Extreme Football Tourism: NETHERLANDS: ZFC (1970-1990) / Hellas Sport Combinatie (1990-2018) / vv PSZ (2016-2018) / FC Zaandam (2018-2022) / ZVC '22 (B) (2022-)

Gemeentelijk Sportpark Hoornseveld Oost, Zaandam (B ground of ZVC '22, formerly ZFC / Hellas Sport Combinatie / vv PSZ / FC Zaandam)

Netherlands, province: North Holland

9 III 2014 / Hellas Sport Combinatie - vv Assendelft 3-2 / Sunday League 2A (= NL level 6)

Timeline

1904 / Foundation of a football club in Zaandam, for which the unequivocally straightforward name 'Sport' is chosen. Sport joins a local football association, AVVB (Amsterdamsche Volksvoetbalbond). Starting its life at a ground at Hoogedijk, known locally as Het Drilveld, in the following six years the club is on the move constantly, successively putting up its tents at Het Krimperven, Terrein Westzanerdijk (I), and Terrein Hembrug.
1906 / Sport wins the title in AVVB's Division 2B.
1908 / Having been turned down at a previous application, Sport is finally awarded membership of NHVB (Noord-Hollandsche Voetbalbond), the provincial branch of the official Netherlands' Football Association (NVB).
1910 / Being placed in NVB's League 3C, Sport is constrained to take on a new name due to another club already having taken the label Sport - and NVB not admitting two member clubs having the same denomination. Sport thus becoming Zaanlandsche Football Club (ZFC), the club also concludes a merger this year, incorporation TONIDO. After the merger, ZFC settles at TONIDO's ground, De Burcht in Zaandam. However, the club's nomadic existence continues with further moves to Terrein Krugerstraat and Terrein Hembrug - the last-mentioned ground probably being the same which was used by Sport until 1910.
1914 / Abandoning Terrein Hembrug, ZFC settles at a new ground at Zeehaven.
1916 / Having played at makeshift grounds in the first twelve years of its existence, ZFC is given a proper ground at Westzanerdijk (although, initially, the entrance is situated at Adriaan Roggestraat), disposing of several pitches. Along the main pitch, an uncovered wooden stand is erected with 450 seats. Before the kick-off of ZFC's first match at the new ground, the inaugural ceremonies are performed by Zaandam's mayor, Mr Ter Laan. In the following years, extra boards or wooden stands are added to the set-up to increase the ground's capacity.
1917 / Winning the title in League 3 without suffering a single defeat, ZFC wins promotion to League 2 for the first time.
1921 / Having signed a five-year lease agreement for the ground at Westzanerdijk upon settling there in 1916, ZFC now purchases the premises with money brought together through the issue of bonds. Subsequently, the club has a covered wooden grandstand constructed with changing rooms below the spectators' area. Designed as an 'English stand', the construction is adorned with a sloping roof with the addition of two turrets and two gables. Total ground capacity is now estimated at c. 10,000. At the inaugural match in October 1921, ZFC is defeated by Rotterdam side Sparta (1-3).
1922 / For the first time in club history, ZFC accedes to the highest level of the football pyramid at the time - District West's League 1. The following decade can be described as the club's heyday.
1925 / Asserting itself as one of the strongest clubs in the country, ZFC wins the Netherlands' Cup by defeating Xerxes (from Rotterdam) emphatically (5-1) in a game played at UVV's ground in Utrecht.
1930 / Having finished with an equal number of points in League 1 of District West I, ZFC and Blauw-Wit play a single play-off match for first place, with the Amsterdam side winning 3-1. The encounter took place in Haarlem at HFC's ground.
1931 / For the second time running, ZFC finishes in second place in District West I's League 1 after a closely fought contest with eventual winners AFC Ajax.
1932 / Finishing with an equal number of points in joint-first place with Feijenoord in District West I's League 1, ZFC takes on the Rotterdam side in a play-off in Amsterdam's Olympisch Stadion - yet again ending up on the losing side, 5-0.
1937 / Having come close to the title in League 1 several times, ZFC ends up suffering relegation to League 2 after fifteen years in the district's top flight.
1939 / In spite of ZFC playing at League 2 level, the club's goalkeeper Hennie Dijkstra wins two caps for the Netherlands' national side.
1950 / At Westzanerdijk, floodlights are installed, allowing ZFC to play home games in midweek and on Saturday evenings.
1955 / As professional league football is being introduced in the Netherlands, ZFC is one of the clubs applying for permission to accede to the new league pyramid - in spite of not having been able to regain its League 1 status in the post-war years. Nevertheless, ZFC's application is accepted, not least because of the club having a positive equity - with the ownership of its ground at Westzanerdijk being the main reason for this.
