| Tašmajdan SRC | |
| Nickname: | Taš |
| Fullname: | Sportsko-rekreacioni centar Tašmajdan |
| Address: | 26 Ilije Garašanina Street |
| Location: | Belgrade, Serbia |
| Coordinates: | 44.8092°N 20.4728°W |
| Pushpin Map: | Serbia Belgrade |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location within Belgrade |
| Type: | sports and recreation center |
| Owner: | City of Belgrade |
| Operator: | J.P. SRC Tašmajdan |
| Seating Capacity: | 10,500 (football) 8,000 (basketball)[1] [2] [3] 2,000 (ice hockey) |
Tašmajdan Sports and Recreation Center (Serbian: Спортско-рекреациони центар Ташмајдан|Sportsko-rekreacioni centar Tašmajdan; abbr. Tašmajdan SRC, Serbian: link=no|СРЦ Ташмајда|SRC Tašmajdan), commonly known simply as Taš (Serbian: Таш), is a sporting and recreational center located in the city of Belgrade, Serbia. It was founded by the Assembly of the City of Belgrade in 1958.
At within the center located of the outdoor Tašmajdan Stadium, the Aleksandar Nikolić Hall, the Pionir Ice Hall and a complex of outdoor and indoor swimming pools.
Construction of the stadium began in 1952.[4] Built with white stone from Brač island, and opened on 24 January 1954, by mid 2000s the stadium began showing signs of structural deterioration.[5] Architect Mihajlo Janković, was awarded the Belgrade's October award for architecture, the highest city award at the time, for the Tašmajdan project. Originally, the sports complex started as the ice factory, where people could buy the so-called "hygienic ice".
When opened, the stadium wasn't fully finished, but already in 1954 it hosted volleyball, basketball, and tennis matches.[4] Some of the best known happenings in the venue include: EuroBasket Women 1954, first Miss Yugoslavia contest in 1957 (won by Tonka Katunarić), 1957 World Women's Handball Championship (the inaugural world women championship), concerts of Alexandrov Ensemble in 1958 and later in the 1960s and 1970s of Mazowsze, Elton John, Ray Charles and Tina Turner and ice hockey matches with over 10,000 spectators. Yugoslav national tennis team played the Davis Cup matches in 1956 in Tašmajdan and the curiosities held in the facility include the chess with live figures, the football matches played by the Zastava 750 cars and the first Spanish corrida in Europe outside of Spain, when Luis Miguel Dominguín performed in September 1971.[4] Tašmajdan hosted the first FINA World Aquatics Championships in 1973.
After the 1977-1978 season, the ice skating rink was dismantled in March 1978. Bad conditions of the facility in the 2000s led many public personalities in Belgrade (Cane Kostić, Neda Arnerić, Branko Cvejić) to urge the city government to do something about it. In mid-April 2009, the initiative called "Taš je naš" (Serbian: Таш је наш; "Taš is ours") was held to draw public attention to the sad state of the crumbling facility.[6] In the summer of 2009 the stadium was closed to the public due to the impending reconstruction. An extensive RSD550 million renovation began in September 2011. Originally, the reconstruction was to be finished in December 2012, then was postponed to 2014 and was finally completed in 2016.[7] As the object is under the protection, the conceptual solution for the reconstruction had to fully preserve the original author's concept. Since December 2016, the ice skating rink became operational again during the winter. It covers 1800m2 and though it worked only for less than 60 days in 2016, it had 30,000 visitors.[4]
See main article: Aleksandar Nikolić Hall.
The hall, designed by Ljiljana and Dragomir Bakić, was opened on 24 May 1973 as the Pionir Hall. It was later renamed after Aleksandar Nikolić, "father of Yugoslav basketball". The interior was completely refurbished in 2019 and enlarged to 8,000 seats.[4]
See main article: Pionir Ice Hall.
