyed quite a few foreign travellers show my beloved town in many different ways. But you're surely the first one to choose one of its worst eyesores for your video 😂 I hope you enjoyed the rest of Brno better than the stadium. Would've been lovely to meet you 🙂
I had the pleasure to watch the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra last September when they visited Edinburgh Scotland. A marvellous evening with some wonderful artistes, up until then I had no idea where Brno was. It seems to be becoming famous!
awesome video as always! a place that might interest you as well is the airport schwerin/parchim in northeastern germany. a chinese investor planned to build a huge city and one of the biggest airports in the world there, as it's position in the centre of europe is ideal. fair to say this whole project failed massively because of many factors, one of them being that the region is just straight up dead. there's a really interesting documentary about it, which is called "parchim international" it's a great film! the whole place is quite eerie to check out. after the project failed, the airport was used as a small cargo airport and also as a graveyard for airplanes. you can still check out the tower, terminals, etc. and its quite interesting. the last time i've been there, i saw a bunch of cars just parked on the runway, but i couldn't find out why. it's also quite hard to get to. from the city of parchim it's still a 1 hour walk and i believe that there are no busses going there, so going by car would be best i guess.
Tim! I hope you stick around for the public transport days of nostalgia! Sure Andrew told you, in a few weeks time, DPMB / IDS JMK roll out all their museum pieces of beautifully restored vehicles, and you can travel on them on selected routes! 🚋🚎 Welcome here in Brno. 😊🇨🇿
You could add the old National Stadium in Warsaw to the list. Another massive concrete bowl that got abandoned when a modern stadium was built, but I was part of a team that played a local side there. Walking out in front of (I think) about 100,000 empty seats was weird - but very enjoyable.
I love stadiums built on artificial hills. They have a natural feel to them. They make you part of the landscape. Unfortunately there aren't many left.
Interesting one, thanks! The Czech Communists had a thing for building projects that were far to big. Teplice football stadium (still in use) is an 18,000 seater for a town of 50,000 people. And check out the massive Strahov Stadium in Prague (now only used for training).
Possibly the most absurd instance of that was the gigantic statue of Stalin, a project so big it only was finished after Stalin's death... which meant soon after it was finished, or maybe even about the same time, Stalin came under criticism by Khrushchev, and the statue was eventually demolished again only seven years after it was finished. The story of the place where it once stood is also a great example of the maxim that temporary measures end up not being temporary. In 1991 the art installation known as the Metronome (actually named The Time Machine) was installed there. It was supposed to be temporary during a big centennial expo. It's still there. Not only has it been there longer than the infamous statue, it has now been there longer than the plinth had previously stood empty... 😂 It only has nine years to go to surpass the whole of the Communist era!
@@thesteelrodent1796 Huh? They do. Ray (i.e. the man of the original duo) is still in it. Anita (the original singer) isn't anymore, they have another singer. They're still playing the same music, with the addition of their only non-90s hit song. So apart from Anita it's still basically the same - you're getting exactly what you're expecting. ;-)
ปีที่แล้ว +1
Ahhh... lovely to see my born city. Born in 1983 in Brno, I experienced all the raise&fall of Boby Centrum. First, as a young teenager, we spent hours and hours at the "Roller-skate"... later on, as an older teenager, spent many.... MANY nights at Techno parties in the Big Hall... It was a megolomaniac project from the start. Everyone knows the history. Everyone knows that Hrstka never payed the bills - a father of my school mate, he was an interior designer, also a friend of Hrstka. He designed all the interiors for the Boby place but never got payed... On one side, all this project was really "forward thinking" (it's necessary to understand the historical connotations)... On the other hand, all the project was one big fraud from the very beginning. 90s was a "wild-east" time...
Hello, Brno citizen here. So the current state of the stadium is that Brno government want to tear the stadium down for safety reason, based on shady static report. Czech online newspaper Seznam Zpravy actually leaked the report, and it basically looks like this video - just a bunch of photos from inside the stadium, lol. As we all can see, the stadium is not dangerous, like there were kinda big music festival (not the 90s one) two years in row and nothing happened. Fortunately, backlash was so strong that the city was forced to order a new static report, which is currently being made by the local technical university. I'm pretty sure that they won't be able to tear down the stadium and build flats there, but I don't think that it will ever be renovated. Amazing video!
Hey! You're in the city where I'm currently in uni. If you're looking for any more places in the area to see there's the Brno Ossuary (The second largest in Europe outside of the super famous one in Paris), the Sedlec Cathedral in Kutna Hora ("The Bone Church"), and there's a smaller town near Brno called Třebič that has a locally famous Jewish quarter if you're interested in seeing a little of what Moravia was like back when it had a significant Jewish presence.
Třebíč is actually a UNESCO site. It does not only have the Jewish quarter but also a very impressive medieval basilica. Yet despite that it remains just "locally famous" and even lots of Czechs have never been there...
Tim if You are so interested by old abandoned stadiums, You should also visit a Prague's Strahov stadium, which is that huge that 8 socker playgrounds fits into it, and it is "mostly" abandoned...
