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In 2000, the Czech Ice Hockey Association promised to hold the World Ice Hockey Championship in Prague in four years. But a representative hockey hall was missing in the metropolis.
And so the Sazka lottery company started building a sports stand, which was originally supposed to cost three billion. But over time, three billion grew to twenty billion, this account drained money from Czech sports and destroyed the original Sazka led Aleš Hušák.
And while the Sazka lottery company underwent a fundamental transformation, including a change of owner, the arena survived the struggle of influential groups – it just changed its name. Since 2004, when it first opened its doors for the championship, it has already been visited by more than 13 million spectators.
The O2 arena got a younger sister next door
And how has the multipurpose hall changed over the years? “I don’t think the arena itself has changed much. Of course he is 20 years older. It’s more the surroundings that have changed, we’re in 2019 O2 arena enriched by her younger sister O2 Universe and we added a hotel. The arena itself still has the same large capacity, we have new technologies, but the arena itself doesn’t change much,” says its boss Robert Schaffer.
However, the spectators of the championship will see a few novelties this year. Although “will see” is probably not the right word in the first case – the signal in the hall will be significantly stronger.
“Under the roof of the O2 arena, we installed high-capacity antennas to strengthen the signal, so that the audience could enter smoothly, or send some videos, even when the hall was heavily occupied. This was not possible before,” explains Cetin Oldřich Šedivý, head of mobile network construction support.
The base station and antennas, which are now installed under the roof of the arena and painted the same color as the roof to blend in with the surroundings, would be able to cover a radius of several kilometers, according to O2’s Libor Pezinek.
Eight tons of entertainment have been added to the O2 arena
All viewers will then see the next news. For this year’s championship, a new cube on the ice has been prepared. “It’s a new 8 tons of entertainment, a multimedia cube that will offer a much nicer visual experience,” explains the spokeswoman for the O2 arena, Zuzana Krejčíková, adding that preparations, cleaning and inspection are currently underway before the championship.
The kitchen is also on standby, which will need 280 cooks on site during the championship. Although it will not be cooked directly for the hockey players, thanks to the fact that there are also three games a day, according to the arena chef Tomáš Kněz, ten thousand portions of food can be served a day.
The “tank house” is also filled with four stainless steel 70 hectoliter beer tanks and another six ten hectoliter tanks. From there, the beer goes to dozens of quick taps on all floors through pipes almost three kilometers long. The system is capable of tapping more than 30,000 beers in 15 minutes.
And if the tank volume wasn’t enough, according to Jaroslav Balhar from the Staropramen Brewery, there is a solution. “A tanker can also come and distribute the beer straight away. Another 60 hectolitres,” reassures Balhar.
Buffalo leather and bulletproof glass
Already during its construction, the hall was planned and conceived as one of the most modern in Europe, so there were no big investments or need before this year’s championship.
The fact that the budget for the construction was truly above-standard is also confirmed by the representative spaces located on the seventh floor of the hall – the so-called Skyclub 77 was never officially open to the public. At that time, the premises were to be used for meetings of sports officials and, in addition to the personal reception and the main lounge, also included a jacuzzi, sauna, rest room, fireplace and wine cellar.
“Of course, all the interiors were created during the time of the previous operator, and every piece here is unique. We can see the buffalo hide cladding here, the whole thing is a bit reminiscent of a casino or a luxury hotel. There is, of course, a zone where you have a view of the area directly from the ceiling of the O2 arena behind the bulletproof glass as a bonus,” Krejčíková describes.
In addition to these spaces, the original owner also left a flower garden in the hall, where 50 types of exotic flowers grow on an area of 440 square meters.
