ADO Den Haag

Ground: Kyocera Stadion

Visits: 1

Date: 5th November 2016

Match: ADO Den Haag - Willem II 1-0 (Eredivisie)

Attendance: 10 044

One of the reasons I haven´t been going that often to the Netherlands is the club card system. In the 90s and 00s there was a lot of problem with hooliganism and the Eredivisie introduced club cards. Without one it was difficult/impossible to get tickets for Eredivisie games.. In recent years the club card restrictions have been eased and for foreigners it is nowadays much easier to get tickets. ADO Den Haag were among the most difficult to buy tickets from but for most of their games you can nowadays, if you show your ID, buy tickets at the ground. They sell tickets on-line as well but you´ll need a Dutch bank account to do that. ADO Den Haag was founded in 1905 and has so far won "only" two Dutch league titles, both in the 1940s. In 2007 ADO Den Haag moved from Zuiderpark to the newly built Kyocera Stadion. The ground has a capacity of 15 000.

After a late breakfast I set off for Forepark, the metro station nearest to Kyocera Stadion. It was sunshine as I left Rotterdam but 30 minutes later, as I arrived at the ground, it started to rain. The fan shop was closed and I went to the reception to see of it was possible to get a ticket. The receptionist was very friendly but also fascinated I had come all the way from Sweden to see ADO Den Haag. When I told him about groundhopping he was even more fascinated. No tickets were on sale though. On match days the fanshop don´t sell tickets and the ticket counters open three hours before kick-off. I went back to Forepark and a few minutes later I was at Den Haag central station.

The Hague is the seat of the Dutch government, parliament, Supreme Court and the Council of State but the city is not the capital of the Netherlands, which is Amsterdam. I did some sightseeing before going back to my hotel in Rotterdam. Kick-off at Kyocera Stadion was at 18.30 and two hours or so before that I could finally buy my ticket. Surprisingly it was unreserved seating in the side stand opposite the main stand. I found a seat but during the match 80-90% of fans in my stand were standing up. There were 10 044 at Kyocera Stadion this windy and rainy evening and we had to watch an awful game of football. During the first 10 minutes of the second half ADO Den Haag played good football and it was in this period the goal was scored. Willem II never came close to equalizing and at times, when I was really freezing, I started to think why I do this. Once back at my nice and warm hotel room those thougths were gone though! Four games in three different countries for me and this year I don´t have anything planned (footballwise!) until I leave for England a few days before the New Year.

den haag