Great video, Tim, as allways. What I (Slovak) admire the most is your beautiful pronunciation of our strange Slavic sounds :) I hope one day we will meet you in Slovakia as well :D
I spontaneously went to that stadium last week and expected it to be abandoned for 10-20 years already. Interesting to hear that they played one game there just 9 years ago. Doesn't seem like they'll ever play football there again, but it would actually not be a bad location. Since I blacked out and blew my PhD school interview, for which I was there, I don't know if I'll be back in Brno more than once or twice in my life, but I'll closely watch this development.
Out of all travel yourbers Tim your the best no bubbly over the top happy influencer going to places everyone has heard of screaming about their sponsors every minute just a top bloke with the topic it's brilliant
Hello, thank you for the video. Just for clarification: the first game on 5. 11. 1953 was Dynamo Moscow against DSO Baník = Baník Ostrava + Baník Kladno (league clubs with coal mining background).
You take us to places we would never think of going, and we happily tag along for the ride. Must say, I am planning a trip to the Netherlands, and a visit to Urk is on the cards. :o)
Ah yes! I went there on my last Berlin visit in 2019. As I understand it the authorities wanted to use the land for housing but there was a significant backlash from citizens. Hence its current use as a park... and interesting because the runways still exist.
Hi Tim, there used to be a steam trains riding on e a year to Brno Expo through the city centre streets. Cars had to stop and wait, such a sight. There's a video for example called Train in the streets of Brno.
That still happens sometimes, not just with steam trains, but modern freight as well when they are moving something to the expo grounds that can't easily be transported on road. The actual "riding on city streets" pretty much only happens in that one intersection from the video which is not strictly in the centre (altough fairly close), the tracks run hidden behind buildings and parallel to the road the rest of the way.
@@TheYrthenarc I wasn't sure so I googled and there was even the TGV train last year. The article said that it was maybe the last train because the land is going to be used for development.. Some tram track could be preserved though.
@@TheMajkla They are remodeling the shoreline of the river next to the road there but that shouldn't affect the tracks as far as I can tell. As for development, the piece of land the train tracks cross is reserved for the planned new Brno main station (that's a whole story to itself) so I don't see why they wouldn't just reconnect the tracks if that ever gets built.
@@TheYrthenarc Well, let's see what will happen eventually. I wonder which main station will get finished first - Brno or reconstruction and modernisation of Bratislava hlavná šťanica (neverending story too😁).
Wel, Brno in Czech, Brunn in German, and while it would make sense to meet in the middle and say Bruno in English. Current naming conventions in English sides on using the Czech form.
Yes! Thank you for this video, I remember recommending it to you in the Hampden park video you did, wonder if that influenced you 😏 anyways, just want to add, the city of Brno decided they’ll be investing about 100 million czk into the current “temporary” stadium of Zbrojovks Brno (which just after promotion got once again relegated and there were massive protests after a very strange manager decision got them relegated after being relatively safe from going down, which might or might not bring change, though the owner has already turned down multiple offers) which is an absolutely, miniscule amount of money for a stadium in such shape and its still not Lužánky, there is however a petition going around to save the stadium and get it into use once again, though im not able to put it in here it seems so just have to look it up if zou want to sign it
The Scottish word "Boaby" probably describes how its all gone. Good video though. Slovakia might just be in need of a good events place (looks bigger than Milton Keynes bowl). Look forward to part 2 later this year.
We have many more stories like this from the 1990s. After the Velvet Revolution in 1989, many famous and rich people (singers, sportsmen) got into entrepreneurship only to go bankrupt. The opposite happened too and some people became very rich very quickly -- sometimes by starting legitimate businesses, but that usually doesn't make you a billionaire in a few years. There was a lot of corruption (especially when the government was about to sell some valuable property), organized crime etc. Luckily, the country stabilized fairly quickly and is now one of the safest countries in the world, at least when don't take the war in Ukraine (and the risk of escalation) into account.
Huh. The football club must have been affiliated with the old state armory in town back in the day. "Zbrojovka Brno" used to be the name of a quite famous, now-defunct arms factory (for example, it's where the BR in the name of the WWII Bren machine gun came from, the EN being for Enfield). The phrase Česká Zbrojovka, "Czech Armory", is where the name of the modern-day arms company CZ comes from--formerly another state arsenal in Uherský Brod.
Berlin has a stadium that was also built "slightly bigger than it needed to be" and could never be filled even close to capacity. Eventually, a little vineyard was planted into the north curve, and they are actually producing a few hundred bottles of wine from it every year. (It's called Stadion Wilmersdorf and is still used for football, athletics and other competitions.)
The Swedish word for mullet translates to "hockey haircut" and the Polish one is "Czech footballer", so Czech hockey players are indeed the confluence of mullet-ness. Jaromir Jagr back in the day.. now that was a mullet!
Not sure if you'll read this but 1) if you'd like some old photos from the time it was in use lmk (mostly interior). 2) the city council recently decided to demolish the place and free up the area for development, instead investing in the other stadium. According to experts its beyond repair.
The story reminds me of a visit to Prague in 2018. We had spent the day at Prague’s other castle, Vysehrad and went to catch the tram back to the city. As you do, we got on the right tram but going in the wrong direction. It took us a few minutes to realise by which time the tram had stopped by a football stadium. It turned out to be the home stadium of Bohemians of Prague, so I decided to buy myself a shirt in the club shop. Turns out it was closed on Mondays. However, it turns out the club badge is a kangaroo. Is there a story there?
