Czechia's most modern arena in Brno is almost ready

At Brno's exhibition grounds, construction of the new multifunctional T Arena is nearing completion: dozens of workers are laying flooring, installing seats and finishing the skyboxes. According to the management of the city firm Arena Brno, the construction company Hochtief is due to hand the building over to the city on 25 October, and the first major event will be the December Women's European Handball Championship.

What's still left to finish

Petr Kratochvíl (ODS), chairman of the Arena Brno board and a city councillor, said workers are now mainly finishing the interiors — floors, skyboxes and seating — along with the technical fit-out and landscaping around the building. He said the work will not stop once the venue is handed over: "A number of weeks, even months, will still go into finishing certain spaces that weren't part of the original contract," Kratochvíl noted.

Preparing the project took eight years, with construction itself beginning in 2023. Kratochvíl dismissed criticism that running the arena will cost Brno too much, saying the city will not subsidise the venue's operation and that the arena is meant to pay for itself. "There's no black hole for money here," he said.

Handball, hockey and future championships

Besides December's Women's European Handball Championship, the arena already has other major events confirmed. In four years' time, T Arena will host part of the World Junior Ice Hockey Championship. The city, the South Moravian Region and the Czech Ice Hockey Association signed a cooperation and funding agreement for the tournament at the arena on Friday — the region and Brno will contribute 34 million crowns toward staging it.

At the same time, the region is preparing for the possibility of hosting the men's World Ice Hockey Championship in 2031, should Czechia win the right to organise it. Hockey will in fact be one of the arena's main uses: it will become the new home of Brno's Kometa, currently playing at the Winning Group Arena, known as Rondo. The club will keep using that venue too, mainly for its youth teams and training sessions.

A hundred events a year

Sport, however, will not be the mainstay of the arena's programme: around a hundred events a year are planned, most of them concerts, family shows and other cultural events. Among sporting events, T Arena will in future host, for example, the World Climbing Championship.

The seating configuration will change depending on the type of event. For hockey matches the hall will hold up to 12,206 spectators, for seated concerts 9,700 people, and for standing concerts up to 12,500. Organisers cite the same maximum capacity for congresses, conferences and similar events. By capacity, T Arena will rank among the largest multifunctional venues in Czechia.

Inside the building

The new arena is being built on the grounds of Brno's exhibition centre, with work starting there in September 2023. Construction itself was originally expected to cost around 4.7 billion crowns, with a further 600 million earmarked for interior fit-out. The final cost is now approaching 6 billion crowns, with the city financing the project partly through a loan.

Across the arena's five above-ground floors, alongside the stands, there will be extensive areas for visitors and VIP guests. The third and fourth floors house a private zone with skyboxes, party boxes and a club floor, while catering will be handled by twelve outlets on the first and fifth floors.

Organisers expect thousands of visitors will need to be served at once during short breaks, so classic kiosks will be supplemented by dozens of electronic terminals modelled on fast-food outlets. Food and drink can also be ordered through an app, and payment will be cashless only — a way organisers hope to cut down on the queues typical of major sporting and cultural events. Athletes and performers will get their own spaces too — Kometa will have its own zone of around 1,300 square metres with direct access to the playing surface.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by seznamzpravy.cz