HC Dynamo Pardubice
Rink: Enteria Arena
Capacity: 10,194
Built: 1960
League: Extraliga
City: Pardubice, Czechia
Home Of: HC Dynamo Pardubice
Games Attended: 1
Only Game: October 4, 2026 vs Sparta Praha
Unique Arena: #126
European Arena: #3
Before leaving on my trip to Czechia I looked up photos of the inside of all nine arenas I was going to see on the trip. By the time the trip came around, though, I had forgotten what a couple of the rinks actually looked like, and I was happy for it. It’s nice to have a little mystery about what you’re walking into. Going to Pardubice the only thing I remembered about it was it was one of the bigger arenas of the trip with a capacity of some 10,000 people, but otherwise I felt like I was going in blind.
The arena is located kitty corner to Pardubice’s large mall in the heart of a commercial area right on transit lines; it is located in a fantastic spot. From the outside the arena definitely shows its age. An exterior shot proved difficult with lots of large trees out front, and a large area set up with food trucks and kid’s games for that night’s game which gave the area a great vibe.
Upon entering the arena, you find yourself in a lobby with a small but well-stocked team store on your left. The doors straight ahead into the rink lead to the main Dynamo supporters’ terrace behind one of the nets. The concourse down the penalty box side of the rink is incredibly narrow, and an area I avoided after my initial walk around during warmups. The concourse on the bench side is a bit more functional with concession stands, but can still get very backed up during intermissions. There are staircases in the corners leading to the seats in the upper bowl, which has much smaller concourses that serve only a few sections. It reminded us of the upper bowl concourse setup at the Allstate Arena in Chicago. The actual arena itself, however, is very similar to the old Winnipeg Arena. I never saw Winnipeg Arena in person before it was torn down, but having seen many pictures and videos of the place it has many similarities with Pardubice. The upper bowl is insanely steep and seems to have been hung onto the walls. They might provide some of the best top-down views of an ice surface I have ever seen, and part of me wishes that we had tickets up top for the game. The arena underwent a massive renovation in 2001 and was mostly rebuilt which makes the rink feel newer than it is. At the same time it still feels from a different time and place. There is some corner seating but not much as it is setup more like a four-grandstand style.
A big part of the branding for the team is Hockeytown, which North American fans instantly recognize as the gimmick of the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings. Perhaps it a red D team thing, lol. Regardless Pardubice lived up to the Hockeytown hype, at least for the game we attended. Our game was against archrival Sparta Praha and appeared to be a game being aired on national television. It was one of only two games on the trip where the Czech anthem was played before the game, as playing anthems before club games in Europe just isn’t really a thing.
To say the rivalry between Sparta and Dynamo is intense would be an understatement. I’m pretty sure I have not seen such an intense atmosphere for a regular season game in my entire life. Atmospheres like this back home are reserved only for games deep into the playoffs with championships are on the line. Not a Sunday evening at the beginning of October early in the regular season. The rink was packed quite literally to the rafters, and while the supporter’s section was not surprisingly rocking, so was the rest of the 10,000 on hand for both sides. We found ourselves sitting right next to the visitor’s supporters section packed with Sparta fans who were just as intense as their Dynamo counterparts. At one point during the game a Dynamo fan in front of me was acting like an obnoxious dick to the Sparta fans on the other side of the plexiglass which segregates the visitors from the rest of the crowd. At one point I noticed a Sparta fan pointing at me and pressing money up against the glass and trying to shove it under the small opening between us. Having no dog in this fight and not wanting to get involved I tried ignoring him. A lady behind us informed me afterwards he was trying to pay me money so that I would dump a beer on the obnoxious Dynamo fan. I’m not sure there’s any amount of money I’m accepting to catch an assault charge in a foreign country, but the amount of money he was offering to do this was insultingly low, lol.
Later on in the game a beer from the Sparta section came over the glass aimed at said obnoxious dick but in the end all it did was soak two young boys in Sparta gear. Nobody, especially their father, was impressed by that. By the end of the fantastic game which Pardubice won 6-4, OHLAG and I agreed it was almost too intense even for us let alone his poor wife who was just along for the ride. A couple instances of idiot behaviour aside, I had a fantastic time in Pardubice. The crowd was fantastic, the A/V production was pro NHL quality and the sightlines for the most part were awesome.
Dynamo’s time at Enteria Arena however appears to be short as a new arena for the team is currently in the works. However Pardubice plans on going big, in fact they are planning to build the biggest permanent ice hockey arena (by capacity) in the world with plans to build a 25,000-seat building. While I am sure Dynamo fans can fill a building larger than Enteria Arena, one wonders if they can fill an arena with a capacity of 25,000 on a regular basis, and what that would do to the awesome atmosphere you get at the current rink. The new rink is planned to be up and running sometime in the next 3-5 years, so if you get the chance to see a game at Enteria Arena in Pardubice do it while you still can, especially on a rivalry night vs Sparta.
