I always loved the old Olympic stadium in A'dam. I have a soft spot for that kind of decay, and the atmosphere before games was always special. Besides, I was a lot younger back then... So it all made a big impression on me
Was watching TV yesterday afternoon and wondered about the Parkstad Limburg stadium. Never actually been there. How about you? I am pondering about a groundhopping trip that combines visits to Roda JC, Alemannia Aachen and Standard Luik. I curse myself for not having seen Aachen play in their old stadium. Mönchengladbach as well.
The one German stadium that I really like is the one where Kaiserslautern plays. When I was over in Utrecht in the late 1970s my Amsterdam cousin and I went over to watch a match there. It's up on a hilltop overlooking the town: http://www.stadiumguide.com/fritzwalter.htm
Worst stadium for me : Arena. Hate it with a passion. Best ever stadium ( for obvious biased reasons ): Olympic stadium Those were the days.... Skip to around 0:40. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deLDSmlJ5JU"]YouTube - Ajax - Parma (Mar 3, 1994)[/ame]
Never been at the Betzenberg. Ought to have been though. Friend of mine lives in the area. I remember uhm...the US and Italy playing a rather brutal match at the Betzenberg four years ago?...(I assume someone will correct me if I'm wrong)
You got it right. 1-1 draw and two straight red cards and a third for a second yellow were issued. Our striker McBride took vicious elbow to the face from de Rossi and it's amazing that he was able to continue.
...and cause the game-winning goal to be called off because he was interfering with play in an offside position.
Does anyone know which stadiums are expanding right now? I know Heerenveen wants to expand to 29.000 later this year, Twente is currently expanding to 30.000. Groningen still wants to expand to ~27.000, but no date yet.
Yes, they can use all the €s they make in profit from the sales of players to fund the stadium. Of course they will also quickly be relegated and spend 40 years wandering in the wilderness. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
No silly, I was responding to him saying that the ArenA is #1. The infrastructure around the ArenA is second to none in Holland, so it should come as no surprise that we've been granted another European final. News broke out today that Utrecht's stadium is partly bankrupt. People were confused and thought Galgenwaard was the one with the collapsed roof, but it looks like Utrecht will be in serious trouble. Ajax were the 1st club to show respect on their website in response to what happened in Enschede. http://www.ajax.nl/Nieuws/Nieuwsarchief/Nieuws-artikel/Drama-bij-FC-Twente-na-instorten-dak.htm Ajax supporters have asked our club to offer the ArenA as venue for Twente's 1st round qualifying game for the CL, but Vitesse's Gelredome will most likely be their desired destination should it come this far (they used the Gelredome before in the past). Because of the news of both Galgenwaard and Grolsch Veste today I thought my post was better suited for this thread.
Heracles Almelo will be getting a new stadium. They will receive a €15M loan from the city of Almelo to construct a 15.000 people stadium. Right now their capacity is 8.500. I think this is nice news for a club that has successfully taken steps upwards in Dutch football. Their chairmen Jan Smit has shown excellent management in this process. He's like a sympathetic version of Joop Munsterman.
It´s great that the Twente region has two football clubs of significance. Especially considering how full of cows and exempt of modern comforts like electricity it is. You do have to wonder where all the people would come from to fill both the Twente and Heracles stadiums. I mean there´s only villages there right. Does this mean the entire population of Twente has to show up on matchday to fill these stadiums? These are the things I wonder about.
Well, as you often claimed the clubs have "outgrown" their region. I believe that's true. Hoffenheim is as well a little village, still have a large support. Or Heerenveen in the Netherlands...
I was being sarcastic. Twente has a population of almost a million, and especially with Twente having a growing fanbase in the Achterhoek and Drenthe province, there´s plenty of room for two clubs in a football mad region. I wish Heracles the best of luck. But I don´t think the feeling is mutual mind.
Both Rotterdam and Amsterdam have didged their plans to build/expand their stadiums. Rotterdam and Feyenoord lack the resources to build the new Feyenoord Stadium. Especially the cost of the place where it was planned to be built was expensive, 170 million€€. Also the economic situation now isnot helpful too. The management of the Arena in Amsterdam didged their plans to expand it to a 85000 seater. It cost a lot and it doesnot bring in much more money, the management said. Even a more modest plan of 65000 wasnot profitable.
Why would you say the Arena is too big? It's sold out almost every single game. They should fill up the moats with seats.
I see a lot of empty seats in the stadium for many games. I agree with filling the moat - get the seats closer to the pitch.
The fact that there's nobody sitting there doesn't mean that the seat isn't sold. Especially in August when a lot of people are vacationing abroad. Ajax has 42663 season ticket holders and there's a waiting list. We could probably fill a 70k stadium.
Despite that the Arena mangement state it is unprofitable. Maybe they can send me their number crunching, so I can judge the calculations.
It's only the games against bottom tier clubs where most season ticket holders don't bother showing up for when the weather or other factors are less favourable to travel. Ajax have the most packed stadium in the country, not even de Kuip can match as feyenoordsoccerfan will reluctantly tell you. Their ticket sales have gradually gone down over the years. The reason why they wanted the ArenA to expand is because of the growth in visitors unlike in Rotterdam where they are in dire need of a new stadium. It's because of the lack of funds and structure and roof of the buillding which prevents them for expanding it (ArenA however is currently re-structuring (making it bigger) the main entrance building. Heineken Music Hall is basicly next to the ArenA, but they've already started on the Ziggo Dome and have plans of expanding Pathe Arena to cope with the number of extra visitors. One of the key reasons why Rotterdam needs a new stadium is because almost all concerts are now being held in Amsterdam and Arnhem so de Kuip is missing out on a lot of revenues.