I had to look it up, not being into football, but yes, of course there's a story, and it's a story of how they got the kangaroo AND their name, and it's a much better story than I expected. It used to be called Vršovice, the place where the club is based - it used to be a village and was only joined to Prague in 1922. In 1927, there was an invitation for a Czechoslovak football club to go to Australia. Two bigger football clubs from Prague passed on it, and Vršovice got a chance to go. Because Vršovice would be difficult for English speakers to pronounce, they started calling themselves Bohemians, and it stuck. They won most of their matches in Australia (14 out of 19 matches) and apparently did a huge job in terms of representing the relatively new state of Czechoslovakia. They brought back two kangaroos that were an official gift from Queensland to President Masaryk, who however received them only symbolically and gave them back to Vršovice where they lived in a park and basically became the club's mascots. So, kangaroo. 😊
This reminds me of my hometown Ljubljana and our ongoing saga with Plečnikov stadion in Ljubljana. It is a historic venue built by the greatest Slovenian architect that has sat obsolete for 20 years. In the meantime the main club of the city- Olimpija Ljubljana have moved to the new national stadium, which also a bit of an unfinished mess. The plot where Stadium sits was bought up by an entertainment tycoon of our own- Joe Pečečnik. His attempts to renovate the ground and of course build a massive hotel have been blocked by neighbouring residents because they fear that their gardens would get destroyed.
I was the designer of all the lighting, sound and video systems in the Boby Centrum. It was nuts - 3 discotheques, a roller rink, concert hall, recording studio and a radio station. £1.8M contract. I had to live in Brno for about six months during the build and commissioning. This wasn't long after 'the wall' came down and we all assumed there was some great expansionist plan going on - German money in particular was pouring in. Alas it seems there was no plan. Boby himself was a quiet, small but extremely muscular man. It all went together reasonably smoothly and we got paid. Best gig ever. The Czech people were lovely and two of our crew eventually had Czech wives! The week of the opening we saw Metallica in that very stadium and they did their TV and Press in the Centrum. The 80s - good times.
Nice! Always good to hear some background from someone who was there! 😎
I love this channel, you wouldn't get this comment anywhere else! Great story
@@usget You absolutely can though! There's an upload of some Amiga music where the original composer commented on the process of making music back in the 80's!
As someone who didn't exist in the '80s I really enjoy this slice of life from the time.
@@vinnieRice you can edit you original comment so more people can read your ramblings if you wish ! it's very intersting and lovely to have such an insight of how crazy it was at the time !
The Tim Traveller is the only person in the world who can make me watch a whole video about an abandoned football stadium and really enjoy it.
Abadoned buildings are awesome. It’s like URBEX, but it’s historybex. Berlin’s 1934 olympic stadium… gives you shills down the spine.
And it's weird it happened twice
BENO: am I a joke to you?
Me too, I'm not even bothered about football!
And look forward to the sequel!
More false dawns than a french and Saunder lookalike competition, is my new favourite line from a Tim video
I'm slightly annoyed, after Googling it, that apparently I'm not the first person to come up with that comparison :D
@@TheTimTraveller Well I, for one, am going to steal it.
As a rule of life, I try to only steal the best.
@@TheTimTraveller If imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, then accidentally imitating someone else is also a pretty good form of them flattering you.
Googles it. 30 seconds later. OMG. 😂
Didn't realize her name was Dawn.
Hello Tim, I was there in October 1996 during the match. Not as visitor, but as part of teams who supplied the boards with adverts around the playground. I spend all the game close to one of the gates. It was first football match I visited and I was shocked. The crowd was so loud...
This city was famously named during the great vowel shortage in the 11th century
Thghts n pryrs.
Could've saved up for Booby Centrum if they'd just rationed their O's a little better
The -R- in the BR-no takes place of a vowel so that the syllable is legit.
@@paveladamek3502 thank you for intelligently explaining my stupid joke! I love Czechia!
Twinned with Ynswbl
Dammit, Tim. "You all ready for this?" Now that's gonna be stuck in my head all day.
(Also, the URL for that concert...could generate some misconceptions.)
There's No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no there's no limit to that song's catchiness. 😅
I guess those misconceptions are intentional, especially considering it's about 90s Eurotrash music.
@@insertnamehere5809 Hey ho, Captain Jack, hey ho Captain Jack, going down the railroad track...
90 sexpolosions is a lot of sexplosions
I was just in Europe (I'm Australian) and because of Tim's videos, I made sure that I visited Urk on Flevoland. I also rode on the suspended train in Düsseldorf and saw the Deltaworks. Thanks for all the geeky tips Tim! Urk was a beautiful little town. They had a market on when we visited and my Dutch friend told me all about how the people there are a little... unusual.
Yeah, you can take the island back onto land, but you can’t remove the island from its inhabitants.
Should have gone to Wuppertal to ride the real suspended railway 😢
@@teamgeist3328 Bad take! Wuppertal is beautiful
The part about how people volunteered to fix the place up for one last game for a player made me smile. That sounds really nice! I do hope they could permanently rebuild the place to become as good as it once was though.
And oh... part 2? Interesting and exciting!
My club 1. FC Union Berlin built our ground a couple of decades ago and also gave blood to save us financially.
I lived in Brno at the time and actually remember it - I think some of my friends went to help with the cleanup, too. They're not even football fans; it really was an effort to revive a Brno icon and that's why they went. (I can't remember what I was doing that I wasn't there myself, I may have been sick.)
