Tanja Dik has been appointed CEO of Johan Cruijff Arena in Amsterdam, succeeding Henk Markerink, who will retire on 1 September.

Dik previously worked for Schiphol Group (of airport fame) as general director of consumer products and services. Before that, she was international venue director for for European theatre giant Stage Entertainment.

Johan Cruijff Arena, formerly Amsterdam Arena, is the Netherlands’ largest stadium, with a capacity of 55,5000 for football matches and 68,000 for concerts. Home to Dutch football club AFX Ajax, it has hosted headline shows by the likes of Coldplay, AC/DC, Beyoncé, the Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson and Rihanna, as well as dance music festival Sensation.

“We are convinced that in Tanja Dik we have a highly qualified successor”

The venue celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2021, having opened in August 1996.

“We are convinced that in Tanja we have a highly qualified successor who, in collaboration with our employees and partners, will lead the further development of this beautiful stadium,” comments stadium chairman Hans van der Noordaa. “I would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude on behalf of the supervisory noard for the impressive contribution Henk Markerink has made to the development and success of the Johan Cruijff Arena over the past 25 years.”

Dik says her new role brings together her “passion for sports, live entertainment and the customer”. She adds: “The social role that the Arena fulfils is an important icing on the cake for me, which I would like to further shape. I look forward to working with the team, shareholders, business partners, founders and other stakeholders at the Johan Cruijff Arena.”

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Pink opened the UK/European leg of her smash Beautiful Trauma world tour in the Netherlands on Tuesday, playing to a sell-out crowd of 50,000 at Johan Cruyff Arena in Amsterdam.

The 27 European stadium dates follow a successful second North American leg of the tour, which has been on the road since March 2018. In April, promoter Live Nation revealed the tour has sold 2.9 million tickets globally since then; the current European leg has moved more than 1.2m.

Pink plays RDS Arena in Dublin tonight.

The Beautiful Trauma world tour was the highest grossing in the US in March, which came on the back of broken records in Australia and New Zealand, where Pink played 42 sold-out shows.

When it ends at the US grand prix, at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, on 2 November, the tour will have played 157 shows in 18 countries.

Beautiful Trauma, the fourth highest-grossing tour worldwide in 2018, was last year named the most anticipated UK tour of 2019.

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Amsterdam Arena will as of this August be known as the Johan Cruyff Arena, in tribute to one of the city’s most famous sons.

The stadium, which has a capacity of 53,000 for concerts, is home to the Ajax football club, where Cruyff played from 1964–1973 and 1981–1983. With the start of the 2018–2019 season, the venue will change its name to Johan Cruyff Arena (Johan Cruijff Arena in Dutch), “to give Johan Cruyff a worthy tribute and to realise the broadly supported wish expressed by [late Amsterdam mayor] Eberhard van der Laan on behalf of the city,” says Henk Markerink, director of Amsterdam Arena.

The venue’s new logo will be unveiled on 25 April, which would have been Cruyff’s birthday.

“We are proud to be able to bear his name”

“We are happy to pay permanent tribute to the football legend Johan Cruyff, a great Amsterdammer,” continues Markerink. “As a stadium, we are proud to be able to bear his name. This will resonate globally.”

Cruyff, widely regarded as one of the greatest association footballers of all time, passed away aged 68 on 24 March 2016.

The venue that will bear his name has in recent years hosted shows by Beyoncé, Coldplay, Muse, Rihanna, Roger Waters and AC/DC. It was also formerly home to EDM festival Sensation.

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