Den Dreef, also known as

King Power The King Power International Group ( th, กลุ่มบริษัท คิง เพาเวอร์ อินเตอร์เนชันแนล) is a Thai travel retail group, based in Bangkok. The chairman and CEO was Vichai Sriva ...

at Den Dreef for sponsorship reasons, is a football

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

situated on Kardinaal Mercierlaan in the

Heverlee Heverlee () is a town in Belgium. It is a borough of the city of Leuven. Heverlee is bordered by Herent, Bertem, Oud Heverlee and several other municipalities that are part of Leuven (including Leuven proper and Kessel-Lo). The town is the loca ...

suburb of

Leuven Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic ...

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

. It is home to

Jupiler Pro League The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 team ...

football team

Oud-Heverlee Leuven Oud-Heverlee Leuven (), also called OH Leuven or OHL, is a Belgian football club from the city of Leuven. It was created in 2002 from the merger of three clubs, '' F.C. Zwarte Duivels Oud-Heverlee'', whose registration number it inherited, '' ...

and hosts the home matches of the

Belgium women's national football team The Belgium women's national football team (nicknamed ''Belgian Red Flames'') represents Belgium in international women's football. It is controlled by the Royal Belgian Football Association, the governing body for football in Belgium. Their hom ...

and the

Belgium national under-21 football team The Belgium national under-21 football team is the national under-21 football team of Belgium and is controlled by the Belgian Football Association. The team competes in the European Under-21 Football Championship, held every two years. Their bi ...

. The entrance for visiting spectators is on Tervuursevest.

Extensions

Belgian World War Memorial stone (Leuven)

With the establishment of

in 2002, the stadium changed its name from Leuvens Sportcentrum to Den Dreef. At that point the stadium had a

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

layout, with the pitch surrounded by

tartan track Tartan Track is a trademarked all-weather synthetic track surfacing made of polyurethane used for track and field competitions, manufactured by 3M. It lets athletes compete in bad weather without serious performance loss and improves their resu ...

running lanes. There was one main stand with seats approximately two-thirds of the length of the pitch and a smaller stand with covered standing terracing on the opposite side. Both of these were covered, whereas in both curves the standing places were not covered. The initial layout was such that visiting teams used the north curve and received a part of the smaller stand. A first extension came when the curves were demolished and new covered single tier stands were built on top of the track behind both goals, which allowed the supporters to sit much closer to the field. The one behind the goal to the west is normally reserved for visiting supporters. In the summer of 2011 the lower tier of the main stand was extended to run the whole length of the pitch, increasing the capacity of the stadium to 8,519 in preparation for the larger attendances expected following Oud-Heverlee Leuven's promotion to the Belgian Pro League in season 2010-11. In the summer of 2012 the upper tier of the main stand was also extended, further increasing the stadium capacity to 9,493 and adding extra space to its corporate entertainment and conference facilities. In December 2015 the stand opposite the main stand was demolished and replaced with a similar stand as the main stand. This new stand has been in use since the 2016-17 season and contains skyboxes, media facilities and the dressing rooms which were previously located in a separate building some 20 meters outside of the stadium. The capacity has increased further to 10,020. At this point the stadium no longer had places reserved for standing, but both smaller stands behind the goals are typically used by supporters that stand rather than sit. OH Leuven has announced further plans to expand the stadium, stating that the expansion in 2016 was just phase one of a three phase expansion plan. Phase two will involve expanding the smaller stand behind the west side goal and connecting it to the main stand, increasing the capacity to 11,000. During the third phase the smaller stand on the east side will be expanded by adding again 1,000 places for standing and connecting the stand to the two stands along the long sides of the pitch. The total capacity will increase to somewhere between 12,000 and 13,000.

References

External links

Stadion info and images
OHL.be club website. Retrieved 14 November 2015. {{Belgian First Division A venues Football venues in Flanders Sports venues in Flemish Brabant Buildings and structures in Leuven Oud-Heverlee Leuven