King Baudouin Stadium

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The Heysel Stadium was a sports ground in north-west Brussels, Belgium. It was inaugurated on August 23, 1930 (days after Belgium's 100th anniversary) as the Stade du Jubilé (Jubilee Stadium) in the presence of Prince Leopold. It was built to embellish the Heysel plateau in view of the 1935 World's Fair. The stadium hosted 70,000 at the time. A wooden track for cycling races was later added around the lawn.

After World War II the stadium was progressively called Heysel Stadium. It hosted European Cup finals in 1958, 1966, 1974, and 1985 and Cup Winners' Cup finals in 1964, 1976, and 1980. The highest attendance at a European game was over 66,000 in 1958. Following the disaster of May 29 1985, the ground was only used for athletics and it still hosts the Memorial Van Damme every year.

A decade after the disaster the ground was rebuilt and renamed at a cost of BEF 1,500 million (around $50 million in 1995). As the Koning Boudewijnstadion/ Stade Roi Baudouin (English: King Baudouin Stadium) it combined the football ground with a running track and facilities for field events. It was re-opened on August 23, 1995 as the stadium for the national team and is the largest stadium in Belgium; it can seat 50,000 spectators. It hosted the opening game for Euro 2000.

On May 26, 2006 the Belgian Football Association decided not to use King Baudouin Stadium anymore for the national team home matches and for the Cup final, because the gates of stand one were too narrow and the stadium was unsafe in general. The next match of the national team were thus planned at the Constant Vanden Stock Stadium. Because of this, the city of Brussels issued a complaint that the stadium was safe in contrary to the reports and this complaint was ruled to be correct in court. On October 6 2006, the KBVB/URBSFA met with representatives of the city of Brussels and together they agreed to renew the contract and extend it to June 30, 2008. From November 15 2006 against Poland national football team on, the Belgian national football team will play in the King Baudouin Stadium again.

[edit] External links

Stades mystiques - Stade du Heysel French

Maps and aerial photos Coordinates: 50.8956° 4.3344°
- Satellite image from WikiMapia or Google Maps
- Street map from Multimap or GlobalGuide
- Aerial image from TerraServer

(French) Belgian FA official website - history

Euro 2000 venues
Image:Flag of the Netherlands.svg Netherlands	Amsterdam ArenA (Amsterdam) - Gelredome (Arnhem) Philips Stadion (Eindhoven) - De Kuip (Rotterdam)
Image:Flag of Belgium.svg Belgium	Jan Breydel Stadion (Bruges) - King Baudouin Stadium (Brussels) Stade du Pays de Charleroi (Charleroi) - Stade Maurice Dufrasne (Liège)

Preceded by: Santiago Bernabéu Madrid	European Cup Final Venue 1958	Succeeded by: Neckarstadion Stuttgart
Preceded by: San Siro Milan	European Cup Final Venue 1966	Succeeded by: Estádio Nacional nr. Lisbon
Preceded by: Stadion Crvena Zvezda Belgrade	European Cup Final Venue 1974	Succeeded by: Parc des Princes Paris
Preceded by: Stadio Olimpico Rome	European Cup Final Venue 1985	Succeeded by: Sánchez Pizjuán Seville