I believe a groundhop trip is more than seeing a football match. It is an experience that can bring you a lot. See different cities, cultures and meeting other people.

I am Bas, born in 1973 and currently living in the Eindhoven region in the Netherlands. Since the mid 80s I am visiting football matches on a regular basis. It started with a few matches of Fortuna Sittard but I soon became supporter of PSV. I bought a season ticket in 1991 and besides a number of years in the first decade of this century because I moved to the Hague and Paris, I kept my season ticket. And even in the years without I visited many matches of PSV.

There are groundhoppers that pay visits to empty stadiums without seeing a match. For me an empty stadium is of course beautiful but for me it are the chants, the fans and the atmosphere that truly make a difference. So you won't find a stadium tour here nor a match/ground in the lower amateur leagues. My first visit abroad was a match in Mönchengladbach in 1994 which was within an hour driving from where I was living in Middle Limburg. So not much further than Eindhoven. In the last years I enjoyed making foreign trips more and more: during summer holiday or an annual one day trip in Belgium, Germany, France or in our own country with a friend. Now my son is older we are also going together to matches abroad. In 2022 we did that for the first time with a short family trip to Paris including PSG, a short trip with only my son to London (West Ham) and during our family summer holiday in the Basque country. The holiday as a total but the stadium in Bilbao in particular impressed both of us so much that I called this website after it: San Mamés. For me it is not only the visit to the stadium that I like during trips like these, but feeling and enjoying the city where we go as well, especially the food and drinks.

As my first football match in the De Baandert was 40 years ago, I decided in 2025 that this was a good reason to built a site and share my experience with you. Since I don't have pictures of most matches of all those years, I decided to use existing pictures which are often better than my own. Enjoy and if you would like to share any information, have a question or if you want to visit a match with me: don't hesitate to contact me at bas@sanmames.nl.