<\/p>\n

Key facts<\/h3>\n

Club: FC Twente | Opening: 1998 | Capacity: 30,000 seats<\/p>\n

History and description<\/h3>\n

The Grolsch Veste replaced FC Twente’s old Diekman Stadion, which had been built in 1965, but lacked facilities and could not meet modern standards.<\/p>\n

Construction of the Grolsch Veste, then still called Arke Stadion, started in January 1997. The Arke Stadion officially opened on the 10th of May 1998 with a league match between Twente and PSV Eindhoven (3-0).<\/p>\n

The stadium could initially hold 14,000 spectators and from the beginning consistently sold out. It therefore did not take long for Twente to start making plans for an expansion.<\/p>\n

In 2007, works started to add a second tier to half of the stadium in the shape of an L-shape, which increased capacity to 24,000 seats. Works finished one year later, and at the same time the club changed the name to Grolsch Veste, after local beer brewer Grolsch.<\/p>\n

The Grolsch Veste continued to sell out, and Twente therefore quickly decided to execute the second stage of the plans and expand capacity to 30,000.<\/p>\n

Works were to be finished in the summer of 2011, however a few weeks before completion the roof structure collapsed, leading to the death of two construction workers. Works were halted, the incident investigated, and after a delay of a few months construction continued and was completed in October 2011.<\/p>\n

Twente had tentative plans to extend the stands to pitch level and complete the second tier over the entire stadium, resulting in a capacity of 44,000, however these seem to have been put on hold for the moment.<\/p>\n

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