Brno canceled the ongoing procurement process for the demolition of the stadium at Lužánky

Brno - The Brno city council has canceled the unfinished procurement process for a company that will demolish the Lužánky stadium. They made this decision following a resolution by the city councilors from early September. This agrees to allowing the construction of a football stadium at Lužánky, provided that it is technically and legally feasible. This was reported today by the spokesman for the municipality, Filip Poňuchálek. According to the city's original plans, the demolition costing 165 million crowns excluding VAT was supposed to start this month.

The demolition of the stadium, where Zbrojovka Brno won its only title, has been discussed since the beginning of 2023 due to its poor condition. The need to demolish the site was confirmed by a survey conducted by experts from the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the Brno University of Technology. Since then, the city has been preparing for the demolition planned for this year. In mid-June, it announced a public tender with a deadline for submission of bids by October 1. However, this was changed by considerations regarding the construction of a new stadium in the same location, related to the change of ownership of the football club.

"Since September, a working group composed of representatives from the city, Zbrojovka Brno, and the Office of the Architect of the City of Brno has been exploring the possibilities of locating a new football stadium in Brno. The first informational report will be presented at the October city council meeting," stated Poňuchálek. Recent plans considered that the new stadium would be built by the city near the exhibition grounds, which would require the demolition of the velodrome, a long-standing facility for track cyclists. Instead, a new owner of Zbrojovka, Vojtěch Kačena, could become the investor, who has stated he wants to proceed quickly with the construction.

In the case of potential demolition, the city will try to extend the deadline for demolition works with the building authority. If the city were to proceed with this, it would use the current procurement documentation. "The procurement and preparation for it cost about 570,000 crowns," added the city spokesman.

The stadium was built between 1949 and 1953. In the 1960s and 70s, a new stand was built, and the capacity increased to 50,000 spectators. In October 1996, 44,120 spectators attended the match Brno - Slavia. The last league match was played at the stadium in September 2001, and it has been deteriorating since then. In 2015, it was revived due to the farewell of footballer Petr Švancara from his career, with nearly 35,000 spectators attending the exhibition match. In 2019, a crew filmed a movie about the legendary runner Emil Zátopek at the stadium.