Sport has many wonderful stories to tell and lessons to provide the business world, but it isn’t often that it provides us with a lesson on the power of crowds to do great things however.
The story of Petr Švancara and the Stadion Za Lužánkami does just that though. Za Lužánkami was for a time the largest football stadium in the Czech Republic but has been shut for nearly 15 years. The stadium had largely lay derelict and unloved for much of that time, and was in a pretty parlous state.
Local player Petr Švancara thought it was no way for the old stadium to be, and with plans to rebuild her seeing delay after delay, he decided to take matters into his own hands.
He sent out a call for volunteers to get the stadium ship shape enough to host a game again. I suspect that he was somewhat taken aback by the response he received.
Thousands of fans volunteered to make the pitch playable, the terraces habitable and render the stadium fit to host one final game. What’s even more remarkable is that all of this was achieved in a matter of weeks, with no budget and no real organization.
You can see a video of the remarkable story below, and the fantastic scenes as fans turned up in their thousands to watch that final game.
It’s easy to think at times that we need to be someone special or famous to create such a movement, but Švancara was anything but that. He’d had a rather mediocre career as a player and never represented his country. He was however someone that was able to tap into a latent desire within the thousands who turned out to help.
That’s something we can all learn from. I hope you enjoy the video.
What a fantastic story. Brilliant 🙂
Outstanding stuff. Would have loved that to happen to Central Park!
I know exactly what you mean 🙂
That's a goosebump inducing story and no mistake. Good on that man, looks like it would have been a great thing to be a part of.
What a great story. Interestingly, this guy doesn't seem to have any kind of presence on social media (that I could see), so clearly didn't use any 'modern' means to accumulate his army of supporters. Just goes to show that you don't always need the latest whizzy tools to do cool things.
Yes, and to mobilise such a large number of people in such a short space of time. Quite an accomplishment.
What an amazing story, Adi. This made my day, really. It makes us believe once again in what makes us good, as humans, when we pull together to achieve great accomplishments, even when they are done at a local level like this.
Great stuff!
Yes, it's heart warming stuff, and as much as I can understand from my knowledge of Czech, people who participated thought likewise. Some described it as the best day of their life, and you can kind of understand that.
That's made my day without a doubt.
Great story! I'd never even heard of the club, but that is my fault entirely, but what a heartwarming story in an era when billionaires are ruining the game.
Now that's what I call a testimonial. It must have been such an incredible day for him.
Magic stuff! Good article. Some folk tried this to some extent with the old Cathkin park, home of Third Lanark in Glasgow's Southside but that work seems to have slowed somewhat recently.
Great story, great video, showing how much football means so much to so many people and why it's the best sport in the world.