King Baudouin Stadium
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| Former names |
Stade du Centenaire or Jubelstadion (1930–1946) Stade du Heysel or Heizelstadion (1946–1995) |
|---|---|
| Location | Brussels, Belgium |
| Capacity | 50,093 |
| Record attendance | 64,073 (Anderlecht-Dundee, 6 March 1963) |
| Field size | 106 m × 66 m (348 ft × 217 ft) |
| Surface | Grass |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 23 August 1930 |
| Renovated | 1995 (€37 million) |
| Tenants | |
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Union SG (2016-2017) Belgium national rugby union team Royal Excelsior Sports Club de Bruxelles (Athletics) |
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The King Baudouin Stadium (French: Stade Roi Baudouin, Dutch: Koning Boudewijnstadion) is a sports ground in north-west Brussels, Belgium. It was inaugurated on 23 August 1930. Crown Prince Leopold attended the opening ceremony. Located in the Heysel section of the Brussels municipality, it was built to embellish the Heysel plateau in view of the 1935 Brussels International Exposition. The stadium hosted 70,000 at the time. A wooden track for cycling races was later added around the pitch.
The original name was Jubilee Stadium (French: Stade du Centenaire, Dutch: Jubelstadion) because it was inaugurated days after Belgium's 100th anniversary, with an unofficial Belgium-Netherlands football match. In 1946 the stadium was renamed Heysel Stadium (French: Stade du Heysel, Dutch: Heizelstadion). It hosted European Cup finals in 1958, 1966, 1974, and 1985 and Cup Winners' Cup finals in 1964, 1976 and 1980. The highest attendance at a European game was over 66,000 in 1958.
Despite its status as Belgium's national stadium, Heysel was not well maintained. By the time of the 1985 European Cup Final, it was in a very poor state. For example, the outer wall had been made of cinder block, and fans who did not have tickets were seen kicking holes in it to get in. The abject stadium conditions, along with poor crowd control procedures and football hooliganism are widely considered to have contributed to the Heysel Stadium disaster, which resulted in the deaths of 39 spectators before the match. Following the disaster, the ground was only used for athletics (track and field) and it still hosts the Memorial Van Damme every year.
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