Belgium, province: East Flanders = Oost-Vlaanderen
5 IV 2025 / VK Young Boys - VK Buizingen 0-3 / KAVVV Vlaams-Brabant & Oost-Vlaanderen, Division 3A
Timeline
- ± 1975 / In 1974 and/or 1975, the construction of a municipal sports stadium at Zonnebloemstraat in Geraardsbergen is undertaken, the so-called Stedelijk Sportstadion, with a gravel track surrounding a football pitch. The facilities are used by Atletiekclub (AC) Geraardsbergen as well as several recreational football clubs. At the time, a recreational competition is organised with teams from Geraardsbergen and surrounding villages.
- 1979 / As KSK Geraardsbergen wins promotion from East Flanders’ Provincial League 1 to National Division 4, the club is allowed to move into the Stedelijk Sportstadion at the behest of Geraardsbergen’s municipal authorities. SK Geraardsbergen, founded in 1921 (registration number 1950), had acquired the royal epithet in 1950, becoming KSK Geraardsbergen. During its time at Terrein Zonnebloemstraat – probably the original ground of the club, accidentally situated at the same street as the future municipal stadium, but on a location further up the hill – the club had had several spells in National Division 3 (‘Promotion’: 1937-38, 1943-44, 1945-48, 1950-52) and National Division 4 (1952-56, 1960-66). When its ground at Zonnebloemstraat has to make way for housing, probably in the mid-1970s, the club moves to a much more modest ground, Terrein Oudenaardsestraat. When promotion to National Division 4 follows, it is clear that this ground is not up to hosting national league football – and the decision to move to the municipal stadium mentioned above is taken. Municipal authorities have a clubhouse built with dressing rooms at the ground floor; facilities which had not been in place until that time. Moreover, a covered stand flanked by two bits of terracing at the western side of the pitch are added. As Terrein Oudenaardsestraat is abandoned once and for all, KSK Geraardsbergen moves its youth academy as well as lower league football to a newly laid-out B ground at Molendreef in Nederboelare, on the northern outskirts of Geraardsbergen.
- 1981 / After two seasons in National Division 4, KSK Geraardsbergen drops back into East Flanders’ Provincial League 1. Following the 1980-81 season, the club concludes a merger with VK Geraardsbergen, a Provincial League 4 club which had been founded as Sparta Goeferdinge in 1969 (registration number 735), but renamed VK Geraardsbergen four years later. The new merger club, Koninklijke Sportvereniging (KSV) Geraardsbergen, retains KSK Geraardsbergen’s number 290. First team football continues to be played at the Stedelijk Sportstadion, while all other club activities take place at Terrein Molendreef.
- 1988 / After nine years of first team football at the Stedelijk Sportstadion, KSV Geraardsbergen moves the home games of its flagship team to Terrein Molendreef, later renamed Complex Depoorter in honour of the club’s former honorary president Roger Depoorter. In the following decades, the pitch at the municipal stadium continues to be used for recreational football.
- ± 2012 / VK Jong Geraardsbergen from Onkerzele has just won promotion to Provincial League 3. As the club’s presidency prefers to move first team football to Saturday evenings (instead of Sunday afternoons) and the floodlights at the club’s Wilgierstadion are not strong enough to allow league football, the club successfully files a request at Geraardsbergen’s municipal authorities to be allowed to move its first team football to the Stedelijk Sportstadion.
- 2014 / Works get underway on a thorough renovation of the Stedelijk Sportstadion. Also in or around 2014, VK Jong Geraardsbergen’s flagship team moves back to the Wilgierstadion in Onkerzele.
- 2015 / After completion of the renovation works at the Stedelijk Sportstadion, which involved replacing the gravel track for a proper athletics track as well as the removal of the bits of open terracing on both sides of the grandstand, the stadium is reinaugurated in October 2015 with a new name, Adriaansstadion, named after the patron saint of the nearby church, St Adrian.
- 2019 / Sparta Moerbeke-Geraardsbergen, a provincial league club from Moerbeke, loses its second pitch at Terrein Zikastraat following the passing of the owner of the plot of land on which this B pitch is situated. With the inheritance issue proving unsolvable for the moment, the club is no long allowed to make use of the second pitch. Thereupon, a successful request is filed at Geraardsbergen’s municipal authorities to be allowed to use the Adriaansstadion’s pitch for lower team football and training purposes.
- 2022 / A new football club is founded in Geraardsbergen, VC Geraardsbergen United, which acquires membership of Belgium’s Football Association with registration number 9776. VC Geraardsbergen United does not field a first team, instead taking part in the reserves’ leagues only, with the club settling at the Adriaansstadion.
- 2023 / After one year at the Adriaansstadion, VC Geraardsbergen United leaves the ground, concluding a groundsharing agreement with KSV Geraardsbergen at Complex Depoorter.
- 2026 (projected) / The inheritance issue which kept Sparta Moerbeke-Geraardsbergen from using its second pitch at Zikastraat has been resolved in 2025. The club are hoping to get its B pitch ready for use by January 2026, which would mean the club would leave the Adriaansstadion to the exclusive use of recreational teams, notably FC Nederboelare and VK Polder (the VK Young Boys home match I visited had been moved to the stadium as the Wilgierstadion, the team’s usual home ground, was unavailable due to a youth tournament being organised there).
Note - Thanks to Geraardsbergen's municipal sports service for looking into their archives for the approximate date of construction of the Stedelijk Sportstadion.
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