1956 / At the eventual introduction of the national league pyramid, following a transitory season (1955-56), ZFC is placed in National Division 2, the third and lowest professional level.
1957 / Disclosure of government plans for a railway tunnel under the North Sea Canal, with the projected tracé leading over ZFC's ground at Westzanerdijk. Municipal authorities assure the club that it will be given a replacement ground at Sportpark Oostzijderveld - which, prior to the war, had housed ZFC's youth academy (although it was better known as 'Stadionveld' in those days), but had been home to non-league side VVZ since 1937. In 1957, new pitches were laid out at Sportpark Oostzijderveld's eastern fringes, with ZVV Zaanlandia moving in that same year. According to the plans, in a new lay-out, ZFC's stadium is to be the centre of the park, with several non-league sides using the side-pitches. Before long, though, building plans are stalled due to a government spending freeze being announced.
1958 / Winning the title in National Division 2, ZFC accedes to National Division 1, the second tier of the Netherlands' football pyramid - at the time consisting of two groups. ZFC is placed in D1B.
1960 / Zaandam-born Johnny Rep (born 1951) joins ZFC's youth academy. Playing in the club's youth academy for the following eight years, he is taken over by AFC Ajax in 1968. At the Amsterdam side, he has his breakthrough as a first-team player in 1971, becoming part of Ajax' golden generation under the leadership of Rinus Michels and star player John Cruijff. In his prolific career, leading him to clubs such as Valencia CF, SC Bastia, and AS Saint-Etienne, Rep also wins 42 caps for the Netherlands, playing two World Cup finals (1974, 1978).
1962 / Due to a reorganisation of the national league pyramid, involving the reduction of two Division 1 groups to just one, ZFC - along with no fewer than 22 other clubs - is retrograded to Division 2 in spite of finishing in a respectable eighth position in D1B in 1961-62. In its nine remaining years in the professional divisions, the club does not manage a return to the second step of the league ladder. With success on the pitch notably lacking, ZFC is approached by neighbouring professional side KFC from Koog aan de Zaan to conclude a merger, but ZFC refuses. Eventually, in 1967, KFC's professional branch FC Zaanstreek merges with Alkmaar '54, forming AZ '67.
1964 / With a move to another site in the following years being due, ZFC cedes the ownership of its ground at Westzanerdijk to Zaandam's municipal authorities, earning a net worth of 130,000 guilders. Henceforth, the club pays the municipality a rent for the use of the premises.
1970 / Abe van den Ban, a valued first team player (and former ZFC youth prodigy), earns himself a transfer to AZ '67, signing further contracts with FC Amsterdam and HFC Haarlem in later years. Also in 1970, ZFC finally abandons its ground at Westzanerdijk after a stay of 54 years. Whereas initially Zaandam's municipal authorities planned to construct the club a ground at Oostzijderveld, the eventual new stadium is built about half a mile further eastwards, at Hoornseveld; the eye-catcher of the new set-up is a covered grandstand with a clubhouse and dressing rooms on the ground floor, topped by an elevated spectators' area (capacity: 1,500). Around the remainder of the pitch, boards are added to give the ground a total capacity of c. 10,000. Officially named Gemeentelijk Sportpark Hoornseveld, the new stadium is inaugurated officially by Zaandam's mayor, Reint Laan jr., in August 1970. On September 6th, ZFC plays its first home match at Hoornseveld, a 0-1 defeat at the hands of AGOVV. Ironically, construction works on the planned railway tracé under the North Sea Canal did not commence until years later, in the 1980s, but, in a change of plans, the route was transferred eastward - as a result of which ZFC's old ground at Westzanerdijk would not have been affected. Instead, the stadium was replaced with housing. In the neighbourhood erected on the site, several street names recall the area's past as a football ground (De Doelman, De Midvoor, De Spil, De Tribune etc.).
1971 / In 1970-71, the club's last season as a professional league club, ZFC - guided by young manager Simon Kistemaker - manages a mid-table finish in National Division 2 (10th place). In a thorough clean-up of the professional league pyramid, reducing the number of divisions from 3 to 2, twelve clubs are retrograded to non-league by the Netherlands' FA based on their average number of spectators - ZFC, with an average of just 1,187 in the 1970-71 season, being one of the victims. The club, furious at the decision, brings the case before a court, but to no avail. In non-league, ZFC is placed in Sunday League 3.
1973 / In an impressive climb up the amateur divisions, ZFC accedes to Sunday League 1 after winning back-to-back titles in L3 and L2. In the following two decades, the club spends a total of nine years in Sunday League 1, subdivided in two different spells (1973-78, 1984-88)
