Eindhoven is preparing for the women’s final of the Champions League on Saturday 3 June in the sold-out PSV stadium. As FC Barcelona and VfL Wolfsburg battle for the title, it promises to be a golden weekend for the city’s hotel industry anyway. “The 29 hotels are fully booked. That’s 2700 rooms,” calculates Jeroen Renders of the Eindhovens Hoteliers Overleg. “There are no more rooms available.”
The prices of the hotel rooms for the final weekend are fifteen to twenty percent more expensive than normal, according to Renders. “They are commercial companies. The demand on that weekend is huge. It goes without saying that the rates are slightly higher.”
Renders himself is director of the five-star hotel NH Collection Eindhoven Centre. “We have 132 hotel rooms. At least eighty percent of the rooms have been booked for that final.”
According to Renders, the Eindhoven catering industry will also benefit. “I assume all the restaurants are fully booked. The final has enormous PR value for the city of Eindhoven, the hotels and everything around it. The spinoff is huge.”
“It’s so important that we get to this final.”
Behind the scenes, a lot of hard work has been done to bring the final to Eindhoven. Three years ago, the municipality already wrote a so-called bid bookthe proposal to keep it in Eindhoven.
Renders says a lot of work went into that. “When we talk about the Netherlands, we often talk about Amsterdam, Rotterdam and maybe Utrecht. But Eindhoven can facilitate these kinds of grand finals. We have the capacity.”
Those who want to attend the final but do not have a ticket yet will be disappointed. All 34,120 tickets in the PSV stadium have already been sold. This makes the final the best attended women’s match ever in the Netherlands. It is the first time that the final battle of the Champions League for women is played in a sold-out stadium.
“Eindhoven is looking at possibilities to bring that tournament here as well.”
For the organization it is important that the final weekend runs smoothly. It could just be that more women’s football events will come to Eindhoven, says the hotel director. For example, the Netherlands has applied to host the 2027 Women’s World Cup.
Renders: “It is so important that we have already won this final. Eindhoven is looking at possibilities to bring the World Cup here as well.”
