Lotto Park

The Lotto Park is a football stadium in the municipality of Anderlecht in Brussels, Belgium. It is home to R.S.C. Anderlecht. It also hosted the UEFA Euro 1972 semi-final between Hungary and the Soviet Union, as well as several games of the Belgium national football team.

History

Early history

In 1917, R.S.C. Anderlecht installed, on the border of the Meir Park (later renamed Astrid Park), a new stadium with only one wooden stand. It was originally called the Emile Verse Stadium (French: Stade Emile Verse, Dutch: Emile Versestadion), after the industrialist Emile Verse, a generous patron of the club. Later, concrete stands were set up.

Between 1983 and 1991, the stadium was completely rebuilt and took the name of the club's then chairman, Constant Vanden Stock.

21st century

In 2010, the son of Constant Vanden Stock, Roger, announced together with RSC Anderlecht's manager Herman Van Holsbeeck that the club was going to build a third ring above the two existing ones in order to increase the stadium's capacity to 30,000 places. As of 2022, these works have not started, and it is doubtful they will, as in 2014 Anderlecht agreed to become anchor tenant of the planned 60,000+ new national stadium, thus sealing the fate of their spiritual home.

In the summer of 2012, R.S.C. Anderlecht carried out work to bring the stadium up to UEFA standards. Its capacity was thus decreased to 21,500 seats but it offers more comfort, more security, as well as new VIP areas and a brand new press room. All seats in the stadium are now equipped with a backrest. The aisles have been widened by 40 cm (16 in) for safety reasons, rail seats for safe standing were fitted on the terracing behind each goal, while stand 1 is now equipped with 651 outdoor VIP seats.

This page also has a version in other languages :  Констант Ванден Сток Стадион (russian)