AFAS-Stadion
- AZ Alkmaar
- Games of AZ Alkmaar
The AFAS Stadium is a football stadium in the southeastern city of Alkmaar, North Holland province just off the A9. In it the Dutch first division side AZ Alkmaar plays its home games.
History
The stadium was opened after one and a half years of construction on 4 August 2006. The first match in the new stadium, a friendly match against Arsenal, Alkmaar lost with 0:3. The capacity is 17,000 seats, but if necessary, the stadium can be expanded to 30,000 seats. The total cost amounted to 38 million euros. The plans were drawn by architects Zwarts & Jansma architecten, which has already planned several new stadiums in the Netherlands. For the playing surface is a mixture of rolling and artificial turf was used. The stadium was substantially financed by Dirk shear Inga, the founder and owner of DSB Bank.
In October 2009, the DSB Bank went bankrupt and was taken over by the Dutch central bank, De Nederlandsche Bank. On November 4, we removed the lettering DSB Stadium in the venue. Since then, the stadium was called AZ Stadium. In August 2010 it was announced that the company AFAS ERP Software is the new main sponsor of the club. In addition to the shirt sponsorship for three years the stadium for at least five years will be renamed to AFAS Stadium.
Fire in the stadium
During the game, AZ against the Greek team Atromitos Athens on August 29, 2013 in the playoff round of the UEFA Europa League 2013/14 broke in the roof of the stadium from a fire. The game was first interrupted in the 59th minute with the score at 0-1 and later canceled the evacuation due to the thick smoke. This was due to a short circuit in the floodlights. The firefighters brought the fire under control and nobody was injured. The rest of the season was made up the following morning.
Gallery
Panoramic view of the interior, December 2007
Side view of the AFAS Stadium, Nov. 2007