It reminded me of when the Charlton fans cleaned up the Valley in 1989 during our exile. Part of that ground actually reminded me of our old East Terrace.
Isn’t it time you visited the abandoned railway station of Canfranc on the Franco-Spanish border? The one that looks like it should be a royal and very palatial château worthy of a place along the banks of the River Loire. Plus it’s very close to the Pyrénées so great for hill walking / mountain climbing for you too!
I've been there, the entire line and the abandoned tunnels are really striking
If you didn't know, the entire station has been fully renovated into a hotel, and a brand new station has been built behind it to serve the Spanish trains (lacking a lot of charm however).
I think some tracks and the roundhouse are still there but much of the aging rolling stock and infrastructure next to the station has been removed unfortunately. So sadly far less interesting than it once was.
There are also talk of renewing the connection to France. It was hoing well untill the French decided that they're delaying the high dpeed connections, that the've been unofficially delaying for years even thogh they are obligatrd to complete by 2030, to Irun (in Basque country) and Barcelona (where there is a connection but still no high speed line between Nimes and Peroignan). They said they'll do it by about 2045. With that the Canftanc talks also stopped. Now the EU is working tommakenthem fulfill their obligations an maybe with that Canfranc will also reconnect to France.
@@liamastill6733 Yeah, sadly the renovation took a lot of the railway infrastructure. Luckily you still have a good chunk of the french side that remains untouched tho. The closest station in the french side, forges d'abel, still has its tracks IIRC.
@@miloPRcohen Also the secret lab! OK, not really secret but well hidden. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canfranc_Underground_Laboratory
This is pretty surreal, I lived 10 minutes walk away from the place and I would have never guessed it's something you'd might visit one day. And here we are! Thanks a lot for the video, you clearly did your research and I'm glad you enjoyed the visit.
The story is even more tragic. There also used to be a hockey arena Za Lužánkami. Similar story. They just forced the hockey team to leave only about 2 years before the football stadium was abandoned (however unlike Zbrojovka the hockey team hasn't died because of it). Now after more than 20 years city leadership still keeps the entire area frozen to make people forget and once they stop caring they will sell it to unaffrodable housing developers. Petr Švancara planned to rebuild the football stadium to a football academy. His project was extremely popular and it basically became the number one on city's participatory budgeting website. But instead of getting the money it deserves (and has a right to) the city consideres it as "impossible" and they plan to demolish the stadium. Yeah I guess that expensive apartments would be more possible for city leadership members' wallets.
Injustice. It's unfair and wrong in so many ways.
It's not as simple as city leadership keeping it frozen, there are long standing ongoing legal disputes about the ownership of the land it stands on and some of the buildings. The city leadership is flip/flopping between wanting to sell the place to developers and rebuilding the stadium depending on who gets voted in, but can't really do anything until the legal issues are cleared up. One of the issues about who owns the roads and parking lot standing on the land just recently got picked up by the Highest Court after god knows how many rounds of appeals.
Zbrojovka died? (which is named after an arms manufacturer I now know)?
In terms of competing for things seriously you mean then?
@@fhlostonparaphrasewell the team isn't dead, but their performance is tragic (i believe they ggot relegated very recently) and they're always short of money.
@@TheYrthenarc Say what you will about the Soviet Union, but they would've cleared those ownership disputes RIGHT up.
"Comrade, all belongs to the country. Is communism. If you continue to argue, we send KGB. Very persuasive men."
@@CptJistuce 😳😂😂😂
Hello Tim! Thank you for the video. If you would plan any next trip to Brno, just hit me up! Not only for the festival, but also for other interesting stuff in Brno and its surroundings.
We don't talk about Brno...
The Great Strahov Stadium in Prague is still used as a training pitch for the local club. Or should I say "pitches" as the main field holds more than 6 standard-sized football pitches. At a capacity of over 250,000 (only 56,000 seated though), it is the largest football stadium in the world, even if it has been over 20 years since it hosted a football match.
Well we don't really count it as a football stadium in Prague. It was built for Spartakiada (giant communist era festivals of synchronised gymnastics) and if there was a league match played there (I don't remember any, but I¨m not a big football fan), it had to be a special event only. The field of the stadium used to be sand, not grass, and the size means that a single football pitch would look lost there. League football (and international matches too) was actually played at Strahov sometimes, usually when some of the Prague clubs lost their home stadium for some reason, but next door, on the Evžen Rošický stadium (capacity around 20 000, similar to the other larger Prague stadiums), now also declared dangerous to use. It was never liked though. For fans, it's quite far (and uphill) from capacity public transport and the players called it Wuthering Heights (for obvious reasons).
West Ham ⚒️ were training there before the UEFA CONFERENCE LEAGUE FINAL.
@@kytkosaurus It was used for Spartakiadas by the commies, but it was built for the Sokol gatherings in the 1920s.
@@Gosudar I meant the present form with concrete stands. This is from the 1970s. The stadium for Sokol gatherings was indeed in the same place (and this present form was used for Sokol gatherings at least once in the 1990s). I know it was also very big, but don't know, whether it was this big.
