NETHERLANDS: Heracles Almelo (1999-)

Stadion Ossenkoppelerhoek, Almelo (Heracles Almelo)

Netherlands, province: Overijssel

19 IX 2009 / Heracles Almelo - Sparta Rotterdam 1-1 / Eredivisie (= NL level 1)

16 IX 2012 / Heracles Almelo - NAC Breda 2-1 / Eredivisie (= NL level 1)

Note 1: Almelose Voetbalclub (AVC) Heracles, founded in 1903 after a merger of Hollandia and Inarte (and called AVC Hercules for the first three years of their existence), settled down at Bornsestraat in 1913, where the club played until 1999. In 1954, Heracles acceded to the ranks of the professional league clubs; twenty years later, the club was split up in a professional league branch, continuing under the name SC Heracles '74, and a non-league branch, AVC Heracles. In 1998, SC Heracles '74 were renamed Heracles Almelo - and one year later, Heracles Almelo moved from Gemeentelijk Sportpark Bornsestraat to their new, purpose-built stadium at Ossenkoppelerhoek, known as Polman Stadion for sponsorship reasons; after twenty years of being known under this name, a deal was struck with another sponsor - and thus, from 2019 onwards, the ground is officially called Erve Asito. Meanwhile, in 2015-16, an extension of the stadium was realised, with an extra tier added and 5,000 extra seats to lift the capacity to 13,500.

Note 2: Below, a compilation of photos of three different visits: pictures 1 & 3 = match visit, September 2009 / pictures 2 & 4-15 = match visit, September 2012 / pictures 16-18 = non-matchday visit, April 2022 (after 2015-16 extension of stadium, cp. note 1 above).

All photos: (c) W.B. Tukker / www.extremefootballtourism.blogspot.com. Publication of any of these images only after permission of author