Sports
Heerenveen is famous for its sporting accomplishments and world class sports accommodations. These include the Abe Lenstra football stadium and the Thialf speed skating arena which was one of the first indoor 400m ice rinks in the world, and where annually held international events draw large crowds. Thialf is also home to the city's ice hockey team, the Heerenveen Flyers. The town's football team, SC Heerenveen, plays in the Dutch Premier Division and has been a steady presence in the UEFA Cup for 10 years, topped by the team's biggest achievement when they qualified for the UEFA Champions League in 2000. In 2006, the "Sportstad" (Sport City) project was completed, which included a gymnastics hall, swimming pool and an extension to the football stadium, all of which are clustered together. The Abe Lenstra stadium is unique because its supporter capacity is larger than the number of inhabitants of the town. One of the few football venues that shares this distinction is Stade Félix Bollaert in Lens, France. Several American football venues, mostly college football venues, also share this distinction.
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Famous quotes containing the word sports:
“In the end, I think you really only get as far as you’re allowed to get.”
—Gayle Gardner, U.S. sports reporter. As quoted in Sports Illustrated, p. 87 (June 17, 1991)
“...I didn’t come to this with any particular cachet. I was just a person who grew up in the United States. And when I looked around at the people who were sportscasters, I thought they were just people who grew up in the United States, too. So I thought, Why can’t a woman do it? I just assumed everyone else would think it was a swell idea.”
—Gayle Gardner, U.S. sports reporter. As quoted in Sports Illustrated, p. 85 (June 17, 1991)
“There be some sports are painful, and their labor
Delight in them sets off. Some kinds of baseness
Are nobly undergone, and most poor matters
Point to rich ends.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)