Yup, there was a Sokol gathering in 2000 where I performed as a kid. Still remember being baffled at how big it was (and how disgusting it was to march across the whole huge and sandy place in the sweltering heat)
6:19 I love that the dog is playing hide and seek with its owner 🤣🤣
I'm being kind of self-centered for my nationality but I can't help but feel like you're getting close to Slovakia and I'm excited for the prospect of that happening.
You have caused my dad so much pain 🤣. Because of your videos on our road trip round western europe, we went to the vennbahn and kneiff. He was confused about what was so special about them
During the whole length of the video, I kept thinking "that pitch is in a surprisingly good state for supposedly being abandoned for years". I'm glad you cleared that up at the end, that mystery really would've puzzled me.
As a Brno local, this is the most unexpected video on this channel for me, lol. How did it even come to your mind to cover this story? I'd have never expected it would be of interest to any foreigner. People from other Czech cities don't care. I barely care! And here comes Tim all the way from the UK and makes a banger video about our big, bizarre ruin! Great job!
Btw, as some other people have pointed out, there also used to be an ice-hockey stadium next to this one, the story being very similar. And despite it being closed in 2000 and demolished in 2009, the adjacent trolleybus stop is, to this day, still named "Zimní stadion" which means "Winter Stadium". Probably only to confuse visitors, or perhaps the Swedish army, should it ever try to besiege the city ever again, after their last unsuccessful attempt.
I liked the reference to the newspapers that every year seem to be saying that "next year Zbrojovka Brno will be moving back to their original stadium." I've lived in Essex for more than 25 years and I think that for about as long as I've lived here Southend United football team have been saying they're going to move to a new stadium. They still haven't.
"More false Dawns than a French and Saunders lookalike competition." I had to pause the video for laughing. Well played, sir. Well played. :)
Whaattttt... I was just in Brno and stayed at the crazy Bobycentrum hotel. That stadium is literally at the back of a car park! Such a good description hahaha thank you for bringing the rest of this story to light, which was such a mystery to me!
Aren't all stadiums at the back of a car park?
@@Okurka. Or are car parks at the back of stadiums? Science may never know.
"more false dawns that a French and Saunders look-alike competition" slayed me. Thank you, Tim! Always lovely to see your videos.
This was an utterly fascinating and very well-presented video, Tim and thank you for that. I spent a week in Brno back in October 2018, but there were all sorts of places I wanted to visit within easy travelling distance of the city so I didn't get to see much of Brno itself for the amount of time I was there, in total. There was one day (the Sunday) on which I didn't do any rail-travelling out from Brno, using the late morning/early afternoon that day to explore the wooded hillside to the west of the River Svratka - that I could see from my hotel, the Garni, on Vinařská in the Masarykova čtvrť - which reminded me of my native Derbyshire, the Svratka there bringing to mind the River Derwent. After having watched the epic steeplechase, the Velká Pardubická in the afternoon in my hotel room I set off to explore Brno's other (big) river, the Svitava, between the Zderadův most and the railway bridge over the river, the ageing industrial architecture around there having the same atmosphere as the Lužánky - very different from the leafy valley of the Svratka! I liked that so much in its own way I even dropped back there on my return from a trip out to Česká Třebová on the Monday! While in Brno I purchased a street plan where the Lužánky stands out, marked as 'býv. stadion' ('fmr. stadium') and I have, ever since, wondered half at the back of my mind what the place was all about.
Really nice video Tim and nice to see it still standing.
hello Tim, have been following your channel for the past few years, just wanna say thank you for the effort and time you put into making your videos
Thank you!
I particularly like how you introduce Boby with what everybody thinks of when you say "circus music", "Entrance of the Gladiators", which was, appropriately enough, written by a Czech, Julius Fučík.
Knew the piece, didn't know the composer. Announcers seem wary of mentioning his name. I wonder why :)
@@iankemp1131 if that's a joke about his name sounding like the F-word, it really doesn't if you pronounce it correctly, it's not even that hard for English speakers, just imagine it's spelled Foocheek
@@Starkiller935 Well, most of these puns don't work if you pronounce the names precisely correctly. That's the essence of that aspect of humour, almost to imagine what it's like if it wasn't quite pronounced right.
Apparently, thanks to his great output of marching music and probably particularly that one, Fučík is one of the most played composers in the world...
... which I've just found out while trying, instead, to confirm my theory of what his name means.
Which I now finally have, and yes, it's from the verbs "fučet / fičet", which is something like "whizz", and Fučík is supposed to be someone madcap. Which is quite fun for someone most famous for composing "circus" music. 😉
It is so easy to forget that you really need to listen to the music. But I was not ready for the final music change.
Always great to see a new Tim Traveller video!
Most Definitely!!! 🤠👍
We could need more these!
Brno is a butt of many jokes in the Czech Republic. And here you can clearly see, why... You made a great job making this video and sharing the story of the stadium!
Sports Report! That takes me back to the days when I went to football matches. Saturday at five o’clock, in the car on the way back from the game, on came the Sports Report music as a prelude to the football results read by James Alexander Gordon. They might still play the music even now.
