HC SPARTA PRAHA

Club history in brief

The hockey club Sparta Prague is one of the most successful and famous hockey clubs in the history of Czechoslovak, or Czech ice hockey. It was established in the year 1893 under the name AC Královské Vinohrady. One hundred years ago the Czech kingdom lived in the token of renaissance of the antique culture, so already one year after its foundation the word SPARTA appeared in the club's name. Although its name had to be often changed in the past, Sparta has remained in its appellation for more than one hundred years. Canadian hockey in its present form started to be played in the year 1909 and since that time the club, which was present at the birth of the National League, has belonged to its most frequent participants.

The biggest successes were reached by Sparta in the post-war years when they gained under the name Spartak Sokolovo even two titles of a League Master in the successive years in the seasons 1952/53 and 1953/54.

They recorded the second phase of successes in the recent past when they gained the title in the season 1989/90 and subsequently another one, which celebrated the club's one hundred years' anniversary, in the season 1992/93. Another success, besides two third places in the years 1995/96 and 1996/97, was the participation of HC Sparta Prague in the final group of the European League 1996/97.

They have confirmed good quality in the Extra League after several less lucky seasons in the year 1999/00, when after seven years they rejoiced at their already fifth top place in total. Moreover, they succeeded again in breaking into the Top Four Final European League and they gained the best place for the Czech hockey so far, the second place. The fact that Sparta belong to the very top of the Czech League has been confirmed by their regular progress up to the semi-finals since half of the nineties. In the year 2002 they even collected another title. The most successful period came after the arrival of a new management and realisation team in the autumn 2005. That is to say that Sparta together with trainers Výborný and Jelínek collected the title twice - both in the season 2005/2006 and one year later.

Present

HC Sparta Prague belongs to the stable participants in fights for the highest prizes and is a regular participant in the final fights for play-off. Every year the hockey players take part in a high number of matches on the domestic ice, which leads to a continuous promotion and propagation of the club. The hockey players play their domestic matches in the TESLA ARENA, which is the second largest sports stadium in the Czech Republic with a capacity of nearly 14,000 spectators.