Plan for new Feyenoord stadium scrapped

The executive board of Rotterdam Thursday withdrew its proposal for a new stadium for city based football club Feyenoord.

The withdrawal occurred at the beginning of a council debate, in which the council members were supposed to vote on the proposal. However, it had already turned out that there was no majority for the plan, reports Xinhua.

Monday, the executive board party D66 (Democrats) announced it would vote unanimously against the plan, because the financial risks would be too big. This caused the other board parties PvdA (Labor), VVD (Liberals) and CDA (Christian-Democrats) had to find a majority elsewhere, but they did not succeed.

According to the plan, Rotterdam would have to give a guarantee of 165 million euros for the total construction plan costs of 400 million euros. In addition, the city would have to spend 70 million euros on land and infrastructure.

Since 2006, Rotterdam and Feyenoord have been working on plans for a new home for the football club. The new Feyenoord stadium, with a 63,000 seat capacity, would be ready in 2018 and part of a new stadium park next to the current stadium in the south of Rotterdam.

According to Feyenoord, the current stadium, De Kuip, offers limited space to grow, even after renovation. On Wednesday Feyenoord even wrote an open letter to all residents of Rotterdam with a plea to support the plan for a new stadium.

"Only with a new stadium, the club can achieve a budget that fits a top three spot in Dutch football," the letter said.