Doosan Arena, Football stadium in Štrunc Park, Plzeň, Czech Republic
Doosan Arena is a football stadium in Štrunc Park in Plzeň, home of FC Viktoria Plzeň, with a capacity of 11,700. The pitch is enclosed by blue lower walls and red and blue seats rising in tiers on all four sides, with tall floodlight masts at the corners and an exterior base of blue panels with white vertical accents.
Earthworks for an athletics stadium with an oval track began in September 1953 to designs by Zbyněk Tichý and the Krpejš–Jílek–Fořt group, and it opened in June 1955 for the regional Spartakiad. A two-tier west stand donated by the Škoda works, using 450 tonnes of steel from Vítkovice, raised capacity to 35,000, of which 7,600 were seats. The 2011 rebuild, begun on 1 April, moved the pitch 18 metres toward the main stand and produced a capacity near 12,000.
The stadium stands in Štrunc Park, named after Emil Štrunc, a former regional chieftain of the Sokol Movement; some people wrongly assume it honours the footballer Stanislav Štrunc. The ground is also called Stadion ve Štruncových sadech, and it has been the home of FC Viktoria Plzeň.
The stadium sits in Štrunc Park by the confluence of the Mže and Radbuza rivers, with the pitch moved 18 metres closer to the main stand in 2011. The main stand was rebuilt with new player cabins and an entrance tunnel, and the away section is in the south stand. The athletics track that once surrounded the pitch was removed.
The stadium's name in Štrunc Park honours Emil Štrunc, a former regional chieftain of the Sokol Movement, not the footballer Stanislav Štrunc as some visitors assume. The ground opened in 1955 for the regional Spartakiad, and its first famous match was a 1962 friendly against Brazil's Flamengo, won 2:1.
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