Abe Lenstra

The name on the ground predates the building. Abe Lenstra, the club's own player, died in 1985. When SC Heerenveen left that ground on 4 June 1994, the name travelled with them across town; the new stadium has carried it ever since, and no sponsor has ever been attached to it.

The opening, on 20 August 1994, gave the place a story it has not needed to embellish. Willem-Alexander, then heir to the throne, took the ceremonial first kick, and the match that followed put Heerenveen against PSV Eindhoven. In the visitors' side was a Brazilian teenager, Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima. That is how the ground began: a small Frisian club's new home doubling as the continental debut of a forward.

What was built in 1994 held 14,500. The rebuild carried out between 2003 and 2005 nearly doubled that. Two further expansions were drawn up and abandoned — one in 2011, another in 2012 — both shelved when the financial risk of the economic crisis was weighed against the gain. The pitch, a hybrid of natural grass and synthetic fibre, was relaid with a new mat in April 2022.

In February 2024 the ground took a share of the UEFA Women's Nations League finals, staging the third-place match on the 28th. Germany beat the Netherlands 2-0.