Abe Lenstra Stadion
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| Full name | Abe Lenstra Stadion |
|---|---|
| Location | Heerenveen, Netherlands |
| Owner | Sportstad Heerenveen |
| Capacity | 26,800 |
| Surface | Grass |
| Scoreboard | Yes |
| Construction | |
| Built | 1993 |
| Opened | 20 August 1994 |
| Architect | Alynia Architecten Harlingen bv |
| Tenants | |
| SC Heerenveen | |
Abe Lenstra Stadion (Dutch pronunciation: [ˌaːbə ˈlɛnstraː ˌstaːdijɔn]) is a football stadium in Heerenveen, Netherlands. It is currently used mostly as a home ground for Eredivisie club Heerenveen. The current capacity is 26,100.
The stadium is named after Abe Lenstra, generally considered to be the greatest Heerenveen player in the history of the club. Abe was born on 27 November 1920 in Heerenveen and joined the club aged 15 years. After almost 17 years at Heerenveen, he joined SC Enschede in 1954. He left this club in 1960 to join SC Enschede's archrival Enschedese Boys. In 1963 he stopped playing football at the age of 42. In total he scored 700 goals in about 730 matches. Abe died on 2 September 1985, he was 64 years old, at the eve of what was to become the only international match to be played in the community sportspark that was to become the (old) Abe Lenstrastadium.
The construction of the stadium started in 1993. The plan was to build a stadium with open corners, but when the construction was well underway the club decided to close the gaps. At the time the building was finished, it had a maximum capacity of 14,500.
On 20 August 1994 the stadium was officially opened by Prince Willem-Alexander of the Dutch royal family. He made the symbolic first kick-off in this stadium. After the opening the first match started between SC Heerenveen and PSV Eindhoven. At the time Ronaldo played at PSV, this match was his first one in Europe.
Because SC Heerenveen kept growing and the results were getting better every year, the club planned the first expansion of the stadium in 2002. The capacity of the stadium was almost doubled to 26,100 seats.
Throughout the years empty spots in the stadium were filled with seats. Together with some other changes in the stadium the number of seats increased to the current 26,800.
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