A superb second league finish of Bohemians 1905 bringing the unexpected promotion to the first league, created also problems with their traditional home grounds, called Ďolíček. Ďolíček has been neglected for a long time and to no one’s surprise it does not comply with the strict rules of the Czech Football Association (ČMFS) set for a first league stadium. Both the ownership group of Bohemians and fans alike want to stay in Ďolíček for the upcoming season even if it means large expenses for owners and inconvenience for fans.
The major non-compliance issue are the seats - a first league stadium is not supposed to have any standing room, all spectators are supposed to sit in separate seats (bench type seats are not allowed). This won’t be a problem for the main seating section; however, the notion of being forcibly seated is very upsetting to all the fans that have been traditionally gathering behind one of the goals.
The management of Bohemians has asked the ČMFS for exception. They argued that German fans are allowed in certain sections to watch Bundesliga games standing up. The ČMFS let other first league teams vote on this issue. They, in a typical Czech fashion (since we had to spend money on seats, you should too) voted Bohemians request for exception down.
It is estimated that putting seats into this section will decrease the capacity by about 4,000 fans. This is very significant not only for Bohemians fans, but also for the fans of visiting teams. The drive will be announced shortly by the management of Bohemians to sell as many season tickets as possible. If the response from Bohemians fans is as strong as suspected, there will be very few tickets, if any, available for walk-up fans or fans of visiting teams. Thus the short-sighted attitude of the first league teams will also harm their own fans.
There will be other upgrades done in Ďolíček in the short period before the first league games start. Upgrades of the change rooms and press centre under the main seating section are already underway. The water piping is being completely replaced at this time as well. Also, the main seating section will have a brand new roof.
All these upgrades will be costly and some of these costs will never be recovered when the future reconstruction of Ďolíček takes place. This reconstruction is supposed to modernize Ďolíček while at the same time maintain its traditional football ambience. When this reconstruction will be done is anybody’s guess. However, it is encouraging to see that the new ownership group does not hesitate to spend money in areas totally neglected by previous ownership groups.
