Extreme Football Tourism: 2007

Gemeentelijk Sportpark Aalsterweg / Jan Louwersstadion, Eindhoven (FC Eindhoven, formerly EVV Eindhoven / SC Eindhoven / SBV Eindhoven)

Netherlands, province: North Brabant

16 XI 2007 / FC Eindhoven - Go Ahead Eagles 2-0 / Eerste Divisie (= NL level 2)
28 III 2008 / FC Eindhoven - FC Emmen 2-3 / Eerste Divisie (= NL level 2)
11 XI 2008 / FC Eindhoven - AGOVV Apeldoorn 4-1 / Eerste Divisie (= NL level 2)

8 V 2009 / FC Eindhoven - BV Veendam 2-1 / Eerste Divisie (= NL level 2)
5 III 2010 / FC Eindhoven - FC Emmen 1-2 / Eerste Divisie (= NL level 2)
26 IV 2010 / FC Eindhoven - AGOVV Apeldoorn 1-0 / Eerste Divisie, promotion play-off (= NL level 2)
6 V 2010 / FC Eindhoven - Willem II 1-2 / Eredivisie & Eerste Divisie, promotion-relegation play-off (= NL levels 1 & 2)

17 III 2014 / Jong PSV - Willem II 2-2 / Eerste Divisie (= NL level 2)

9 VI 2022 / FC Eindhoven AV - RKVV Best Vooruit 1-3 A.E.T. / Sunday League 1C, promotion play-off (= NL level 6)

Timeline

1909 / Foundation of Eindhovense Voetbalvereeniging (EVV) as a merger of two older local clubs, Sparta and Eindhovia. EVV joins a local league, the so-called Brabantsche Voetbalbond.
± 1912 / Not meeting any serious competition in the Brabantsche Voetbalbond, EVV takes the decision to join the official Netherlands' Football Association.
1913 / Foundation of EVV's eternal rival club PSV. While PSV is firmly associated with Philips and Eindhoven's industrial elite, EVV has always remained a distinctly working-class club.
1921 / EVV merges with Gestel (not to be confused with vv Gestel) to become EVV Eindhoven.
1922 / EVV Eindhoven wins the title in Tweede Klasse, acceding to Eerste Klasse Zuid - Eerste Klasse being the highest level of the Netherlands' football pyramid at the time, subdivided into regional branches.
1934 / At Aalsterweg in Stratum, Eindhoven, a new stadium is built for EVV Eindhoven with a grandstand (some 500 seats) and horseshoe-shaped terracing offering some 20,000 spectators a view on the pitch, which is surrounded by a gravel track. On September 9th, 1934, this Gemeentelijk Sportpark Aalsterweg - situated on the same street as the club's former ground at St Joseph Ziekenhuis - is inaugurated with EVV taking on Ajax (with the club suffering a 8-2 defeat).
1937 / EVV Eindhoven wins its first silverware, as the club obtains the so-called Holdertbeker - as the Netherlands' Cup is called at the time. In the final, played at DWS's Sportterrein aan de Spaarndammerdijk in Amsterdam, EVV defeats AVV De Spartaan (Amsterdam), with Frits Kruger scoring the only goal of the match.
1939 / Finishing first in the southern branch of Eerste Klasse, EVV takes part in the national title play-offs for the first time, finishing fourth among five competing clubs.
1942 / EVV finishes second in the national title play-offs behind ADO (The Hague).
1953 / For a second time, EVV finishes second in the national title play-offs, with RCH (Heemstede) obtaining the title.
1954 / EVV Eindhoven achieves its first and only national title by winning the title play-offs against DOS (Utrecht), DWS (Amsterdam), and city rivals PSV. That same year, professional league football is introduced in the Netherlands, with EVV Eindhoven making the leap to the pro competitions.
1957 / Not being able to keep up with richer clubs - most notably PSV - after the introduction of professional league football, EVV Eindhoven drops out of the Eredivisie.
1969 / With the club's result worsening as the 1960s progressed, EVV Eindhoven finally suffers relegation to the Tweede Divisie, the third and lowest level of the professional league pyramid.
1971 / Abolition of the Tweede Divisie; as the Netherlands' Football Association forces the clubs in the second and third tiers of the professional league pyramid with the lowest number of spectators to return to non-league, EVV Eindhoven - in spite of its meagre results still a popular club in and around Eindhoven, and thus preserving its professional league status - earns the right of a place in the Eerste Divisie.
1975 / Winning the final match in the promotion play-offs 4-1 against FC Groningen, EVV Eindhoven unexpectedly makes a return to the Eredivisie after an absence of 18 years. Led by manager Rinus Gosens (1920-2008), the club saves its skin in the 1975-76 season. The following year, however, EVV finishes 17th, dropping back into the Eerste Divisie.
1981 / EVV Eindhoven's recreational teams, competing in non-league, are moved away from the side pitches of the stadium at Aalsterweg - more specifically the main side pitch situated on the spot occupied nowadays by Indoor Sportcentrum Eindhoven - to Sportpark Genneper Parken, where it settles down at that ground's southern half at Velddoornweg (sometimes referred to by the name of its clubhouse, 'De Weide Blick').
