Extreme Football Tourism: BELGIUM: K Sint-Niklaasse SK (1932-1974) / K Sint-Niklase SK (1974-1989) / K Sint-Niklase SK Excelsior (1989-2000) / Sporting Lokeren Sint-Niklaas Waasland (B) (2000-±2003) / KV Red Star Waasland (2002-2010) / KVRS Waasland-SK Beveren (B) (2010-2018)

Stedelijk Sportstadion Puyenbeke, Sint-Niklaas = Saint-Nicolas Belsele (formerly K Sint-Niklase SK / K Sint-Niklase SK Excelsior / KV Red Star Waasland / B ground of KVRS Waasland-SK Beveren)

Belgium, province: East Flanders

15 IV 2011 / KVRS Waasland-SK Beveren Reserves - RCS Visé Reserves 1-3 / Reserves' Division 2
26 III 2018 / KVRS Waasland-SK Beveren U21 - Club Brugge KV U21 0-6 / U21 Cup QF

Timeline

1909 / Sources confirm the existence of a football club in Sint-Niklaas, which bears the name Sportkring (SK) Sint-Niklaas Waes. The club never joined Belgium's Football Association and never took part in any competition, instead playing just friendly matches. Around the start of World War I and the havoc of Germany's occupation of most of Belgium in 1914, this first football club in Sint-Niklaas must have folded.
1920 / SK Sint-Niklaas Waes is refounded, but with a new name: FC Beerschot - Beerschot (also spelled as Beverscot or Bernescot) being the Medieval name of the farmland on the river Scheldt between Antwerp and Sint-Niklaas. The club, which, like its predecessor, shuns membership of Belgium's FA, plays its football at a ground at Herdersstraat.
1921 / FC Beerschot changes its name to become Voetbalvereeniging (VV) Beerschot Sint-Niklaas.
1922 / VV Beerschot Sint-Niklaas joins the Belgian FA, but after a lawsuit was filed against the club by Beerschot VAC, a club from Antwerp, Sint-Niklaas' Beerschot changes its name to Sint-Niklaassche Sportkring (SK).
1926 / Introduction of the Belgian FA's matricule register, with Sint-Niklaassche SK being handed matricule 221. That same year, the club manages to win promotion from East Flanders' Provincial League 2, the highest provincial division at that time, thus establishing itself in 'Promotion', the third and lowest national division, for the first time.
1931 / After five seasons in Promotion, in which the club rapidly became one of the top contenders, Sint-Niklaassche SK makes another step up the league ladder, gaining promotion to Eerste Afdeeling, the second level of Belgium's pre-war football pyramid.
1932 / Sint-Niklaassche SK abandons its first ground at Herdersstraat, moving into the newly built Terrein Puyenbeke - which later was officially renamed Stedelijk Sportstadion Puyenbeke. That same year, the club suffers relegation from Eerste Afdeeling.
1939 / Sint-Niklaassche SK falls back to East Flanders' provincial leagues after a spell of 13 years of national league football.
1941 / Winning promotion straight back to the third tier of Belgium's national leagues in 1940, Sint-Niklaassche SK has to wait until 1941 before retaking its place in Promotion - due to the 1940-41 season not being disputed after the German invasion in May 1940. The club is destined to become a regular feature in the national leagues until the end of the century.
1943 / Winning the title in Promotion, Sint-Niklaassche is back in Eerste Afdeling - note the reformed orthography - after an absence of 11 years.
1944 / Obtaining its second title in a row by finishing first in Eerste Afdeling A, Sint-Niklaassche SK qualifies for Ere Afdeling, the top tier of Belgian football, for the first time. Due to the 1944-45 season never being played in the chaos of the end of German occupation and the liberation of Belgium in the fall of 1944, the club has to wait until 1945 before it can take its place in the national elite.
1947 / Finishing last in Ere Afdeling, Sint-Niklaassche SK drops back to Eerste Afdeling. That same year, the club modernises the spelling of its name, becoming Sint-Niklaasse SK.
1951 / Obtaining the royal epithet, the club takes on the name of Koninklijke Sint-Niklaasse Sportkring (K Sint-Niklaasse SK).
1952 / A thorough reorganisation of Belgium's football pyramid is undertaken, with the top half of Eerste Afdelingen A and B being merged into one Tweede Klasse (National Division 2), the new, single-tiered second division - and as Sint-Niklaasse finished sixth in Eerste Afdeling A, it qualifies for this new division.
1962 / After fifteen uninterrupted years of level 2 football, K Sint-Niklaasse SK suffers relegation, being constrained to step back to Derde Klasse or National Division 3.
1964 / Winning the title in National Division 3B, Sint-Niklaasse is back in National Division 2 after an absence of two seasons.
1974 / Further modernising the orthography of its name, the club is henceforth known as Koninklijke Sint-Niklase SK.
1981 / K Sint-Niklase SK suffers relegation from National Division 2 after a 17-year spell at that level.
1982 / The club bounces back by winning the title in National Division 3A, thus reclaiming its place in the second tier of the Belgian football pyramid.
1984 / Finishing first in National Division 2, K Sint-Niklase SK has its first taste of top flight football in 37 seasons. The stay in Eerste Klasse does not last longer than one year, though, with relegation following in 1985.
1987 / After a particularly difficult season, in which financial problems overshadow achievements on the pitch, Sint-Niklase is relegated from National Division 2. Narrowly avoiding bankruptcy, the club enters into voluntary liquidation - meaning it can hold onto its matricule, but with the obligatory punishment of an extra relegation. Thus, the club commences the 1987-88 season in National Division 4 rather than D3.
