Date: 24 March 2024 / League: some unknown local division
Final Score: N/A / Attendance: me
Experience
After a successful start to the day at Hutnik Krakow (for that, CLICK ME!), I decided against staging an early exit from the city, choosing to get the last chopper out of Saigon instead. This, I reasoned, would give me time for a fortifying curry, a few fancy craft beers and, well I never, another stadium to prowl around in.
Having first lost my marbles searching fixtures on the unnavigable 90minut.pl website, I realised that Kabel Krakow were due to imminently kick-off against table-toppers Pogon Skotniki. Never has a vindaloo been treated with less mercy – three minutes, and I was done. To the football!
Kabel don’t attract more than a few dozen fans, but even by this standard the crowd looked sparse. Entering the ground bang on the stroke of kick-off, I was surprised to find that I was the only spectator in attendance. But if a crowd of one (me!) sounded bad, then the crowd of players was even worse: there weren’t any.
By the time fifteen minutes had passed, I was starting to suspect foul play and the possibility that the game was being held elsewhere. Consulting Facebook, my fears came to fruit. Bugger and bollocks, not to mention a timely reminder that when it comes to watching lower league football, it always pays dividends to triple check the venue.
In truth, you don’t need football to enjoy the home of Kabel Krakow, in fact, it’s every bit as fetching on the occasions it stands empty. With just the whistle of the wind for company, walking this horseshoe-shaped arena feels strangely melancholic. Enclosed by a ring of trees, the soft sounds of the natural world feel amplified here, giving this stadium the ethereal atmosphere of a forgotten parish cemetery. Most certainly, this is football at its most soulful.
I’ve written about the history of this ground before (CLICK ME!), so I won’t repeat what I’ve already said – but it’s definitely a story worth knowing. Unfortunately, I’ve no idea what the future may hold for this fossil of a ground. From what I’ve read, the principal tenants, Kabel, are currently involved in a dispute over the upkeep of the stadium with city authorities, and although it is classed as a protected monument, it seems likely that a renovation will eventually be undertaken.
Personally, I’d hate to see this, for this stadium’s fundamental charm lies in its quiet sense of abandonment. Moreover, there is something dignified about its state of dereliction, something that seems to encapsulate the very romance of football.
But, as the saying goes, football without alcohol is nothing. Kabel appear to have this sussed. Whilst the stadium lacks basic infrastructure (you know, a toilet, for example), it does have a fabulous stone rotunda dealing out Belgian-style fries and regional beers. These can be savoured either on an outdoor patio, or inside a wooden cabin complete with windows gazing right onto the pitch. In a country where football and booze are rarely seen together (well, compared to England, anyway), this is indeed an absolute clincher.
ADDENDUM: after initially panicking that Kabel had been kicked out from this stadium, it appears that I jumped the gun. Although I remain none the wiser as to why their match against Skotniki was shifted somewhere else, I have been assured that this ground remains their home.
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