{"id":4574,"date":"2016-10-25T21:46:54","date_gmt":"2016-10-25T21:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=4574"},"modified":"2016-10-25T21:46:54","modified_gmt":"2016-10-25T21:46:54","slug":"amsterdam-arena-largest-venue-with-roof-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/amsterdam-arena-largest-venue-with-roof-in-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Amsterdam ArenA – Largest Venue With Roof in Europe!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I visited the Amsterdam ArenA\u00a0last week, and joined a guided tour. It is the stadium of the Dutch Eredivisie\u00a0<\/em>(“Honor Division”, the Dutch Football Premier League) club AFC Ajax.\u00a0But it is more than that – much more. What? Read on…<\/p>\n

The largest stadion<\/em>\u00a0of the Netherlands<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Amsterdam ArenA\u00a0seats more than 53,000 people, making it\u00a0the largest\u00a0stadion\u00a0<\/em>(stadium) of the Netherlands. It was opened in 1996 by former\u00a0Koningin\u00a0<\/em>(Queen) Beatrix, and first\u00a0voetbalwedstrijden\u00a0<\/em>(football \/ soccer matches) were played. But the home to Ajax has a trick to it. It is much\u00a0more than a\u00a0voetbalstadion\u00a0<\/em>– it is the largest event venue with a roof in Europe. Within 18 minutes, the roof of the\u00a0stadion\u00a0<\/em>can be closed. This opens a world of possibilities!<\/p>\n

The first\u00a0optredens\u00a0<\/em>(gigs) by famous artists like Michael Jackson were organized there. The\u00a0stadion\u00a0<\/em>can be transformed into a huge event area for all kinds of events, including conferences, exhibitions, other sports…<\/p>\n

\"An

An optreden<\/em> by De Toppers, a Dutch band that draws a lot of people!<\/p><\/div>\n

Because it can be used as an entertainment venue of which the roof can be closed completely, it is the largest venue with a roof in Europe! (At least, so they claim)<\/p>\n

After such an event, the grass needs to be replaced. The grass is grown in Limburg, in the southernmost province of the Netherlands. This must be high quality grass, because it is used by many\u00a0voetbalclubs <\/i>(soccer clubs) all over Europe.<\/p>\n

De kleedkamers<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n

The <\/span>kleedkamers <\/span><\/i>(locker rooms) in the stadium couldn\u2019t be more different. While the one for the <\/span>thuisclub <\/span><\/i>(home club) Ajax is <\/span>luxe <\/span><\/i>(luxurious), the one for the <\/span>uitclub <\/span><\/i>(away club) is <\/span>saai <\/span><\/i>(boring), <\/span>simpel <\/span><\/i>(simple) and <\/span>kleurloos <\/span><\/i>(colorless). If you thought that the only advantage for the home club is on the grass, you are wrong!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"img_20160902_112135195\"

The kleedkamer<\/em> for the uitclub…<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

\"...

… and the kleedkamer for the thuisclub Ajax!<\/p><\/div>\n

The <\/span>thuisclub <\/span><\/i>has nice seats, one for each player, with each a locker and power outlet to charge their devices. The <\/span>uitclub <\/span><\/i>has wooden seats, and some power outlets here and there.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also the coach of the <\/span>thuisclub <\/span><\/i>has a huge advantage over his counterpart. The <\/span>thuisclub <\/span><\/i>has a gigantic touchscreen TV for all tactical <\/span>overwegingen <\/span><\/i>(deliberations) before the <\/span>wedstrijd <\/span><\/i>(match) and during the <\/span>pauze <\/span><\/i>(break). The coach of the <\/span>uitclub <\/span><\/i>only has a meager whiteboard with a pen!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"The

The Touchscreen TV of the Ajax coach!<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

The <\/span>uitclub <\/span><\/i>has only 10 showers at its disposal, whereas the <\/span>thuisclub <\/span><\/i>has 11 showers. We were not even allowed to see the showers and bathroom area of the <\/span>thuisclub<\/span><\/i>!<\/span><\/p>\n

De kleuren<\/i><\/b><\/h2>\n
\"img_20160902_113654059\"

The stadion<\/em>. Notice the different colors?<\/p><\/div>\n

The <\/span>kleuren <\/span><\/i>(colors) of Ajax are <\/span>rood <\/span><\/i>(red) and <\/span>wit <\/span><\/i>(white). Yet the\u00a0stadion\u00a0<\/em>seats have many different colors:\u00a0rood<\/i>, wit<\/i>, blauw <\/i>(blue), groen <\/i>(green), and geel <\/i>(yellow). Why?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When the stadium was built, it was actually an Olympic stadium, so the seats had the Olympic colors. The club is planning on changing them all to rood\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0wit<\/em>\u00a0– but changing tens of thousands of seats is quite an ordeal. There are rumors that they want to get it done before the game that will be played in the\u00a0stadion\u00a0<\/em>during the\u00a0Europees Kampioenschap\u00a0<\/em>(European Championship) in 2020. Let’s see!<\/p>\n

1972: The Big Five<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"img_20160902_115013108\"<\/p>\n

1971\/72 was the most successful\u00a0seizoen\u00a0<\/em>(season) of Ajax. With legendary players like Sjaak Swart (also known as “Mr Ajax”) and Johan Cruijff<\/a>, the team was unbeatable. They won the “Big Five”: They became\u00a0kampioen\u00a0<\/em>(champion) in the\u00a0Eredivisie\u00a0<\/em>(Honor Division, the First League in Dutch Football), the KNVB Beker\u00a0<\/em>(KNVB Cup – Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbalbond (Royal Dutch Football Federation)), the Europacup I\u00a0<\/em>(European Cup I, now the UEFA Champion’s League), and then won the\u00a0overall\u00a0Europacup<\/em>, and the\u00a0Wereldbeker\u00a0<\/em>(Intercontinental Cup).\u00a0In the entire season, they only lost one game! This incredible season is honored in the\u00a0stadion<\/em> with cool murals like on the picture above.<\/p>\n

Are you a fan of\u00a0voetbal<\/em>? Would you like to visit this\u00a0stadion<\/em>? Have you visited a\u00a0stadion\u00a0<\/em>similar to this one? Let me know in the comments below!<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

I visited the Amsterdam ArenA\u00a0last week, and joined a guided tour. It is the stadium of the Dutch Eredivisie\u00a0(“Honor Division”, the Dutch Football Premier League) club AFC Ajax.\u00a0But it is more than that – much more. What? Read on… The largest stadion\u00a0of the Netherlands The Amsterdam ArenA\u00a0seats more than 53,000 people, making it\u00a0the largest\u00a0stadion\u00a0(stadium) of…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":4666,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[60713,27711],"tags":[445007,3592,445008,406652,2143,147,9617],"class_list":["post-4574","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture-2","category-dutch-vocabulary-2","tag-ajax","tag-amsterdam","tag-amsterdam-arena","tag-cruijff","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-voetbal"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4574"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4668,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4574\/revisions\/4668"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}