Feyenoord eyes land near De Kuip stadium

Image: Feyenoord Stadium, Валерий Дед, CC BY 3.0

Dutch Eredivisie club Feyenoord is looking to acquire land around its De Kuip stadium to facilitate future expansion plans.

Rijnmond said Feyenoord and Stadion Feijenoord, the operating company of De Kuip, have been closely involved in drawing up an ‘ambition document’ for the land which will be presented to Rotterdam city council in the coming months.

Feyenoord want to claim the space around De Kuip after plans for a Feyenoord City development and a new stadium were dropped. The new document sets out how the area around the football stadium in Zuid could now be developed.

Feyenoord Rotterdam is a Dutch professional football club based in Rotterdam, Netherlands, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier of Dutch football.

The 51,117-capacity Stadion Feijenoord, more commonly known by its nickname De Kuip, is a stadium in Rotterdam, Netherlands. It serves as the home facility of Feyenoord Rotterdam.

Despite the decision that there will be no new football stadium on the Maas, because this turned out to be unfinanceable, the area around the current stadium will be developed with new affordable housing and other improvements.

And as it has become clear that Feyenoord will play in De Kuip for at least another 10-15 years, a renovation of the stadium could be on the cards.

Feyenoord and Stadion Feijenoord recently announced plans to join forces so that the municipality and other parties involved will be able to talk to one party about any such future plans.

There is no more room for new construction in the area unless it is at the location of De Kuip. Because of the monumental status of the stadium, this is not an easy task.

And so a major renovation seems a more logical option. But even for this, according to previous plans, space around the current stadium is needed.

The management of Feyenoord agrees. According to director Lilian de Leeuw, the Stadium Triangle has been drawn up based on the input of ‘the largest party’ in the area.

She said, “We need to make sure that we protect our business as much as possible. Continuity of the stadium is of course not only financial, but it is also about mobility and solutions.”

Feyenoord has hired specialised real estate consultants who will help to map everything out and ensure that the area remains suitable for football matches, also in the long term.

Financial director Pieter Smorenburg is optimistic that space can be retained in the area for further stadium development.

He said, “It is also in everyone’s interest that football is well catered for. Feyenoord is of course also very important for the city.

“It’s not just those 45,000 people who sit here in the stands every two weeks. It’s also about the one to two million people who call themselves Feyenoord supporters and the employment it provides.”

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