Zeidler Miklós: Sporting Spaces - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2000)

Growing public interest resulted in the continual extension of the terraces around the field. This was also necessitated by the fact that a long series of gymnastic and athletic competitions as well as bicycle races and first-division football matches and, with one exception, all the international games played by the Hungarian side between 1903 and 1911 were also held here.

Continuous maintenance was, however, prevented by the war and the slump which followed, which is why the terraces had become dangerous by 1925. Cyclists were soon tempted by the newly inaugurated wooden track in Újpest to cross the border of the capital. The reconstruction of the Millenary could not be postponed any longer. Alfréd Hajós and Aladár Mattyók, the two most prolific sports architects of the era, were commissioned to prepare plans for the work. Work on the site was begun in 1927, and by 8 July 1928 the masterpiece, one of the fastest bicycle tracks in Europe, had been completed. Shortened to 415 metres, the track was given quality concrete paving. The angles of tilting—1 2 degrees in the straight stretches and 38.9 degrees in the curves-were designed for speeds reaching 100 to 110 kilometres an hour. The grandstand in the home straight, extant to this day, had also been built at the time and the circular concrete terraces had been extended to seat an additional 11,000 spectators. The complex continued to host football games and athletic events, and in winter the concrete trough was filled with water, which, when frozen, was used as a skating rink by club members and the public at large. With its reconstruction the Millenary won the right to organise the bicycle world championship of 1928, beating its rival Újpest. The wooden track of the latter club was in fact soon pulled down.

After another fine period, competitions began once again to disappear from the Millenary during the wartime years. At the time of the siege a logistics unit was billeted here, while the dressing rooms were used as a shelter by cyclists hiding from the authorities. The concrete trough was hit by a series of artillery shells of various strength, the covered grandstand was made to sag by three aerial bomb blasts, and the running track was pock-marked with ugly holes at the end of the war.

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