Football stadiums' peak load standard unsafe; All stadiums in NL must be checked

The peak load standard laid down in the current Building Decree for football stadiums is too low. The standard prescribes that grandstands must withstand a maximum load of 500 kilograms per square meter. But if supporters jump up and down close to each other and in the same rhythm, the load increases to 900 kilograms per square meter. All football stadiums in the Netherlands must be checked for how much load their stands can handle and necessary measures, said engineering firm RoyalHaskoningDHV. The firm investigated the collapse of a stand in the Goffert Stadium in Nijmegen in October last year.

Erik Middelkoop, co-director of engineering firm RoyalHaskoningDHV, said this is the first time it's been discovered that the peak load standard is too low. "In the event of an incident in a stadium, you assume a construction error, but you do not take into account that the established standard is not correct. The Goffert Stadium met the legal requirements," said Middelkoop. He believes that when setting the standard, crowding, jumping, and hopping supporters were not taken into account. "No one thought of that, while the burden of such behavior is at least 2.5 times higher per person than if everyone remains calmly in place."

According to Middelkoop, management measures are needed to prevent the stands from being overloaded. For example, make sure that spectators cannot come close to each other. "The bucket seats used in many stadiums make it very easy to push forward and get two people in one seat at the same time. High-back seats are better. Stand bars are part of a solution. It's very complex. The unique building construction of a stadium needs to be looked at much more closely." In the Goffert Stadium, the stands collapsed when a large group of Vitesse supporters jumped up and down on them.

Middelkoop, director Wilco van Schaik of NEC, and the municipality of Nijmegen agree that there is no real culprit for the collapse of the Goffert grandstand. "This could have happened to anyone. Nobody was aware of these risks," said Van Schaik. "In a way, we are happy that this happened now without any casualties. It could have been worse. Now everyone knows that we have to think about the frantic behavior of the supporters because that is just part of football."

In the meantime, NEC had beams installed under all the stands. The club is allowed to receive supporters again. "The Goffert Stadium is now one of the safest stadiums in the Netherlands," said Van Schaik.