Permission granted for remodelling & expansion of Adelaarshorst stadium

At the end of 2023, Dutch premier league club, Go Ahead Eagles, submitted a permit application to the City of Deventer for the remodelling and expansion of their home of football, stadium De Adelaarshorst, which has now been granted.

The project involves the modernisation and expansion of the B-side stand and IJssel Stand, as well as improvements to the facilities for fans of the visiting team.

After a thorough review and consultation process, the City has officially granted the permit. This marks another important step in making one of the most unique football stadiums in The Netherlands more modern, safer, and future proof.

The design maintains the unique character and ambience of this 90-year old ‘English-style’ stadium and will increase the total capacity of 13,000.

The Stadium Consultancy is the client representative to the Go Ahead Eagles, and has managed the project on their behalf, and provided stadium-specific expertise, continuing their role from the earlier remodelling of the main stand and the Leo Halle Stand in 2015.

New appointment

The Stadium Consultancy has also announced the appointment of James Lamb as the Executive Director of its newly-established UK & Ireland office.

James is an avid sports fan and family man with a passion for developing ‘best-in-class’ sport and entertainment venue infrastructure projects. He’s a specialist in stadia and arena development projects with wide-ranging experience developing and managing sports infrastructure projects in the UK, Europe, USA & Middle East.

His first foray into the industry was at IMG Consulting, where he began working with the sports facilities development team, followed by roles specialised in football stadia, arena and destination projects, including world renowned projects such as the Eden Project. James’ broad expertise covers the business planning, design, construction and operation of sports facilities. He has also been lucky enough to work on major sports events including London 2012 and planning for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar™.

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His first big career break saw him move to Abu Dhabi in 2013 to support a multi-disciplinary team on the development of a 5,000-capacity multifunctional arena and elite Jiu-jitsu centre on behalf of the Crown Prince Court. This was his first experience involved in the delivery of an arena from feasibility through to development, construction and handover into operation.

More recently, James worked for Aston Villa on the Estates Masterplan centred on the modernisation of Villa Park including the fully consented expansion plans to take the stadium to a 50,000+ capacity. The further modernisation of Villa Park included redefining all hospitality and new GA+ spaces, seating bowl optimisations and alterations, a newly redeveloped Northern Precinct including a new Club Concept Store in partnership with Adidas, public realm and 3,500 capacity Warehouse venue set to host the fan zone, music, culture and entertainment events.

In terms of his decision to join The Stadium Consultancy, James stated:

A likeminded approach and philosophy to developing stadia focused on establishing a functional design concept aligned to a robust business plan. This combined with the desire to deliver best in class projects which are sustainable and meet the Clients’ core commercial and fan experience objectives.

Visual: I’M Architecten, Deventer

Source: The Stadium Consultancy

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