1988 / Demonstrating its superiority at D4 level, Sint-Niklase wins the league title in National Division 4B.
1989 / After winning a second title in a row, this time in National Division 3A, the club is back in D2 after an absence of just two seasons. That same summer, K Sint-Niklase SK concludes a merger with its more modest town rivals Royal Excelsior Athletic Club Sint-Niklaas (matricule 239), resulting in the foundation of Koninklijke Sint-Niklase Sportkring (SK) Excelsior, retaining SK's matricule 221. Excelsior's ground at Heistraat, which was probably in use from that club's foundation in 1922 onwards, is abandoned, with all club activities moving to Stedelijk Sportstadion Puyenbeke and its side-pitches.
1991 / K Sint-Niklase SK Excelsior finishes second in National Division 2, narrowly missing out on promotion to Belgium's top flight.
1996 / Following seven seasons in D2, Sint-Niklase drops out of Tweede Klasse - however, the club manages a fightback the following year, reclaiming its place in National Division 2 in 1997.
1998 / Due to financial difficulties, K Sint-Niklase SK Excelsior signs an agreement with D1 club KSC Lokeren, becoming Lokeren's satellite club and being constrained to field a team mainly consisting of players of Lokeren's youth academy.
1999 / With a team which is too inexperienced to hold its own in National Division 2, Sint-Niklase is relegated to D3.
2000 / Finishing sixth in National Division 3A in its last season as an independent club, K Sint-Niklase SK Excelsior concludes a merger with KSC Lokeren, resulting in the foundation of Sporting Lokeren Sint-Niklaas Waasland under Lokeren's matricule 282; Sint-Niklase's matricule 221 is erased from the Belgian FA's official lists. Henceforth, first team football is played at Lokeren's Daknamstadion, with Stadion Puyenbeke and its side-pitches most probably having remained in use for lower team football until approximately 2003 - the year in which the merger club drops the reference to Sint-Niklaas from its name, continuing life as KSC Lokeren Oost-Vlaanderen.
2002 / Non-league club KFC Gerda Sint-Niklaas (matricule 3077, foundation year: 1938) is constrained to abandon its ground at Klokkedreef after 57 years. Sounding the death-knell of KFC Gerda Sint-Niklaas, the club sees no other option but to fold and reform under a new name (SK Gerda Sint-Niklaas) and a new matricule (9419). Sint-Niklaas' municipal authorities offer the new club, which does not field a first team, a place at Puyenbeke's side-pitches; even in 2005, when the club enters a first team in East Flanders' Provincial League 4 for the first time, SK Gerda never makes use of the stadium itself. Also in 2002, and again at the instigation of Sint-Niklaas' town council, ambitious National Division 3 club KFC Red Star Haasdonk (matricule 4068), playing its football at Robert Waterschootstadion, which is situated in a wooded area to the east of Sint-Niklaas, moves its first team football to Stadion Puyenbeke, while holding on to the Waterschootstadion for lower team football and training sessions; simultaneously, the club changes its name to become KV Red Star Waasland, hereby hoping to extend its appeal to football fans from the wider region.
2004 / Winning the title in National Division 3A, KV Red Star Waasland accedes to National Division 2 for the first time in club history.
2005 / In its first season in D2, KV Red Star Waasland finishes in a more than respectable fourth place, while also qualifying for the promotion play-offs - without further success. In the following year, Red Star manages another fourth place.
2008 / Reaching the last 16 of the Belgian Cup, KV Red Star Waasland loses in an away game against RSC Anderlecht at Stade Constant Vanden Stock (2-0).
2009 / KV Red Star Waasland, which ends in fourth place in D2 yet once again misses out on promotion, abandons its youth academy at Robert Waterschootstadion, moving all of its activities to Puyenbeke and its side-pitches. Instead, SK Gerda Sint-Niklaas abandons Puyenbeke and settles at the Waterschootstadion.
2010 / In its last season as an independent club, KV Red Star Waasland finishes sixth and last in Division 2. That summer, the club concludes an agreement with KSK Beveren (matricule 2300), resulting in the foundation of KV Red Star Waasland-SK Beveren, retaining Waasland's matricule 4068 (occasionally presented erroneously as a merger, this agreement excluded KSK Beveren itself, which continued under its own matricule with just a women's team - and later also building up a small youth academy). Henceforth, first team football is played at Beveren's Freethielstadion, while Stedelijk Sportstadion Puyenbeke remains in use for lower team football.
2011 / A new non-league club is founded, Sportkring (SK) Belsele (matricule 9561), which shares the side-pitches of Stadion Puyenbeke with KV Red Star Waasland-SK Beveren's youth academy.
2012 / Winning the promotion play-offs, KV Red Star Waasland-SK Beveren - often referred to colloquially as 'Waasland-Beveren' - accedes to National Division 1.
2016 / SK Belsele changes its name to become SKB Sint-Niklaas.
2018 / Waasland-Beveren abandons Stedelijk Sportstadion Puyenbeke, moving its entire youth academy to Freethielstadion. The stadium in Sint-Niklaas remains unused, as all of SKB Sint-Niklaas' activities continue to take place on the ground's side-pitches.
2019 / SKB Sint-Niklaas changes its name to become FC Sint-Niklaas.
2022 / Having remained unused for four years, Stedelijk Stadion Puyenbeke is demolished in June 2022.