NETHERLANDS: SC Cambuur (2024-)

Stadion 058, Leeuwarden = Ljouwert (SC Cambuur)

Netherlands, province: Frisia = Friesland

28 II 2025 / SC Cambuur - VVV-Venlo 5-0 / Eerste Divisie (= NL level 2)

Timeline

• 1917 / Foundation of a football club in Leeuwarden, which is given the name vv Leeuwarden. Initially, football is played at Terrein Bleekerstraat, a pasture used as an ice-skating rink in the winter months.
• 1920 / vv Leeuwarden concludes a groundsharing agreement with LVV Friesland, settling on that club’s ground, Terrein Nieuwlandsweg, for the time being.
• 1923 / After three years of groundsharing with LVV Friesland, vv Leeuwarden moves into a newly ground of its own, Terrein Schenkenschans, situated at Sneekertrekweg. 
• 1936 / Along with another club from Leeuwarden, LAC Frisia 1883, vv Leeuwarden moves into the newly built Gemeentelijk Sportpark Cambuur. LAC Frisia 1883 remain at the stadium as vv Leeuwarden’s groundsharers until 1959 – with the club moving away to its own, purpose-built ground, Sportpark De Magere Weide, in 1968, after a spell of nine years of first team football on the first side-pitch of Sportpark Cambuur.
• 1954 / As professional football is introduced in the Netherlands, vv Leeuwarden decides to take the leap to the professional league pyramid. In the following decade, the club has spells in the second and third tier of the national league pyramid.
• 1964 / With vv Leeuwarden having run into grave financial problems, the club sees no other option but to withdraw from the professional divisions. To avoid professional league football from disappearing from Frisia’s capital altogether, socialist politician Anne Vondeling becomes the driving force behind the foundation of a new professional league club, Sportclub (SC) Cambuur, named after the stadium, which takes over vv Leeuwarden’s league license. Continuing life as a non-league club, vv Leeuwarden changes its name to become Sportclub (SC) Leeuwarden.
• 1989 / In an amendment of both clubs’ articles of association, professional league side SC Cambuur and non-league club SC Leeuwarden conclude a merger, resulting in the foundation of Cambuur-Leeuwarden. 
• 1992 / Cambuur-Leeuwarden wins promotion to the top flight of the Netherlands’ national league pyramid, the Eredivisie, for the first time. In the following decades, the club alternates short periods in the top division with longer spells in the second tier, the Eerste Divisie.
• 2009 / After twenty years of being called Cambuur-Leeuwarden, the club reverts to its old denomination SC Cambuur. That same year, SC Cambuur presents plans to the municipality of Leeuwarden for the construction of a new stadium on the west side of Leeuwarden, at the back of the WTC Expo Halls. This stadium has a projected capacity of 12,000 spectators. The intention was to have the new stadium inaugurated by 2013, but the plans ultimately came to naught.
• 2013 / SC Cambuur’s mother club, vv Leeuwarden, concludes a merger with vv Rood Geel, resulting in the foundation of SC Leovardia. Later that same year, in November 2013, SC Cambuur presents new plans for the construction of a stadium at the back of the WTC Expo Hall. This new stadium has a projected capacity of 15,000.
• 2017 / After nearly four years of standstill, Leeuwarden’s municipal authorities give the green light for the construction of a new stadium for SC Cambuur at the back of the WTC Expo Hall. The projected inauguration date is April 2022.
• 2020 / Due to project developer Wyckerveste withdrawing from the project, the projected inauguration date of the new stadium has to be put considerably further in the future.
• 2021 / After several delays, SC Cambuur presents the final design of the new stadium, done by Van Widdershoven Architects, to Leeuwarden’s town council. Meanwhile, a new project developer has been found, Van Wijnen, with this firm expecting to have the stadium ready by September 2023 at the latest. 
• 2022 / In June 2022, construction works on the new stadium at WTC Expo Hall finally get underway. 
• 2023 / In spite of the construction works progressing steadily, the planned inauguration in September 2023 is announced as having been too ambitious, with the new goal being to have the construction ready by the summer of 2024. 
• 2024 / In the summer of 2024, SC Cambuur abandons the Cambuurstadion, settling at the newly built Stadion 058, officially called Stadion De Kooi following a sponsorship deal. The capacity of the ground is 15,000 (14,504 seated). Although not all seats have been put in place yet, SC Cambuur decides to hold its opening match of the 2024-25 season, the Eerste Divisie encounter with Helmond Sport (August 18th, 2024), at the new ground. The match ends in disappointment, as the guests walk away with a 1-0 win, with a converted penalty by Helmond Sport’s Latvian striker Dario Šits going down as the first-ever goal in the new stadium. Generally, SC Cambuur has a horrible start of the season, with the first Cambuur goal in the new stadium not being scored until the fourth home match of the season, a 1-2 defeat at the hands of FC Emmen (Cambuur goal by Benjamin Pauwels). It is not until the Cambuur’s sixth home match, on October 21st, 2024, that the club records its first home win, a 2-0 defeat of FC Eindhoven.

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