Aesthetic and resistant steel for the roof of Polman Stadium in Almelo

Detailed information

The renovation and extension project of the Polman Stadium, developed by the Dutch architectural study pr8 architecten under the guidance of Norbert Lienesch, included the addition of a second tier on all four stands in order to achieve the stadium's necessary capacity increase. Therefore, the old stadium roof had to be dismantled and replaced by a new roof construction.

Aesthetic and resistant coating for modern architecture requirements

ArcelorMittal's metallic coated steel was used for the construction of this new stadium roof. SDW Profiel, who processed the coils into trapezoidal steel sheets, advised this metallic coated steel to the building team because of its unique aesthetic appearance characterised by a shiny, silvery spangle and its remarkable durability thanks to its excellent corrosion resistance.

ArcelorMittal supplied the metallic coated steel with a special anti-finger print finish for the fabrication of the profiled sheets for this single-skin roof.

Polman Stadium renovation: background and details

The extension of the Polman Stadium in the municipality of Almelo, home to the football club Heracles Almelo, was a necessary step to keep up with the team's growing success in the Dutch National League and the increasing ticket sales. The club's stadium, opened in 1999 with a capacity of 6900 spectators, had already been upgraded to 8500 seats in 2005, but the demand kept growing. After years of negotiations, plans to build a completely new stadium turned out not to be financially feasible, which is why Heracles decided to fundamentally revamp and upgrade the existing stadium.

The renovation design was shaped to visually resemble the scrapped new stadium with black-white club colouring and a rounded seating bowl rising from the more rectangular surrounding building that contains the stadium's infrastructure and commercial spaces.

Thanks to its additional tier, the upgraded stadium has now a capacity of 13 500 seats, 11 500 of which are for the club's fans with 1700 business seats and 20 sky boxes offering additional seating for 300 spectators.

The tiers were equipped with new folding chairs in Heracles' club colours of black and white. Apart from improving the spectators' views from all angles, the chairs are now bigger for better comfort.

The extension works were carried out in two stages in order not to interrupt the stadium's activities. The first stage, realised in 2014, included the extension of floor space in the south and west stands; the creation of additional space for retail; and the modernisation of offices, locker rooms, and the main entrance. The second phase foresaw the actual increase of capacity, namely the addition of a second, prefabricated tier of seating on all four stands. Consequently, the construction of the new roof and new facade cladding were made of a wind-proof, silver canvas installed on curved aluminium framework.