AFAS Stadion is a stadium in

Alkmaar Alkmaar () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands, located in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland. Alkmaar is well known fo ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. It is used for

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

matches and is the home stadium of

AZ Alkmaar Alkmaar Zaanstreek (), better known internationally as AZ Alkmaar, or simply and most commonly as AZ () in the Netherlands, is a Dutch professional Association football, football club from Alkmaar and the Zaan#The Zaan district, Zaan district. ...

. AZ's women's team also plays select matches in the stadium. The stadium is able to hold 19,478 people and bears the name of a Dutch software company. Due to UEFA's sponsorship regulations, the stadium is named AZ Stadion in European matches.

History

The stadium officially opened on 4 August 2006 with a friendly against

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

. AZ lost 3–0, with

Gilberto Silva Gilberto Aparecido da Silva (; born 7 October 1976) is a Brazilian former professional association football, footballer who played as a Midfielder#Defensive midfielder, defensive midfielder, most notably for Brazilian side Atlético Mineiro a ...

scoring the stadium's first ever goal. AZ won the first

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

game in its new home, 8–1 over

NAC Breda NAC Breda (), often simply known as NAC, is a Dutch professional football club, based in Breda, Netherlands. NAC Breda play in the Rat Verlegh Stadium, named after their most important player, Antoon 'Rat' Verlegh. They play in the Eredivisi ...

, with German midfielder

Simon Cziommer Simon Cziommer (; born 6 November 1980) is a German former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Career Since he joined FC Twente in 1999 he scored 28 goals for various clubs. He played in UEFA Cup and UEFA Champions League games, ...

scoring a hat-trick. AFAS Stadion replaced the club's former ground,

Alkmaarderhout Alkmaarderhout, locally known as "De Hout" ( Dutch for "the wood(s)"), in a city park in Alkmaar, North Holland, Netherlands. The park is one of the oldest city parks in the Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Ho ...

. The main stand is called Victorie Tribune, the stand with the fanatic supporters is called Van der Ben Tribune (Ben-Side), the stand behind the opposite goal is called the Alkmaarderhouttribune, in honour of the former stadium, and the stand opposite to the main stand is called Molenaar Tribune after the founders of AZ. Some supporters call the stadium Victorie Stadion, alluding to the victory over Spain in the

Siege of Alkmaar The siege of Alkmaar (1573) was a turning point in the Eighty Years' War. The burghers of the Dutch city of Alkmaar held off the Spanish (who had set up their camp in Oudorp) between 21 August and 8 October 1573, with boiling tar and burning ...

in 1573 during the

Eighty Years' War The Eighty Years' War or Dutch Revolt (; 1566/1568–1648) was an armed conflict in the Habsburg Netherlands between disparate groups of rebels and the Spanish Empire, Spanish government. The Origins of the Eighty Years' War, causes of the w ...

. To further grow the club's budget, the AZ board decided to increase the stadium's capacity to 30,000 seats. This would be achieved by adding a second tier to three of the four stands, leaving the Victorie Tribune untouched. Construction was planned for second half of 2010, but was delayed indefinitely after the club's main sponsor and one of the main financial contributors to the project,

DSB Bank DSB Bank (''DSB: Dirk Scheringa Beheer'') was a Dutch bank and insurer that failed in 2009. Its loans were managed under ''Quion'' from June 2013 until June 2016 when ''Finqus'' began operating as the former DSB Bank. In 2018 ''Finqus BV'' took o ...

went bankrupt shortly before work started. On 10 August 2019, the roof of the stadium partially collapsed. No people were injured during the incident. As a result, AZ spent the rest of the year playing home matches at the

Cars Jeans Stadion The Bingoal Stadion is a multi-use stadium in The Hague, Netherlands, designed by Zwarts & Jansma Architects. Completed in 2007, the stadium is used mostly for football and field hockey. It is the home stadium of ADO Den Haag and ADO Den Haag ...

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

. During the 2020–2021 season, the stadium was renovated. A new roof has been put into place with a greater surface and the capacity was increased to hold around 19,500 fans.

References

External links

*
The stadium on AZ official site
AZ Alkmaar Football venues in the Netherlands Multi-purpose stadiums in the Netherlands Sports venues in Alkmaar {{Netherlands-sports-venue-stub

History

See also

References

External links