Bozsik Stadion – historical stadium description

The first venue in this location was built back in 1913 and soon received the nickname “Dragon’s Den” from opposition teams. It was first redeveloped in 1927 just to be destroyed in a fire in 1935. Thankfully, repair works led to a new ground being opened in 1938.

Work was still ongoing a few months before WWII broke out and again brought destruction to the stadium. This time renovations came more rapidly – in 1945, when war still hasn’t ended. huge popularity of football around 1950’s led to higher demand and so the ground was expanded in 1955 to reach the record attendance of 30,000 in 1957. A decade later floodlights were lit for the first time.

From October 1986, the stadium was named after Jozsef Bozsik, who played 101 matches for the Hungarian national team and almost 450 for Honved. Just four years after this event, the last modernisation of the main building took place. The changing rooms and sanitary facilities were modernized. Later still, the turf was replaced and 5,500 chairs were installed (total capacity at the time was around 9,500).

In February/March 2019, the facility was demolished. Then, between 2019 and 2021, a new football stadium for Honvéd FC – Bozsik Aréna – was built partly in its place.