Arke Stadion
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The Arke Stadion is the official stadium of soccer club FC Twente. It is located in Enschede, The Netherlands at the Business and Science Park, near the University of Twente. It has a spectator capacity of 13,500 with a standard pitch heating system and has a promenade instead of fences for the tribunes.
The Arke Stadion replaces the old Diekman Stadion as FC Twente's home ground on 22 March 1998. Plans have been afoot to expand and to renovate the old and now demolished Diekman Stadion, however, with a growing fan capacity and with arguments that the location of the Diekman stadium was not strategic enough, the idea was conceived to build a new arena for the Twente fans. The Diekman ground had also faced problems with its seating plans as a result of the FIFA regulations which imposes a necessity to construct a seating tribune behind each goal post.
The cost of the construction was estimated to be around 33 million guilders and took fourteen months to complete, with its foundation stone having been laid on 31 January 1997. Due to the tight budget available, the layout of the stadium was constructed in such that future expansions may be made possible without the necessity to tear down entire tribunes, although this may be distant in the future as most stadiums in the Netherlands rarely exceed the 30,000 capacity mark.
The first match played at the stadium was a historic 3-0 victory by the home team against PSV Eindhoven on 10 May 1998 in an Eredivisie match.
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