“I have loved hockey since I was a child, so I knew that one day I would come to the championship,” declares Veronika. Aktuálně.cz caught up with her when she was heading to Prague’s O2 arena to watch a match of the Czech national team directly from the auditorium for the first time in her life. The atmosphere and good earnings are also praised by the merchants around the hall, who are interested in refreshments and souvenirs. “The family usually leaves ten thousand here,” explains jersey seller Adam.
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Aktuálně.cz spoke with fans and businessmen at the hockey championship. | Video: Radek Bartoníček
For the second week, hockey is alive around the arena. People go not only to the auditorium or the fan zone in the immediate vicinity of the hall, but also to the shopping center a few hundred meters away. There is a large screen and hundreds of places to sit, souvenir sellers and stands of small Prague breweries.
“It’s great here, we carefully prepared for the World Cup and we are happy that the fans come not only to the auditorium, but also to the terrace,” says Martina Tlustá, manager of the Galerie Harfa shopping center. She herself grew up in a hockey family, her brother played several seasons in the NHL and represented the Czech Republic.
“Since childhood, we used to move around winter stadiums, we went to cheer him on, and I also went to the USA to cheer him on. For me, hockey is a matter of the heart,” she admits. During the interview, he greets former top hockey player Martin Procházka, four-time world champion and Olympic champion from Nagano.
Procházka comments on the championship on Czech Radio, which has a shopping center terrace and a special hockey studio. “We are a hockey nation, the fans have been enjoying it here since the beginning of the championship without knowing how it will develop for ours. It is developing very well so far, and the fans are enjoying it all the more,” Aktuálně.cz says.
This trio of Slovak fans, who were watching hockey on the terrace of the shopping center, wish for a final between Slovakia and the Czech Republic. | Photo: Radek Bartoníček
The enthusiasm for hockey is also matched by the interest of the fans. Around the time of the hockey matches, all the places for refreshments in the shopping center and on the terrace are filled with people, many of them buy jerseys and other souvenirs in the stalls on the ground floor or taste beers from small Prague breweries. They were invited here by the town hall of Prague 9, which owns the space in front of the store.
“Hockey comes and we find out that people have money. It’s quite common for a family to come, buy everyone a jersey and a scarf, leave ten thousand here and they’re happy,” says seller Adam, according to whom fans are also interested in pucks, trumpets, flags , cards or face stickers. “There is a lot of interest in Pastrňák’s jersey. Frčí Gudas, Červenka and Kubalík. We also have some Palats, and they are also selling well,” he points out.
The Czech hockey players have a quarterfinal match against the USA on Thursday from 20:20. Aktuálně.cz will watch it online.
2024-05-23 11:36:26
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