New SC Cambuur stadium: Designed in collaboration with supporters

Eredivisionist SC Cambuur is getting a new stadium. The club from Leeuwarden will move from its old spot on the west side of the city to the eastern part, where the WTC, the Elfstedenhal, large supermarkets and catering establishments are located. With the stadium, the club increases its capacity by some 5,000 seats to almost 15,000. ROC Friese Poort will also get a branch in the complex. The educational institution will rent 7,500 m2 and house a number of MBO courses and board and administrative functions. The official opening is planned for the middle of next year. Van Wijnen is developing and building the stadium, which has been designed by Widdershoven Architects.

With the move to a new stadium, SC Cambuur wants to take the next step as a club. Sierd Dijkman, Operations Manager for SC Cambuur: "As a club, we want to become a stable Eredivisie player and to achieve that, we will have to increase our budget to around € 15 million. That is simply impossible in our current stadium given the facilities for our supporters and sponsors. Moreover, the new location is a more logical place because there is more intensive use of space due to the contribution of the ROC, there is more parking space and traffic can be handled better. For the latter, intersections will be adjusted."

Edgar van Perlo, who is supervising the construction on behalf of SC Cambuur from Ons Project as advisor and project manager, explains that the process for a new stadium started over ten years ago. "They are long trajectories with many stakeholders and you want and need to take that into account. Meanwhile, a lot changes in ten years in terms of regulations, guidelines, wishes and requirements, energy prices and you name it. Along the way, for example, it has been decided to fill the roofs of the stands with solar panels and we are still considering energy storage."

Architect Ludo Widdershoven walked much of the process. "Everyone could have a say. Supporters from all stands (including the hard core, of course), sponsors, disabled people: all sections of the club were involved in determining the layout and atmosphere of the stadium. The result is a new stadium that, like its predecessor, will again have open corners with high lighting columns that will be visible from afar, with real grass and an English atmosphere. The latter is mainly achieved by the four separate stands that extend onto the field. Both were an express wish of the stadium advisory committee, which has had the opportunity to contribute ideas on behalf of the supporters on almost all important issues surrounding the stadium. The open corners are also nice squares where you can organize cool things for supporters. These are recognizable by the white-yellow-blue slats."

The new stadium will be multifunctional. Dijkman: "The main entrance to the stadium will be on the west side, where the club offices, business club, skyboxes and press stand are also located. Below the north stand will be a commercial plinth with our supporters' home and offices above it. A large part of the south side is for ROC Friese Poort and on the east side there will be retail on the first floor under the walkway. It was the wish of SC Cambuur and the municipality to get a stadium that is not only lively on game days. There is always something happening here. Additional cross-pollination has been built in with the ROC because courses such as security and external care have common ground with the club. We also share spaces, such as a canteen and command room, we provide internships and other collaborations are in the pipeline."  

The stadium is largely constructed with precast concrete elements (beams, columns, front walls, hollow-core slabs and stands) and steel structures for the four roofs and the light poles. Because standardization and the combination with the ROC benefits from common frameworks, Widdershoven worked out almost everything in multiples of 1.80 meters. "Haitsma Beton has done research into the span sizes in stadiums and from this 10.80 meters turned out to be the most optimal for foundations and stands, also financially. And since we also designed the shell and hull for the ROC, this size was ideal; you can easily fit offices and classrooms in there as well. With the standard prefab tribune elements you build cost-efficiently. We don't build for a club with a big purse. Most stands are constructed from elements 1,080 cm wide, 80 cm deep and 40 cm high, with the depth being determined by the seat size. Business seats are larger and rest on 90-cm deep beams." The roof rests on trusses. These are supported on the low side on weighted concrete columns of the building and on a steel structure on the sides. The view of the field is column-free throughout, entirely in accordance with UEFA and FIFA sightline calculations.

The finish of the stadium is pretty straightforward, but in keeping with the club's DNA. Van Perlo explains: "No excessive frills or extra adornment, that doesn't suit SC Cambuur. We are taking sustainability into account as much as possible, because that is also an important pillar of the new stadium. According to us, a soccer club should be at the center of society and we like to promote sustainability and circularity. In this complex we will use rainwater for toilet flushing, urinals will be waterless where possible, for sprinkling the field we will use rainwater and shower water - a Frisian invention - and as insulation material we want to use hemp from the region. There will be a circularity route in which we will make all solutions visible. In this way we want to share this aspect with all sections of society. That too is part of our DNA."

Ideally, supporters would have preferred to move the old stadium entirely to the new site. However, a number of recognizable parts will move with them. Dijkman: "The old fencing will return in the new building, for example as a room divider or as part of the bar in the supporters' home. In this way there remains contact with the past. It is an example of working together to make something beautiful out of it. Partly because you have an ambition and a goal together, and despite the challenges of our time, supporters and sponsors remain enthusiastic and continue to think and participate. I get an enormous amount of positive energy from that."