The dawn of football in Jihlava can be found in the Sokol sports division established on the 8th April 1910. The division was endowed with inventory worth approximately 30 crowns from the Sokol organisation. In the year of its founding, it had about 50 members and the football club was the primary section. After the world wars, the PAL Jihlava sports club, established in a company canteen in Staré Hory in 1948, came to the fore in Jihlava. This Sokol Sports Organisation (Závodní sokolská jednota) did not have facilities for its sports clubs, and so the football players, table tennis players, cyclists, chess players and skittles players used whatever premises were available. Football was the worst affected. It was therefore decided that a football pitch with an athletics track and cycle track should be constructed. Nowadays, large football stadiums around the world are often relocated to the suburbs, where there is enough space for them to take in the occasional influx of great numbers of spectators and their cars, and where the absence of context allows architects to give a distinctive iconic appearance to these shrines of contemporary rituals. The Jihlava stadium was built on a greenfield site, within walking distance of the emerging Sídliště I housing estate.
The most appropriate site for the construction was found on land belonging to Czechoslovak State Farms (Československé státní statky) company in Rančířov, by the road leading from Jihlava to Staré Hory. The application for the assignment of the plots was submitted on the 1st June 1950. From the 10th of September, a bulldozer shifted about three thousand cubic metres of earth until the District National Committee prohibited the work after a long-distance oil pipeline was uncovered. Stavoprojekt Jihlava then drew up designs for the sports centre, while volunteers from the Sokol Sports Organisation moved thirty thousand cubic metres of soil using diggers and wheelbarrows. The spatial plan was drawn up by Oldřich Plhoň, supervised by Mr Krátký. The project was approved by the local National Committee authority in November 1952. When a rock was discovered on part of the site and it was necessary to blast it away, the material was used for drainage and ballasting of the entire field area. The construction work was slowed by the solidity of the rock and insufficient machinery. The first regional Spartakiad mass gymnastics event scheduled for 1955 was endangered. The premises still lacked, for example, stands for about two thousand seated spectators and terraces for standing spectators. The national company Motorpal and the Spartak Gymnastic Union therefore asked all Motorpal employees, school pupils and other inhabitants of Jihlava to help, and the construction of a temporary stadium was completed in time. In the spring of 1955, about ten thousand gymnasts performed there, watched by at least fifteen thousand spectators.
In the following years, the temporary solution was gradually transformed into the final construction according to the technical design drawn up by the builder Alois Vokřílek. At the end of 1956, the foundations and basement towards the field were completed. In September 1958, official approval was given to the roughly completed construction, comprising changing rooms, washrooms, first aid rooms, PA system rooms, rooms for referees, club rooms, laundries, a caretaker’s flat, storage rooms and, above all, central heating. In 1960, the entrance gate with ticket offices and public toilets were built, as well as a volleyball court. According to the press at the time, the construction was coordinated by František Roziňák and millions of crowns were saved thanks to volunteer work. However, grassing of the football field and the construction of a covered grandstand were put on hold as the capacities were required to build a sports centre with an indoor swimming pool nearby.
In 1972, after the garden plots were bought up, a nearby practice field was put to use, the four-lane athletic track was extended to six lanes, a covered grandstand was built in the southwest, and the football field got a new turf surface, and was re-opened on the 11th August 1974 with a friendly match with the Bohemians ČKD Praha team. In the period of 1979–1980, terraces and additional covered grandstands were added. By the time of the last Spartakiad mass gymnastics event in 1985 took place, the capacity of the grandstand had been increased by 2,500 places, with approximately 700 seats and 8,000 standing spectators.
In 2002, the changing rooms and administrative building were refurbished. When FC Vysočina unexpectedly qualified for the Czech Premier League in June 2005, the stadium was not prepared for it. The club was granted an exception to retrofit and expand the premises, including the installation of lighting, a car park, and four thousand seats for spectators. In the summer of 2005, the grandstand was fully fitted with seats, which considerably reduced the capacity of the only covered grandstand. Based on the initial calculations, the cost to complete the stadium construction was estimated at CZK 60–70 million, and it was supposed to be completed by the spring of 2006. The project envisaged a larger covered grandstand in the north and facilities for athletes and spectators.
The renovation project was created by the architect František Šmédek and his office. The first stage involved the construction of a grandstand for 2,428 spectators and two adjacent corner towers with facilities and a car park for 130 vehicles. The new grandstand, designed in the spirit of modern high-tech architecture, comprised a hot-dip galvanized steel structure, softened by a white fabric canopy. This was complemented by plastic seats in white and red. The two corner towers with flat roofs, impressively rounded at the corners, received distinctive red metal cladding. Adjacent to each corner tower is a steel lighting tower, and two more are situated in the opposite corners. The tower by Jiráskova Street serves as an entry to the grandstand and houses toilets for spectators, a cafeteria, office premises for the club and accommodation facilities for football players. The other tower provides space for the police and a security agency, a flat for the stadium caretaker as well as flats for FC Vysočina players who do not reside in Jihlava.
The renovation of the stadium officially commenced on the 21st November 2005 when the pile foundations for the lighting towers were laid. Both the construction and the players were beset by freezing weather. Before the last autumn match, the FC Vysočina team asked fans to volunteer to help remove the frozen surface from the field using their own tools. In the end, the match was postponed until spring. By February 2006, the lighting towers were erected and excavation work had commenced. If no progress had been made, the club would have had to play matches in Drnovice located more than and hour-long drive from Jihlava. But on the 3rd of March, the team began training on natural turf and under lights, and on the 6th of March, they played against Sparta Prague there. By the end of March, the foundations for the new grandstand and a retaining wall for one of the corner towers were completed. However, the cost at that stage had already exceeded CZK 53 million.
New funds for the completion of the grandstand of CZK 35 million were approved by regional councillors on the 28th March 2006. Subsequently, the City Council approved the completion of the renovation. The total cost was estimated at CZK 170 million at the time, but in fact, further ten million was needed. In April, the first tower was completed and the construction of the other one commenced. In June 2006, the steel structure for the new grandstand was delivered to the site and its installation began, including 1,600 m² of prestressed polyester fabric for the covering. All the work was carried out by the Construction Company (Pozemní stavby) Jihlava and the Road and Railway Construction Company (Stavby silnic a železnic). The football stadium was inaugurated on the 13th October 2006. However, the event was overshadowed by the fact that Jihlava’s football players were demoted to the lower league at the end of the spring season.
When they returned to the Czech Premier League five years later, renovation of the turf was carried out and a heating grid approximately 30 km long was installed in June 2012. The renovation also involved an irrigation system worth nearly CZK 20 million. The FC Vysočina club remained in the Czech Premier League until 2018. Further renovation stages depend on the club’s performance, spectator interest and the financial possibilities of the City of Jihlava and the Vysočina Region. Further ahead, the construction of a grandstand behind the second goal is envisaged in order to connect the terraces into one whole and eventually also roof them. The red and white arches formed by the grandstand seats will be transformed into an integral shape according to the original architectural plan.
FK
