Grolsch Stadium, phase I

Grolsch Stadium (‘Grolsch Veste’), phase I

FC Twente Stadion BV

2006 - 2009

Stadium (re)Development

FC Twente has expressed its ambition and goal to structurally end at the top-6 ranking clubs of the Eredivisie and  participate at least every other year in a European competition. To achieve this it, is necessary to increase the club’s budget by increasing the capacity of the stadium. The Grolsch Veste (still called Arke Stadium upon start of the project) had a capacity of 13’500 seats. Within the prevailing environmental and planning permits the maximum capacity can amount 25’000 seats maximum. Since the club wants to grow over that capacity in the future, it was recommended by TSC to construct a 2nd tier on top of only two of the existing stands, so that the other two stands can be extended in the near future.  In this way the capacity has been increased to 24’000 seats. Furthermore TSC made the recommendation to change the main stand, creating new technical areas, VIP and sponsor facilities and media facilities but at the same time maintaining the old faciluties. In this way the new stadium will be fully compliant with UEFA’s Elite Requirements and will it be possible to create new sponsor segments and improve the facilities for all target groups.
The development phase of the project lasted 14 months only and after 8 months of construction the stadium was used for the first official match. Although the safety certificate was issued not all facilities, such as VIP and sponsor areas, were completely finished. After another 4 months all stadium facilities were fully operational.

TSC developed the concept for the stadium extension, consisting of:

• The business plan;
• The program of requirements; and
• The conceptual design.

After the approval of the definition stage, TSC became the client representative for FC Twente responsible for:

• Managing the design team (architect, M&E design and engineering, structural design and specialist consultants);
• Managing the building contractor, project supervisors and site managers;
• The entire process of obtaining the required planning and environmental permits, including commissioning and managing specialist environmental and mobility research;
• Managing the project on the aspects time, budget, quality, organization and information;
• Assessing and recommending  functional, technical and organisational solutions to the client;
• Stadium commissioning and handover;
• Reporting to the Board of FC Twente ’65.

Redevelopment,  stadium extension, concept development, business plan, program of requirements, financial engineering, project management, client representation, permits & procedures, stadium commissioning and handover.