Hi Tim! I'm from Brno and I must say, that over the years I've enjoyed quite a few foreign travellers show my beloved town in many different ways. But you're surely the first one to choose one of its worst eyesores for your video 😂 I hope you enjoyed the rest of Brno better than the stadium. Would've been lovely to meet you 🙂
I had the pleasure to watch the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra last September when they visited Edinburgh Scotland. A marvellous evening with some wonderful artistes, up until then I had no idea where Brno was. It seems to be becoming famous!
awesome video as always!
a place that might interest you as well is the airport schwerin/parchim in northeastern germany. a chinese investor planned to build a huge city and one of the biggest airports in the world there, as it's position in the centre of europe is ideal. fair to say this whole project failed massively because of many factors, one of them being that the region is just straight up dead. there's a really interesting documentary about it, which is called "parchim international" it's a great film!
the whole place is quite eerie to check out. after the project failed, the airport was used as a small cargo airport and also as a graveyard for airplanes. you can still check out the tower, terminals, etc. and its quite interesting. the last time i've been there, i saw a bunch of cars just parked on the runway, but i couldn't find out why.
it's also quite hard to get to. from the city of parchim it's still a 1 hour walk and i believe that there are no busses going there, so going by car would be best i guess.
Tim! I hope you stick around for the public transport days of nostalgia! Sure Andrew told you, in a few weeks time, DPMB / IDS JMK roll out all their museum pieces of beautifully restored vehicles, and you can travel on them on selected routes! 🚋🚎 Welcome here in Brno. 😊🇨🇿
The San Francisco Municipal Railway runs historic streetcars on the E Embarcadero & F Market & Wharves lines
You could add the old National Stadium in Warsaw to the list. Another massive concrete bowl that got abandoned when a modern stadium was built, but I was part of a team that played a local side there. Walking out in front of (I think) about 100,000 empty seats was weird - but very enjoyable.
I was not expecting a video on something I live dangerously close by to pop up, but I am glad it did!
A new Tim video and a new Jago video! Today has been a good day.
Love it, that you're posting more content from more eastern locations! I wonder if one of the next videos might be about Cierny Balog in Slovakia 😃
I love stadiums built on artificial hills. They have a natural feel to them. They make you part of the landscape.
Unfortunately there aren't many left.
Interesting one, thanks! The Czech Communists had a thing for building projects that were far to big. Teplice football stadium (still in use) is an 18,000 seater for a town of 50,000 people. And check out the massive Strahov Stadium in Prague (now only used for training).
Possibly the most absurd instance of that was the gigantic statue of Stalin, a project so big it only was finished after Stalin's death... which meant soon after it was finished, or maybe even about the same time, Stalin came under criticism by Khrushchev, and the statue was eventually demolished again only seven years after it was finished.
The story of the place where it once stood is also a great example of the maxim that temporary measures end up not being temporary. In 1991 the art installation known as the Metronome (actually named The Time Machine) was installed there. It was supposed to be temporary during a big centennial expo. It's still there. Not only has it been there longer than the infamous statue, it has now been there longer than the plinth had previously stood empty... 😂 It only has nine years to go to surpass the whole of the Communist era!
LOL at 7:00 - awesome use of the "Don't Dream It's Over" melody for this part
08:40 That 2 Unlimited reference... 😂
And they will be playing! 🎉
modern 2 Unlimited has nothing to do with the original group unfortunately, other than the name is owned by a dutch record producer
@@thesteelrodent1796 Huh? They do. Ray (i.e. the man of the original duo) is still in it. Anita (the original singer) isn't anymore, they have another singer. They're still playing the same music, with the addition of their only non-90s hit song. So apart from Anita it's still basically the same - you're getting exactly what you're expecting. ;-)
Ahhh... lovely to see my born city. Born in 1983 in Brno, I experienced all the raise&fall of Boby Centrum. First, as a young teenager, we spent hours and hours at the "Roller-skate"... later on, as an older teenager, spent many.... MANY nights at Techno parties in the Big Hall...
It was a megolomaniac project from the start. Everyone knows the history. Everyone knows that Hrstka never payed the bills - a father of my school mate, he was an interior designer, also a friend of Hrstka. He designed all the interiors for the Boby place but never got payed...
On one side, all this project was really "forward thinking" (it's necessary to understand the historical connotations)... On the other hand, all the project was one big fraud from the very beginning.
90s was a "wild-east" time...
You're awesome my guy, and you inspire me regularly to get out and explore history
Strong Peter Stringfellow vibes from that Boby fella.
8:48 that gave it a bit of a Dutch vibe as well..
Aw, I miss my 90's. 🥲
You and me both!!! 🤠👍
As well as the Dawn gag the lead into the 2 unlimited track was inspired. Keep up the wonderful work.
No one has said it, but thank you for the perfect use of Don't Dream It's Over by Crowded House for the last game.
I, for one, was not ready for this. Good transition.
I have never been so excited to see a TH-camr upload
Hello, Brno citizen here. So the current state of the stadium is that Brno government want to tear the stadium down for safety reason, based on shady static report. Czech online newspaper Seznam Zpravy actually leaked the report, and it basically looks like this video - just a bunch of photos from inside the stadium, lol. As we all can see, the stadium is not dangerous, like there were kinda big music festival (not the 90s one) two years in row and nothing happened. Fortunately, backlash was so strong that the city was forced to order a new static report, which is currently being made by the local technical university.
I'm pretty sure that they won't be able to tear down the stadium and build flats there, but I don't think that it will ever be renovated.
Amazing video!