1989 / Following two relegations in a row, ZFC suddenly finds itself in Sunday League 3, the level at which the club re-entered the non-league pyramid in 1971.
1990 / In its last season as an independent club, ZFC finishes in fifth place in District West I's Sunday League 3B. Thereupon, a merger is concluded with ZVV (Zaandamse Voetbalvereniging, founded in 1900 as Zaanlandsche Voetbalvereeniging - a merger of three older clubs: Hellas, UNI, and Wormerveer - and long-time neighbours of ZFC at Westzanerdijk), which was playing even further down the league ladder at the time. The new merger club is given the ingenuous name Hellas Sport Combinatie - referring to one of the merging partners of ZVV in 1900 as well as ZFC's original name: Sport. While ZVV's ground, Sportpark Poelenburg, is abandoned, all of the new club's activities henceforth take place at ZFC's Sportpark Hoornseveld. The new club enters teams in the Sunday as well as the Saturday League pyramid, with the Sunday squad, beginning its life in League 3, being the flagship team.
± 1992 / A new clubhouse is erected at the eastern end of Sportpark Hoornseveld's main pitch. To this end, part of the wooden stands at that side of the ground is demolished. The park's old clubhouse, situated at the back of the main stand (cp. photo 9 below), is now taken by vv ZTS, a smaller club which played its football at the westernmost pitch of Sportpark Hoornseveld from its foundation in 1979 onwards.
2002 / Having alternated spells in Sunday Leagues 3 and 2 in the twelve preceding seasons, Hellas Sport Combinatie accedes to Sunday League 1.
2004 / After two seasons in Sunday League 2, Hellas Sport Combinatie drops back into League 2 - spending the following 11 seasons at that level.
2006 / Hellas Sport Combinatie wins Zaandam's officious football championship, the so-called Zaanstad Cup, by defeating RCZ 3-0 in the final.
2010 / Leaving SBV Vitesse, where he worked as a youth trainer and assistant manager for 22 years, two-time World Cup finalist Jan Jongbloed joins Hellas Sport Combinatie as technical advisor.
2015 / Hellas Sport Combinatie's Sunday team finishes last in Sunday League 2, marking the end of an era - as the club takes the decision to say goodbye to regular Sunday League football, henceforth focusing on its Saturday team, which, following a relegation, starts the 2015-16 season at L3 level.
2016 / A smaller Zaandam non-league club, vv PSZ (founded in 1955 as 'Pieter Schoen Zaandam', but renamed 'Prettige Spelers Zegevieren' in 1971) is forced out of its ground at Sportpark Jagersveld, which is granted to the local rugby club; subsequently, PSZ settles at Sportpark Hoornseveld Oost as groundsharers, with the club's first team playing on Hellas Sport's main pitch.
2018 / After a two-year groundshare at Hellas Sport Combinatie, vv PSZ moves back to Sportpark Jagersveld - not to its former ground, but as groundsharers on the pitches of RCZ - due to remain there until its eventual demise in 2021. Meanwhile, Hellas Sport itself, in its last year as an independent club, accedes to Saturday League 2 by winning the promotion play-offs. After the 2017-18 season, its existence threatened by a sharp decline of youth membership, the club decides to conclude a merger with ZVV Zilvermeeuwen, resulting in the foundation of FC Zaandam. Zilvermeeuwen's ground, Sportpark Poelenburg (incidentally also ZVV's ground until 1990), is abandoned, with all activities moving to Sportpark Hoornseveld Oost. Initially, the merger plans included the participation of ZVV Zaanlandia as well, but, in the end, this club pulls out, preferring to continue independently.
2019 / SJV Rood-Wit Zaanstad, as vv ZTS are renamed in 2017, abandons Sportpark Hoornseveld West, moving into Sportpark Poelenburg, which was ZVV Zilvermeeuwen's home until the merger with Hellas Sport Combinatie.
2021 / With a complete renovation of Sportpark Hoornseveld due, the whimsically shaped main stand, 51 years old, is demolished in February 2021.
2022 / FC Zaandam suffers relegation to Saturday League 3 after losing a play-off against SV Olympia Haarlem. Following the 2021-22 season, a merger is concluded with ZVV Zaanlandia, resulting in the foundation of Zaanse Voetbalcombinatie 2022 (ZVC '22). For the time being, first team football is being played at Zaanlandia's Sportpark Oostzijderveld, while Sportpark Hoornseveld is undergoing further renovation; several of its side-pitches are already used for lower team football and training purposes in mid-2022.
2023 / Abandoning Sportpark Oostzijderveld - but still awaiting the completion of the renovated Sportpark Hoornseveld -, ZVC '22 moves to the far eastern end of Sportpark Hoornseveld, which used to be the home ground of FC Zaandam.

Note: Below, a compilation of photos of three different visits: pictures 1 & 10-21 = match visit, March 2014 / pictures 2-9 & 22 = non-matchday visit, June 2011 / pictures 23-24 = non-matchday (ruin) visit, November 2022.