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Key facts<\/h3>\n

Club: NEC Nijmegen | Opening: 1939 | Capacity: 12,500 seats<\/p>\n

History and description<\/h3>\n

The Goffertstadion, often abbreviated to “De Goffert”, opened on 8 July 1939, and was at that time the third largest stadium of the Netherlands (behind\u00a0De Kuip<\/a> and Amsterdam\u2019s Olympic Stadium).<\/p>\n

The stadium had been built during the crisis years by thousands of unemployed. As the stadium was built in a den that the workers had to dig out without machinery, it quickly earned itself the nickname bloedkuul (\u201cden of blood\u201d).<\/p>\n

The Gofferstadion was a project of the city of Nijmegen, but when it was completed both local clubs Quick and NEC refused to play at it as they already had their own stadium and did not want to pay any rent for the Goffert.<\/p>\n

It therefore took until 1942 for the first match to be played at the Goffert, the local derby, and only after NEC\u2019s home ground got damaged in the last year of the Second World War, the club permanently moved to the Goffert.<\/p>\n

NEC was never really happy at their new home though. The stadium had the reputation of being cold and lacking soul, and the cycling tracks created a large distance between fans and players. This was especially true in less successful years when the club found it hard to fill the 30,000-stadium, and often not even attracted 5,000 fans.<\/p>\n

By the 1990s, it became increasingly clear that a new or redeveloped stadium would be necessary for the survival of the club, but initial plans were never realised.<\/p>\n

Safety measures had already reduced capacity to about 10,000 places, and the upcoming seats-only requirement would have resulted in a capacity of just 5,000 seats.<\/p>\n

In 1998, plans for a complete redevelopment of the stadium finally got approved, and the new stadium opened on 25 January 2000 with a friendly between NEC and Belgian side Anderlecht (3-1).<\/p>\n

In recent years, NEC has contemplated expanding the stadium with a second tier, however lack of funding has so far prevented the execution of these plans.<\/p>\n\n\n \t\t\n\t\t\t\t

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(photos of the present Goffertstadion below)<\/p>\n

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