Goffertstadion

Before a ball was kicked here, De Goffert already had a nickname: De Bloedkuul, the Blood Pit, earned when thousands of unemployed men dug and shaped the bowl by hand between 1937 and 1939 under a state relief scheme rather than a building contract. Prince Bernhard opened the ground on 8 July 1939, and NEC moved in from the 1945/46 season after their previous home was left unusable by wartime damage.

That hand-built past resurfaced in October 2021, when a stand partially gave way during a match against Vitesse. The repair swapped the turf for a GrassMaster hybrid pitch, natural grass reinforced with a small share of synthetic fibre.

The record crowd, 32,000, goes back to a league match against Ajax in June 1968. Barcelona visited in October 1983 for a Cup Winners' Cup tie, and the ground staged two KNVB Cup final second legs — against Ajax in 1983 and Roda JC in 2000, both lost. Music has left its mark too: AC/DC and Metallica topped the Monsters of Rock bill in 1991, and every year since 1951 the International Four Days Marches flag parade has opened the Vlaggenparade.