Hey! You're in the city where I'm currently in uni. If you're looking for any more places in the area to see there's the Brno Ossuary (The second largest in Europe outside of the super famous one in Paris), the Sedlec Cathedral in Kutna Hora ("The Bone Church"), and there's a smaller town near Brno called Třebič that has a locally famous Jewish quarter if you're interested in seeing a little of what Moravia was like back when it had a significant Jewish presence.
Třebíč is actually a UNESCO site. It does not only have the Jewish quarter but also a very impressive medieval basilica. Yet despite that it remains just "locally famous" and even lots of Czechs have never been there...
Tim if You are so interested by old abandoned stadiums, You should also visit a Prague's Strahov stadium, which is that huge that 8 socker playgrounds fits into it, and it is "mostly" abandoned...
Brilliant writing and music, as usual, Tim!
I can't wait for the September update!
Great video, Tim, as allways. What I (Slovak) admire the most is your beautiful pronunciation of our strange Slavic sounds :) I hope one day we will meet you in Slovakia as well :D
It would be interesting to see the Tim Traveler take on the flying saucer restaurant on the bridge in Bratislava, for example
@@P3x310 And check upside down pyramid of Slovak Radio Building on the way ;)
I just wish he went to Bratislava when the outlook tower made from nuclear ticket still stood.
I spontaneously went to that stadium last week and expected it to be abandoned for 10-20 years already. Interesting to hear that they played one game there just 9 years ago. Doesn't seem like they'll ever play football there again, but it would actually not be a bad location. Since I blacked out and blew my PhD school interview, for which I was there, I don't know if I'll be back in Brno more than once or twice in my life, but I'll closely watch this development.
I'm definitely ready for this - there's no limit \m/
You sir win my like
There is something special about Tim visiting your city.
I stayed in the hotel last year and stumbled across the stadium while there, so great to see it in a video and learn its history 🙂
Out of all travel yourbers Tim your the best no bubbly over the top happy influencer going to places everyone has heard of screaming about their sponsors every minute just a top bloke with the topic it's brilliant
Hello, thank you for the video. Just for clarification: the first game on 5. 11. 1953 was Dynamo Moscow against DSO Baník = Baník Ostrava + Baník Kladno (league clubs with coal mining background).
I like that you shine a light on places that would hitherto remain in my life's shadows.
The French & Saunders joke was pure comedy genius
More false dawns, made me spill my tea, thank you. lots of love xxx
10 minutes ago, I had no idea I would be going to a 90s festival in Brno, but now... Now I'm looking up tickets.
You take us to places we would never think of going, and we happily tag along for the ride.
Must say, I am planning a trip to the Netherlands, and a visit to Urk is on the cards. :o)
"More false Dawns than a French and Saunders look-alike competition" I would have choked on my drink if i were having any!
Oh wow, Tim is in my hometown! :) Instant like :)
I always enjoy your content. It's amazing how many of these little oddities you're able to find. Keep up the good work!
Do you plan on visiting Tempelhof Park in Berlin? It could make an interesting video! I can also offer you a tour 😅
Ah yes! I went there on my last Berlin visit in 2019. As I understand it the authorities wanted to use the land for housing but there was a significant backlash from citizens. Hence its current use as a park... and interesting because the runways still exist.
Amazing video !
That looks like a cool line up for that festival!
As usual, Brilliant Tim (especially the “False Dawns” quip 😂🤣
great vid.
the stadium was partly cleaned by volunteers and used for filming "Zatopek", 2021 movie about famous czech athlete.
That lineup. That show sounds amazing!
The "more false dawns than a French & Saunders lookalike competition" made me spit out my drink! Now my iPad is a mess. Thanks, Tim…
Hi Tim, there used to be a steam trains riding on e a year to Brno Expo through the city centre streets. Cars had to stop and wait, such a sight.
There's a video for example called Train in the streets of Brno.
That still happens sometimes, not just with steam trains, but modern freight as well when they are moving something to the expo grounds that can't easily be transported on road. The actual "riding on city streets" pretty much only happens in that one intersection from the video which is not strictly in the centre (altough fairly close), the tracks run hidden behind buildings and parallel to the road the rest of the way.
@@TheYrthenarc I wasn't sure so I googled and there was even the TGV train last year. The article said that it was maybe the last train because the land is going to be used for development.. Some tram track could be preserved though.
@@TheMajkla They are remodeling the shoreline of the river next to the road there but that shouldn't affect the tracks as far as I can tell. As for development, the piece of land the train tracks cross is reserved for the planned new Brno main station (that's a whole story to itself) so I don't see why they wouldn't just reconnect the tracks if that ever gets built.
@@TheYrthenarc Well, let's see what will happen eventually. I wonder which main station will get finished first - Brno or reconstruction and modernisation of Bratislava hlavná šťanica (neverending story too😁).
Wait, I thought we weren’t meant to talk about Brno…
Wel, Brno in Czech, Brunn in German, and while it would make sense to meet in the middle and say Bruno in English. Current naming conventions in English sides on using the Czech form.
@@Carewolf It would not make sense because the German name is actually Brünn. Different vowel. 😊
@@beth12svist Brüno would still work as a pun ;)
Glad to see you in Czech Republic again 👋
Nearly couldn't hear the end of the video because of my own laughter at "Are you all ready for this?"
In armenia we have nearly the same situation with the hrazdan stadium
South Africa also has this issue sadly.
