Czech Superleague Super Surprise

The ambitious club of Bohemians Prague, which was already behind a school league game last year (played at 10.00 in the morning in front of 1500 children), has come up with an even more ambitious project for the opening game of the new season – floorball in the legendary tennis palace Stvanice (now not serving its purpose anymore), with a capacity of 7 000 seats. And Bohemians believe to fill a great part of it.

It’s a world premier for an official championship floorball match as an open-air-event and it’s likely to be a once in a life time opportunity. The Swedes may be asking themselves right now, if they should have opened the roof at Tele2-arena last April, to make sure no one would “beat them”. But they didn’t dare and so Bohemians will be the very first ones.

“Stvanice is a place with a fantastic history,“ says Jakub Doubrava, the marketing manager of Bohemians. One of the most important event was, when the Czech born tennis superstar Martina Navratilova came to play the Fed CUP final in Czechoslovakia, as it was still called then. Those 30 years ago, it was a bold move from an emigrant girl, who came to a country “behind the iron wall”. She helped the USA to win the trophy as well as she won the hearts of the Czech fans.  

The Stvanice facility has not been used for tennis the last couple of years, and it seems like it will be soon just abandoned. That’s also why floorball got a green card when asking the owners. “The Stvanice Central Court is perfect for our project. It will be a great experience for the players as well as for the audience. We hope to get many people to come.”

The unique start of the season is supported well also by the opponent, the reigning champion Chodov, whom Bohemians picked as the best possible “companion in crime”. ”I am looking forward to that match and hope, that the weather will be good, so that the event can be executed in its full scale. But that’s something none of us can really influence,” says the coach of Chodov David Podhrasky.

The big floorball day is taking place on Saturday September 17th and its start is planned for 8 am. The whole day will be full of floorball as well as live-music performances. A special way how to celebrate the 20th birthday of the club of Bohemians.

Cevro Institut Open Air - Stvanice Praha
17.9. 2016

8:00
A tournament of junior teams of Bohemians and Chodov

13:00
FbŠ Bohemians vs. Florbal Chodov – Female Extraliga

16:00
FbŠ Bohemians vs. Florbal Chodov – Tipsport Superleague

Interview with Jakub Doubrava to be read here.

Story by Tomas Rambousek / florbal.cz