A fight for souls? Sport in socialist Polish cities - the case of Kraków, Łódź and Wrocław

The article examines relations between sport and socialist authority in a context of urban space. The focus is put on the role played by sport in 1945-1989 in Poland, influence of national and urban policies on sport infrastructure, types of sport facilities and their location in urban space within this period. Historical maps of Krakow, Lodz and Wroclaw, history of these cities and sport clubs located there were analysed. After the World War II big Polish cities experienced heavy urbanisation, industrialisation and population inflow. Sport became a factor integrating new, diverse society. Furthermore, it was used as an instrument of propaganda by socialist authorities. The authors give examples of positive and negative effects of state intervention into sport. Among positive aspects the growth in participation in amateur sport and development of sport infrastructure can be mentioned, whereas lack of modernisation of sport facilities, favouritism of certain sport clubs, closures or changes of names of the others, as well as forced transfers of players are some of negative effects. The authors present the distribution of sport infrastructure in urban space and diverse tempo of its development. Particularly intense investments into sport infrastructure took place in 50’s, 60’s and 80’s in Krakow, in 70’s in Wroclaw, as well as in 1956-1960 and 70’s in Lodz . The main determinants of new objects localization were: city level politics, network of formerly built facilities (old cores of concentration, settlement patterns), vast spaces (especially in the context of large sport complexes). Unequal distribution of sport objects and diverse accessibility (especially concerning settlements built in 70’s and 80’s) contradict the socialist postulate of sport’s universality. The shortages of sport infrastructure are reflected in the contemporary “space of sport” of Polish cities