Yes! Thank you for this video, I remember recommending it to you in the Hampden park video you did, wonder if that influenced you 😏 anyways, just want to add, the city of Brno decided they’ll be investing about 100 million czk into the current “temporary” stadium of Zbrojovks Brno (which just after promotion got once again relegated and there were massive protests after a very strange manager decision got them relegated after being relatively safe from going down, which might or might not bring change, though the owner has already turned down multiple offers) which is an absolutely, miniscule amount of money for a stadium in such shape and its still not Lužánky, there is however a petition going around to save the stadium and get it into use once again, though im not able to put it in here it seems so just have to look it up if zou want to sign it
The Scottish word "Boaby" probably describes how its all gone. Good video though. Slovakia might just be in need of a good events place (looks bigger than Milton Keynes bowl). Look forward to part 2 later this year.
Brno is in Czech
@@sweetpeach3649 You are correct. My bad. Got confused with Bratislava for some reason. Being an eejit
One thing about Brno - they have the best (nicest) fans, both football and hockey. Even their sworn enemies from Prague can't argue with that.
had a look around the new ground before an afternoon flight out of the Airport
Great piece of Brnography
Boby somewhat overestimated the power of induced demand, huh
We have many more stories like this from the 1990s. After the Velvet Revolution in 1989, many famous and rich people (singers, sportsmen) got into entrepreneurship only to go bankrupt. The opposite happened too and some people became very rich very quickly -- sometimes by starting legitimate businesses, but that usually doesn't make you a billionaire in a few years. There was a lot of corruption (especially when the government was about to sell some valuable property), organized crime etc. Luckily, the country stabilized fairly quickly and is now one of the safest countries in the world, at least when don't take the war in Ukraine (and the risk of escalation) into account.
Induced demand is legend by people who doesn't understand naturally growing demand.
Seems to have overestimated the power of himself.
Appreciated the nod to Private Eye with “Pedantry Corner” to avoid the debate of pedants’ corner to pedant’s corner to ped’ant’s’ corner 😂
Huh. The football club must have been affiliated with the old state armory in town back in the day. "Zbrojovka Brno" used to be the name of a quite famous, now-defunct arms factory (for example, it's where the BR in the name of the WWII Bren machine gun came from, the EN being for Enfield). The phrase Česká Zbrojovka, "Czech Armory", is where the name of the modern-day arms company CZ comes from--formerly another state arsenal in Uherský Brod.
I love that Tim's done a video about two random Czech guys buying a football stadium
Berlin has a stadium that was also built "slightly bigger than it needed to be" and could never be filled even close to capacity. Eventually, a little vineyard was planted into the north curve, and they are actually producing a few hundred bottles of wine from it every year. (It's called Stadion Wilmersdorf and is still used for football, athletics and other competitions.)
The Swedish word for mullet translates to "hockey haircut" and the Polish one is "Czech footballer", so Czech hockey players are indeed the confluence of mullet-ness. Jaromir Jagr back in the day.. now that was a mullet!
So was Jan Suchopárek :)
Once again, another cool video!
That was an absolutely fabulous reference.
Not sure if you'll read this but 1) if you'd like some old photos from the time it was in use lmk (mostly interior). 2) the city council recently decided to demolish the place and free up the area for development, instead investing in the other stadium. According to experts its beyond repair.
They can make this work, they just need to open the Czech book!
Looks like fun as it is but it would be good to see it brought back to life.
The story reminds me of a visit to Prague in 2018. We had spent the day at Prague’s other castle, Vysehrad and went to catch the tram back to the city. As you do, we got on the right tram but going in the wrong direction. It took us a few minutes to realise by which time the tram had stopped by a football stadium. It turned out to be the home stadium of Bohemians of Prague, so I decided to buy myself a shirt in the club shop. Turns out it was closed on Mondays. However, it turns out the club badge is a kangaroo. Is there a story there?
I had to look it up, not being into football, but yes, of course there's a story, and it's a story of how they got the kangaroo AND their name, and it's a much better story than I expected.
It used to be called Vršovice, the place where the club is based - it used to be a village and was only joined to Prague in 1922. In 1927, there was an invitation for a Czechoslovak football club to go to Australia. Two bigger football clubs from Prague passed on it, and Vršovice got a chance to go. Because Vršovice would be difficult for English speakers to pronounce, they started calling themselves Bohemians, and it stuck.
They won most of their matches in Australia (14 out of 19 matches) and apparently did a huge job in terms of representing the relatively new state of Czechoslovakia. They brought back two kangaroos that were an official gift from Queensland to President Masaryk, who however received them only symbolically and gave them back to Vršovice where they lived in a park and basically became the club's mascots.
So, kangaroo. 😊
That 90's festival ending 👌🏻
This reminds me of my hometown Ljubljana and our ongoing saga with Plečnikov stadion in Ljubljana. It is a historic venue built by the greatest Slovenian architect that has sat obsolete for 20 years. In the meantime the main club of the city- Olimpija Ljubljana have moved to the new national stadium, which also a bit of an unfinished mess. The plot where Stadium sits was bought up by an entertainment tycoon of our own- Joe Pečečnik. His attempts to renovate the ground and of course build a massive hotel have been blocked by neighbouring residents because they fear that their gardens would get destroyed.