De Ghelamco Arena

The Ghelamco Arena's history

The Ghelamco Arena opened in 2013 with a match between KAA Gent and VfB Stuttgart. Before they started playing here, they played at the Jules Otten Stadium that had a capacity of 12,919. The decision was made to build an entire new stadium to elaborate the capacity of the stadium. It is crazy to imagine that the club started playing on a little football field. This was public ground where people could just cross the field whenever they wanted to. The club was obviously tired of this, and it resulted in the search for another football field. They found another field to play at behind the Sint-Pieters stadium where they had built a small stand for around 500-600 people. They had to give the ground up when the government decided that offices for the world exposition of Gent in 1913 had to be built there. The stand moved with them to the new ground, but this stand caught fire during de First World War and was burned to the ground. They received some time to find a new place and that they did: the Jules Otten Stadium became their new ground.

The Gelamco Arena today

The Ghlamco Arena is also referred to as Arteveldestadion. Right now, they are working on restructuring the stadium so it will become the first eco-stadium of the Benelux. The plan was to provide the roof with 13,000 square meters of solar panels, but this project got eliminated. Rainwater will be put to use for sanitary purposes and to water the field with. They have also made plans to use the light that falls into the stadium utterly and to stop pollution. Offices are being built in and next to the stadium and they’re currently working on skyboxes and conference rooms. Furthermore, a new parking area will be placed in the stadium’s vicinity and shuttle buses will be instigated to transport supporters to the stadium. In case you arrive at the stadium way before the start of the match, you can take place at one of the cafeterias or restaurants that can be found underneath the stands.

Visit the Ghelamco Arena

The Ghelamco Arena is quite close to Gent’s city centre. It only takes 20 minutes to walk from the city’s centre to the Arena. In case this is a little too long for your liking, then you could choose to travel through public transportation. Bus 19 towards Blaarmeersen brings you to the stadium within ten minutes. Hop on at Gent UZ Ottergemsestweg and hop off at Gent Artveldepark. Make sure you leave well in advance because you don’t want to be late for KAA Gent’s football match. Would you like to visit the Ghelamco Arena while visiting one of the top clubs of Belgium? Then you should book your football trip to KAA Gent at Number 1 Football Travel!