A Greyhound Track on Plzeňská Becomes Prague's Missing Western Athletics Stadium

Prague has chosen the firm that will turn the former greyhound racing track in Motol into an athletics stadium. VYSSPA Sports Technology won the contract with a bid of 70.35 million crowns before VAT — 85.12 million with tax — and under the contract terms has 18 months to deliver both the design documentation and the building work. Councillors approved the document on 7 September, according to ČTK. The stadium could open in 2028.

Four bidders entered. The city evaluated them on price and on the experience of the main site manager and the main designer. The estimated value of the contract was 80.76 million crowns before VAT, so the winning bid is roughly 10.4 million lower. The work runs as Design and Build, meaning the chosen supplier produces the complete design solution and then constructs it.

What replaces the dog track

The new complex takes the place of the existing multifunctional venue on Plzeňská, which has an oval for greyhound racing and an infield used for karting. In its place goes a 400-metre athletics oval with eight lanes, plus sectors for long jump, triple jump and high jump, a run-up for the javelin and an area for the hammer and the discus. On completion the stadium is to obtain international certification, which is what would allow it to hold athletics meetings including qualifying events.

The existing building stays. It is to serve the clubs and the public as support space — facilities for athletes, a sauna and whirlpools, refreshments in the upper part of the building, and an athletics tunnel underground. The grandstand is to be extended to around 450 seats.

The gap it is meant to fill

The stated reason for the project is that Prague's athletics stadiums are neither numerous enough nor well enough equipped. Most competitions are currently handled by three clubs — Spartak Praha 4 at Děkanka, TJ Dukla at Juliska and ASK Slavia in Eden — and all three are east or south of the centre. The Motol stadium is intended to supply the missing capacity in the western part of the city.

Three clubs are named as its principal users: SK Aktis Praha, Atletika Stodůlky and TJ Sokol I Smíchov, which between them have more than 1,000 athletes. Those athletes now train mostly on smaller school ovals without adequate equipment. The venue is also to be used for parasport and school sport, and according to earlier information as many as 1,500 athletes a week could pass through it.

A purchase that was cheaper than a lawsuit

The back story is a property one, and it is the part worth keeping. The city bought the greyhound track's buildings from the firm CZECH INTERNATIONAL at the beginning of last year. The complex stands on land the city already owned — land the company held on a lease running to 2035, with an option on a further ten years. According to the city hall, buying the buildings was more advantageous than a legal dispute about terminating that lease.

That is an unglamorous but instructive piece of municipal arithmetic. Prague owned the ground and could not use it, because a valid lease with a decade of option behind it is not something a landlord ends by wishing. Rather than litigate its way to a site it already held the freehold of, the city paid to acquire what stood on it and moved straight to procurement. Eighteen months of design and construction now stand between that decision and an eight-lane track — a shorter delay than a contested lease termination would plausibly have taken.