Stadion Feijenoord

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Leen van Zandvliet, Feyenoord's president in the 1930s, came up with the idea of building an entirely new stadium, unlike any other on the continent, with two free hanging tiers and no obstacles blocking the view. Contemporary examples were Highbury, where the West and East stands had been recently built as a double deck, and Yankee Stadium in New York. Johannes Brinkman and Leendert van der Vlugt, the famous designers of the Van Nelle factory in Rotterdam were asked to design a stadium out of glass, concrete and steel, cheap materials at that time. The stadium was co-financed by the billionaire Daniël George van Beuningen, who made his fortune in World War I, exporting coal from Germany to Britain through neutral Netherlands. In World War II, the stadium was nearly torn down for scrap by German occupiers. After the war, the stadium's capacity was expanded in 1949; stadium lights were added in 1958. On 29 October 1991, De Kuip was named as being one of Rotterdam's monuments. In 1994 the stadium was extensively renovated to its present form: It became all-seater, and the roof was extended to cover all the seats. An extra building was constructed for commercial use by Feyenoord, it also houses a restaurant and a museum, The Home of History.

In Their Own Story

The rain slicks the grass of the pitch as the floodlights hum to life over the Feijenoord district. Inside De Kuip, the air is thick with anticipation and the smell of damp earth mixed with cheap beer. Thousands of voices merge into a single roar, shaking the concrete stands that have held them for nearly a century. A young boy, wearing his father's faded yellow scarf, grips the railing, eyes wide as the team jogs out onto the turf. The anthem begins, not sung by a choir, but by the people themselves, a raw, powerful sound that echoes off the curved walls of the bathtub. In this moment, history isn't just read in books; it is felt in the vibration of the ground beneath their feet.

Reader's Guide

De Kuip is currently the home stadium of football club Feyenoord, traditionally one of the top teams in the Netherlands. It has also long been one of the home grounds of the Netherlands national football team, having hosted over 150 international matches, the first international match at the stadium was a match against Belgium on 2 May 1937. In 1963, De Kuip staged the final of the European Cup Winners' Cup, with Tottenham Hotspur becoming the first British club to win a European trophy, defeating Atlético Madrid 5–1. The stadium has hosted a record ten European finals, the last being the 2002 UEFA Cup Final in which Feyenoord, coincidentally playing a home match, defeated Borussia Dortmund 3–2. In 2000, the Feijenoord stadium hosted the final of Euro 2000, played in the Netherlands and Belgium, where France defeated Italy 2–1 in extra time. The stadium also hosted the 2023 UEFA Nations League Final.

Did You Know?

• The stadium's original capacity was 64,000. In 1949, it was expanded to 69,000, and in 1994 it was converted to a 51,117-seat all-seater.
• In 1999, a significant amount of restoration and interior work took place at the stadium before its use as a venue in the UEFA Euro 2000 tournament, although capacity was largely unaffected.
• The first concert at De Kuip was headlined by Bob Dylan, with special guest Eric Clapton, on 23 June 1978.
• In April 2024, the municipality of Rotterdam announced that with the construction of new houses nearby concerts would no longer take place at De Kuip beginning in 2026, to eliminate noise pollution in the area. Three con