Budget overshoot makes BAM consortium cancel Dutch stadium contract

A BAM consortium has been forced to cancel a big stadium contract for Dutch club Feyenoord because the contractor’s costing of the project overshot the budget by $22m. 

Feyenoord set the maximum construction budget at $206m (€206m), but BAM costed the work at $228m (€215m) excluding inflation, so the deal is off for now. 

The Feyenoord Founders Consortium consisted of BAM, AM and Siemens. 

BAM said in a statement that they are "prepared to offer Feyenoord its experience gained with the reconstruction of stadiums around the world in a new route to carry out the reconstruction plans of Feyenoord." 

But René van Ierschot, President Commissioner of Feyenoord’s De Kuip Stadium, said there had been no plan B. 

"In the past few months we have been fully committed to develop this plan with BAM and spent no time on a plan B. That we will have to do now. It will still be a few months before it becomes clear which direction we want to go." 

This development is unusual in the world of big-ticket contracting – a $22m difference may seem like a relatively small reason to cancel a $200m-plus contract. 

But given that the renovations were to increase Feyenoord’s squad budget, the money would have made a sizeable difference to the club. 

Photograph: Feyenoord’s De Kuip Stadium as it currently stands