Stadium guide

Viktoria Plzeň stadium guide for visitors

A ten-minute walk from the town square to the ground, and another to the brewery where pilsner was invented. The closest Czech stadium to Germany.

6 min read Facts last checked 28 Aug 2026

The short version. Viktoria Plzeň play at the Doosan Arena in Štruncovy sady, capacity 11,700, a ten-minute walk from the middle of Plzeň. The ground is small, the club are Champions League regulars by Czech standards, and the city invented pilsner — which means the brewery that gives its name to a third of the world's beer is a short walk in the other direction.

The Doosan Arena in Plzeň seen from a hill above: a compact stadium of mismatched stands in blue and red, standing among bare trees beside a river with fields and woodland behind — The Doosan Arena in Štruncovy sady, between two rivers and ten minutes from the town square. The stands do not match because the ground grew in stages. Photo by Ben Skála, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

A small ground with a large European record

Eleven thousand seven hundred is a modest capacity for a club that has spent much of the last fifteen years in European competition, winning Czech titles and taking on sides from leagues many times richer.

That disparity is the appeal, and it is the same reason to visit as at Raków in Poland: watching a club punch above its ground is more interesting than watching a large stadium fail to fill. For European fixtures the visiting allocation is usually just under six hundred, which tells you how tight the place is.

Getting there

The stadium is in Štruncovy sady, a park near where the Mže and Radbuza rivers meet, on the edge of the historic centre.

On foot: ten minutes from the centre of Plzeň. This is the way to do it.
By tram: lines 1 and 2 to Anglické nábřeží.
By bus: the 28 to Na Rychtářce.
From Prague: around an hour and a half by train or coach, running frequently. Plzeň is comfortably a day trip from the capital.

The closest Czech ground to Germany

Plzeň sits in West Bohemia, roughly an hour from the German border and around two hours from Nuremberg. That makes it the obvious first Czech ground for anyone travelling from Bavaria, in the same way that Szczecin is the obvious first Polish ground for anyone coming from Berlin.

The combination is a good one: German football is expensive and its tickets are hard to get, and an hour across the border buys you a top-division match for the price of two beers at home. If you are building a route through southern Germany, Plzeň belongs on it.

Tickets

Czech ticketing rules apply and they are visitor-friendly: no mandatory supporter card for ordinary league fixtures, no national identification number required, and payment by card or in cash. Buy online or at the ground.

The caution here is capacity rather than bureaucracy. Under twelve thousand seats for a club of this standing means that a European night, or a visit from Sparta or Slavia, sells. Ordinary league fixtures are usually obtainable; the big ones are not something to leave to matchday.

Where away fans sit

The away section is in the south-east corner, sections U12 and U13. For European fixtures the allocation is typically just under 600 tickets.

Allocations are set per fixture, so confirm your specific match. Neutrals should ask for a side stand.

The ground itself

There has been a stadium in Štruncovy sady since 1955, and the current Doosan Arena is the result of successive redevelopments rather than a single new build. Four stands, all seated, 11,700 places, and a setting inside a riverside park that very few grounds in Europe can match.

It is small, tight and loud when it is full. It is also, at ten minutes from a beautiful town square, one of the most conveniently placed football grounds anywhere in Central Europe.

Eating and drinking at the ground

Czech stadium catering: klobása off the grill, langoš, and full-strength lager — Czech law does not cap stadium beer the way Polish law does. Cheap, and in this city specifically, good.

Some Czech grounds run their kiosks on a token or card system rather than taking payment at each counter. Check the signage as you enter.

Plzeň before the match

The ornate stone gate of the Pilsner Urquell brewery in Plzeň, a triumphal arch with two arched openings, wrought-iron gates and the dates MDCCCXLII and MDCCCXCII carved across the top — The brewery gate. The dates read 1842 and 1892 — the year pilsner was first brewed here, and the jubilee the arch was built for. Photo by Mister No, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

What to see

The Pilsner Urquell brewery. Lager as the world knows it was invented here in 1842, and the brewery runs tours that end in the cellars with unfiltered, unpasteurised beer drawn straight from an oak barrel. If you do one thing in Plzeň besides the football, do this — and book ahead, because it fills.
Náměstí Republiky — the main square, dominated by the cathedral of St Bartholomew, whose tower is the tallest church spire in Czechia and can be climbed.
The Great Synagogue — among the largest in Europe, a short walk from the square.
The historic cellars — a network of medieval tunnels beneath the old town, open to visitors and entirely separate from the brewery.

What to eat and drink

You are in the city that gave its name to pilsner, so the beer is not an afterthought:

Pilsner Urquell from the tank — unpasteurised, served in pubs that advertise tankové pivo. It is a different drink from the bottled version exported worldwide, and the comparison is the point of coming.
Svíčková na smetaně — beef in cream sauce with bread dumplings.
Guláš served in a bread bowl, and smažený sýr — fried cheese with tartare sauce.
Utopenec — pickled sausage, the standard thing to eat with a beer.

The pubs concentrate around Náměstí Republiky and the streets running off it, all within the ten-minute radius that also contains the stadium and the brewery. Plzeň is a compact and very manageable matchday.

Common questions

Can I do Plzeň as a day trip from Prague?

Comfortably. An hour and a half each way, and everything in Plzeň you would want to see is inside a ten-minute walk of everything else.

Brewery or football first?

Brewery in the morning, football in the afternoon. The other order is a mistake people make once, and the cellar tastings are more generous than visitors expect.

Is the brewery tour worth booking in advance?

Yes. It runs to fixed times, it sells out in season, and the part everyone comes for — unfiltered beer straight from a barrel in the cellars — is only on the guided route. Turning up hopefully on a matchday afternoon is how people end up looking at a gift shop.

Will I get a ticket?

For a league fixture, usually. For Europe or a visit from a Prague club, buy well ahead — this is a small ground and those matches sell.

A ten-minute walk from a town square to a stadium, with the world's original lager cellar in between. Add Plzeň to your bucket list and make it a day trip from Prague.