| Outdoor swimming pool | |
| Coordinates: | 44.8092°N 20.4727°W |
| Capacity: | 2,500 |
| Opened: | 25 June 1961 |
| Pool1name: | - |
| Length1: | 50 m |
| Width1: | 22 m |
| Deep1: | 2.2–5 m |
| Lanes1: | ? |
The outdoor swimming pool was opened on 25 June 1961. Its capacity is 2,500, and swimming beaches hold around 3,500 people, for the total of 6,000, including the activation of telescopic bleachers.[4]
Reconstruction of the pool began on 10 March 2020, after the works on the stadium were finished. The pool will get a new, stainless steel bed, and the deepest end will be shortened from 4.8mto2mm (15.7feetto07feetm), for safety and maintenance reasons, while the pool will remain eligible for all competitions. The works should be completed in June 2020.[8]
| Indoor swimming pool | |
| Coordinates: | 44.8091°N 20.4732°W |
| Capacity: | 2,000 |
| Opened: | 13 December 1968 |
| Pool1name: | large |
| Pool2name: | small |
| Length1: | 50 m |
| Length2: | 12 m |
| Width1: | 20 m |
| Width2: | 3 |
| Deep1: | 2.2–5.4 m |
| Deep2: | ? |
| Lanes1: | ? |
| Lanes2: | - |
The indoor swimming pool was opened on 13 December 1968.[4] The pool's dimensions are 50 × 20 m. The capacity for spectators is 2,000 seats.[4] Within the same building there is a recreation center, a gym, a small swimming pool and a hotel named Taš.
| Date | Home Team | Result | Away Team | Occasion | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 29 May 1964 | Belgrade Selection | 51—98 |  NBA All-Stars | NBA All-Stars' Yugoslav Tour | — Belgrade: Slobodan Gordić (10 points), Radivoj Korać (20p), Trajko Rajković (4p), Miodrag Nikolić, Miloš Bojović (4p), Vladimir Cvetković (4p), Nemanja Đurić (9p), Dragan Kovačić, Dragoslav Ražnatović, Dragutin Čermak, Tihomir Pavlović — NBA: Bill Russell (4 points), Bob Pettit (12p), Oscar Robertson (31p), Bob Cousy (6p), Jerry Lucas (26p), Tom Heinsohn (11p), Tom Gola (8p), coach Red Auerbach — attendance: ~8,500 — referees: Miroslav Minić and Obrad Belošević (both from Belgrade) — the May–June 1964 NBA All-Stars tour in Eastern Europe and North Africa was sponsored by the U.S. State Department and the eight NBA players were briefed by the Secretary of State Dean Rusk about what to expect and how to behave in countries where "they're likely to encounter anti-American sentiment".[9] — other than the two games in Belgrade, the NBA All-Stars tour stops in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia included Zagreb (1 June 1964), Karlovac (2 June), and Ljubljana (4 June). — in addition to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the NBA All-Stars tour included games in the Polish People's Republic, the Socialist Republic of Romania, and Egypt — 24-year-old Dragan Kovačić played the game for the Belgrade selection despite not playing his club basketball for a Belgrade-based club nor being from Belgrade. — 25-year-old Cincinnati Royals guard Oscar Robertson was named the NBA league MVP for the just completed 1963-64 season. — 35-year-old Boston College head coach Bob Cousy had already been retired from playing pro basketball for over a year at the time of the tour, which marked his temporary comeback to playing basketball. — K.C. Jones didn't play in the first game in Belgrade. | |
| 30 May 1964 | Belgrade Selection | 52—100 | NBA All-Stars | NBA All-Stars' Yugoslav Tour | — Belgrade: Slobodan Gordić (4 points), Radivoj Korać (16p), Nemanja Đurić (8p), Miodrag Nikolić, Josip Đerđa (6p), Dragan Kovačić (2p), Miloš Bojović (2p), Vladimir Cvetković (4p), Ratomir Vićentić, Dragoslav Ražnatović (8p), Dragutin Čermak (2p), Tihomir Pavlović — NBA: Bob Pettit (19 points), Bob Cousy (25p), Oscar Robertson (16p), Tom Heinsohn (16p), Jerry Lucas (22p), K.C. Jones (2p), coach Red Auerbach — attendance: ~5,000 — referees: Jovan Petrović and Dragaš Jakšić (both from Belgrade) — 26-year-old Josip Đerđa played the game for the Belgrade selection despite not playing his club basketball for a Belgrade-based club nor being from Belgrade. — Bill Russell and Tom Gola picked up small knocks in the first game in Belgrade and decided to sit out the second one. |
Over the decades, the open air stadium has hosted a variety of acts in late spring and summer from May to September: