More than half a billion euros. That is the amount that Belgian professional football has ready to adapt its infrastructure to the needs of the 21st century. “Our professional clubs want to make a quantum leap,” says Pro League CEO Lorin Parys. “I hope that all parties involved realize that there is a huge win-win situation in this.”
Belgian professional clubs realize more than ever that there is work to be done if they want to be able to compete with other European sub-top competitions in terms of infrastructure. However, there is no shortage of plans and ambition. A survey by the Pro League shows that the clubs from the Jupiler Pro League and the Challenger Pro League have budgeted a total of more than 500 million euros for the (re)construction of (new) practice complexes and stadiums. “An impressive amount,” says Lorin Parys, the CEO of the Pro League. “And that doesn’t even include some conceptual projects that are still somewhere in the pipeline.”
Barely one stadium in twenty years
In concrete terms, Union, Charleroi and Cercle Brugge, among others, want to build a new stadium. Other teams such as Antwerp, Westerlo and KRC Genk want to thoroughly renovate their current home base. Despite all those ambitious plans, barely one new stadium has been built in our country over the past twenty years, including the KAA Gent Arena. “The procedures remain a major problem,” says Parys, who has had numerous discussions with club leaders about this in recent months.
Lorin Paris. — © BELGA
“To be clear, we do not want to make it impossible to file a complaint against a building permit. However, it should be much easier to adjust something to suit your plans. Now we often find ourselves in situations where clubs have to wait years for an answer and then have to start again from scratch. People should think about that more.”
“0 euro subsidies”
Parys emphasizes that the construction of new stadiums would be a good thing for many parties. “We want to move forward with Belgian football and that also means that we have to take even better care of our fans. More than half a billion euros is ready for this. Half a billion euros that would be invested in the Belgian economy. This could be a story with many winners: Belgian football and its fans, our economy, but also our local communities. Because we no longer build stadiums that are used for a match every two weeks. Many modern stadiums serve as local sports infrastructure, as office space for companies or even as a place to organize funeral ceremonies. And that’s what I like about this story: our clubs ask for 0 euro subsidies to realize all these projects. The only question we ask all parties involved, the many governments in our country, is: would it be possible to make the entire process run more smoothly? That is a very simple question about which we would like to start the debate. Hopefully a solution will be found soon.”
Read all reports from all first-graders
Fifteen stadiums, sixteen reports. In the overview below you will see an infographic in which you will find a short summary of each report per club. Below you can also view a detailed report per club.
Discover all the scores in The Big Stadium Report
Read all about Het Nieuwsblad’s Big Stadium Report
Published on Tuesday, October 10
Half a billion euros are ready to invest in stadiums. Then why wait?
Can be read in this article.
Published on Wednesday, October 11
The ten commandments for building a stadium: why does it not work in Belgium?
Why a new stadium has only been built in Ghent in the last 20 (!) years
Published on Thursday, October 12
How Club Brugge has been trying in vain to build a new stadium for 20 years
Published on Friday, October 13
Paul Gheysens is building them, Bart Verhaeghe is waiting for them: the strong men behind the Belgian stadiums interviewed
Our Football Chief: “the situation is even more dramatic than we thought”
Published on Saturday, October 14
LISTED. This is what your club plans to do with its stadium