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What does Slavia want to achieve in 2026?
Fail to manage the built up lead and defend the title. This is of course an absolute priority. The fact that we can bring the Champions League to Eden for the second time in a row is also a motivation. In short, this is a huge opportunity from a reputational, fan, financial and sporting point of view. As far as the components of the club outside of the A-team are concerned, we certainly want to move more fundamentally in our infrastructure projects. Whether it’s a training center or shifting the theme of the stadium. Both projects are in different stages, but the point is to have tangible progress.
When it comes to youth, of course we would like to strengthen our position as a leader in the education of talents. Recently, we have been successful in promoting our children to professional football, and the team performed well even in the youth version of the Champions League. So we want to build on that. It goes without saying that the development of internal processes within scouting, data analysis, player identification and their development, or other key aspects of today’s football.
I would like to stop by the home stadium. In general, what background and parameters should it meet in the future compared to the current state?
The current Eden is not the one that opened in 2008. At the same time, in the last year we have invested quite substantially in it, in the amount of around 80 million crowns. It has been modernized and therefore still fulfills the status of the best stadium in the Czech Republic, which was finally confirmed by the organization of the final of the UEFA Conference League. What the future stadium should fulfill is, unsurprisingly, greater capacity and, at the same time, greater comfort for the fan. Both in the stands and in the VIP areas.
Let’s go to the already mentioned capacity. You stated in one of the interviews that the capacity of Eden should reach approximately 40 to 45 thousand spectators. Why this number?
We are based on internal analyzes that show that Slavia has the potential to fulfill this capacity in the future. Prague itself will have significantly more inhabitants in the future, and we certainly feel the potential for greater capacity. Even today, we would sell out even a slightly larger stadium for most matches, and of course we are not talking about exposed matches. The second thing is that even in the Czech Republic there is a lack of a stadium for holding certain types of matches. For example, the 40,000 is already the limit for organizing some final matches in UEFA competitions or European Championship matches.
The Eden area has more possibilities
Does domestic competition also play a role in this regard? For example, Sparta is planning a stadium for 35,000 spectators, and you would like 40,000 to 45,000…
In principle, no. Of course we know and suspect what capacity Sparta plansbut we are in a different place, with a different potential. We think it’s not just about the number of seats. The Eden area has more possibilities. So it rather depends on where the stadium is located and where we can develop it.
Do you think that the current transport capacity could handle such a stadium for 40,000 to 45,000 people today, if you have, for example, a train stop right next to it?
You know, it is quite standard abroad for stadiums to be located in the middle of a development in the wider city center, with far worse accessibility and transport than the one in Eden. So we believe that our plan with the declared capacity is feasible and the construction can help the entire area in and around Eden. Modernize, revitalize and start serving as a new community center.
You are currently more focused on the reconstruction of the stadium than on the construction of a completely new arena. Am I understanding this correctly?
Both variants are possible, but at this moment it seems to us to be a more realistic version of completion during the current operation of the stadium. For us, of course, it is absolutely essential that we have somewhere to play during the reconstruction. The option that we would not be able to rebuild the stadium on the fly and have to play somewhere else basically does not exist, or is extremely complicated. I liked the example from Sevilla, where the stadium of both FC Sevilla and Betis was reconstructed in recent years. And one or the other club used the third, athletic stadium during the reconstruction. The city is actually well prepared for such a situation. That cannot be said about Prague.
When we talk about the completion of the stadium, does that mean that one or two rings of new stands would be added around the entire Eden circuit?
The capacity would logically increase in all stands.
Does Slavia plan to finance the completion exclusively from its own resources?
Yes, like the training center it is a project that will be funded by the club owner.
Messrs. Tykač and Tvrdík went to London in December also for work reasons. What did the club management take away from the visit to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium?
Inspiration in multifunctionality and usability. I don’t want to speak entirely for the owner, but I had a feeling it was something he was very interested in. I would say that this is the main inspiration for the top management of the club. What direction can we go in the preparation?
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Would there be other foreign stadiums where the club somehow got more inspiration?
Certainly, for example San Mamés in Bilbao. I know that even the Sparta counterpart often mentions it as a reference stadium. But considering that we want to reconstruct, the inspiration arenas are those that have been expanded in a similar way. This is partly true of Liverpool’s stadium, which is being renovated in Florence. Which are the projects we are more interested in.
Have you already chosen the name of the architect?
I don’t want to reveal it, but we are in close contact with one specific studio that already has experience with similar projects in Western Europe. Implementation experience is key for us in this regard.
I would move on to your other intentions. One of them is the renaming of Vladivostocká Street after Josef Bican. How far is the club in this regard?
We are now in the phase of discussions with all entities that may be significantly affected by the street name change. Because although the implementation of the project does not require the consent of the citizens living in the given street according to the law, we are fully aware of its importance and would first like to know the opinions and suggestions of the locals. After this round, we will submit a request for change to Prague 10 and she will hand it over to the Municipality. We hope the change goes through. So far, a large majority seem to agree with the renaming. For those who don’t, it bothers them primarily because of the administrative burden, but we want to compensate those affected.
For example, a member of the topographic commission, Václav Ledvinka, told Seznam Zprávy that he saw no reason to rename the street. Haven’t you thought about naming one of the newly created streets after Josef Bican?
The naming makes sense in the place we are in (Stadium in Eden – editor’s note). For a street somewhere near the Žižkov Freight Station to be named after Josef Bican, perhaps the question is why? It makes absolute sense here. We don’t have that kind of ambition elsewhere. We want people to feel a sense of belonging to the place and to the club around the stadium. To make them proud of the fact that they live next to Slavia in Josef Bicana Street. In the ideal case, we have the ambition to cultivate the area around the stadium in the future so that it has a greater benefit in everyday life for local residents.