1988 / The professional league club EVV Eindhoven is renamed Sportclub (SC) Eindhoven - entailing, in effect, a formal separation between EVV's league and non-league branches.
1989 / The uncovered stand next to the grandstand at Gemeentelijk Sportpark Aalsterweg is replaced by a smaller, covered stand, which EVV Eindhoven purchases from non-league club vv De Spechten.
1990 / EVV finishes fifth in the Eerste Divisie, equalling the best result of the club at that level since the 1977 relegation - and destined not to be improved on for the following 22 years.
1993 / The terracing behind both goals is knocked down, with the northern side of the park henceforth remaining open, while a new open stand is erected behind the southern goal.
± 1993 / SC Eindhoven moves part of its youth academy to Sportpark Genneper Parken, in effect groundsharing with its non-league sister club.
1994 / Two new covered stands on both sides of the old main stand are inaugurated. The two new stands are named after two players of EVV's legendary 1954 team, Dick Snoek and Frans Tebak. This same year, the Gemeentelijk Sportpark Aalsterweg is officially renamed Jan Louwersstadion - Jan Louwers, also part of the 1954 team which crowned themselves league champions, generally considered the best player ever to have worn the blue and white of EVV.
1996 / The open stand behind the southern goal, named after Henk Bloemers (641 appearances in EVV's first team, 1964-84), is equipped with a roof.
1997 / SC Eindhoven changes its name to become SBV (Stichting Betaald Voetbal) Eindhoven.
1999 / Inauguration of the new covered stand opposite of the stadium's main stand. This new construction, which replaces the old terracing at the ground's eastern end, is named after Noud van Melis - another member of EVV's 1954 squad. The renovation works on the ground, also entailing the removal of the gravel track around the pitch, now having been completed, total capacity of the (all-seater) stadium is down to 4,373.
2002 / SBV Eindhoven adapts its name to become FC Eindhoven.
2007 / In grave financial difficulties, pro side FC Eindhoven gives up most of its youth academy, sounding the death-knell for its groundshare with EVV Eindhoven at Sportpark Genneper Parken.
2008 / Appalled by the club's abysmal financial situation and the dwindling crowds attending home matches at Aalsterweg, the Netherlands' Football Association sends FC Eindhoven an official request to voluntarily withdraw from the professional leagues. Under the inspirational leadership of chairman Ed Creemers, the club doggedly refuses to give in to the powers that be.
2012 / After some very difficult years with disappointing results on the pitch, FC Eindhoven finishes in the top half of the Eerste Divisie's table for the first time in 11 seasons - and what's more, the third place gives the club back some much needed pride after the near-end of the club in 2008. Since, the club has become a force to be reckoned with in the second tier of the Netherlands' football pyramid, narrowly missing out on promotion in 2015 (finishing in second place) and 2022 (third place).
2013 / Entering the professional leagues at Eerste Divisie level, Jong PSV, PSV's academy side, regularly switches from its own Sportpark De Herdgang to Jan Louwersstadion - especially when the visiting sides bring more than a handful of supporters.
2015 / Ambitious investor André Nijssen takes over the technical directorship of non-league side FC Eindhoven AV - the new name of EVV Eindhoven (AV) from 2013 onwards -, inaugurating a period of striking success for that club's first team. For the 2015-16 season, FC Eindhoven AV's first team groundshares with FC Eindhoven at Jan Louwersstadion. Also in the following seasons, the non-league side's first team football is regularly switched from Sportpark Genneper Parken to the stadium, especially when the state of the main pitch at Velddoornweg is deemed unfit for football.
2019 / As a result of the completion of renovation works on Sportpark De Herdgang in 2019, re-scheduling of Jong PSV's home matches to Jan Louwersstadion has occurred markedly less frequently since.

Note 1: Thanks to Bert Wildenberg for providing important parts of the information given above.

Note 2: Below, a compilation of photos of five different visits: picture 1 = non-matchday visit, April 5th, 2010 / pictures 2-4 & 12-15 = match visit, March 2014 / pictures 5-6, 8 & 11 = match visit, May 2010 / pictures 7 & 9 = match visit, April 26th, 2010 / pictures 16-32 = match visit, June 2022.