It has now been two years since Maria Verschoor and Josine Koning made their name for equal salaries in males’s and ladies’s subject hockey. Within the ‘Wage Hole’ sequence, we look at what has modified since then. On this second installment: prime membership Den Bosch, led by former nationwide workforce coach Marc Lammers, is working exhausting and taking steps, however small steps. ‘We went throughout Den Bosch.’
Den Bosch’s girls have dominated Dutch subject hockey for years, profitable as many as 22 nationwide titles in 27 years. The boys’s championship tally stands at two. They’ve been ready for the nationwide title since 2001. But the price range of Males’s 1 remains to be increased than that of Girls’s 1. Closing the hole takes time, if in any respect doable.
Marc Lammers, the previous nationwide workforce coach who led the Dutch girls to the Olympic title in Beijing in 2008, is in command of distributing the cash. Within the 2022/2023 season, he was coach of Males’s 1 and the workforce completed in sixth place, outdoors the playoffs. It quickly turned clear to Lammers: a monetary injection was wanted to shut the hole with the highest 4 and push Males’s 1 again towards the playoffs.
On the similar time, discussions flared up concerning the unequal salaries in males’s and ladies’s subject hockey. On the similar time, sponsor revenue was slowly coming below stress. Cause sufficient for Lammers to go away teaching behind and focus completely on funds. In September 2024, he formally took over as board member of prime subject hockey, after months of exhausting work behind the scenes to lift cash.
Two years in the past, Maria Verschoor and Josine Koning made their name for equal salaries in males’s and ladies’s subject hockey. Picture: Bart Scheulderman
We drove throughout Den Bosch. It took us days to get all these companions collectively. Marc Lammers concerning the Bossche Golden Group
‘It has change into tougher to search out sponsors. Corporations these days make investments much less in billboards and extra in occasions. You’ll have to consider different issues as a membership. You don’t promote a billboard today, you promote an expertise. We do this with storytelling and thru social media,’ says Lammers.
The previous participant of Den Bosch, Tilburg and Oranje Zwart is aware of his approach round within the enterprise world. After profitable the Olympic title with the Dutch girls he made a reputation for himself within the lecture circuit. Along with Gerard Booij, the daddy of former worldwide Minke, he went full throttle in search of sponsors. The exhausting work resulted within the ‘Bossche Gouden Group’: 24 devoted companions who put cash on the desk on prime of the prevailing sponsors. An additional penny for the membership, meant for Women and Males 1. Lammers: ‘We drove all the best way to Den Bosch. It took us days to get all these companions collectively. Gerard is engaged on it nearly full-time every week.’
A 15 p.c improve within the price range for Women 1
This season it’s the males’s price range that has obtained a giant enhance. The arrival of Thierry Brinkman, the captain of the Dutch nationwide workforce, absorbs a big a part of that price range, however on the similar time gives a top quality enhance. The identical goes for the contract extension of worldwide Koen Bijen. A transparent sign that the membership not solely places its deal with the ladies, but additionally desires to carry the boys to the highest.
For subsequent season the state of affairs is completely different. Then the price range of Males’s 1 will stay the identical, whereas the price range of Girls’s 1 will catch up, Lammers says. He speaks of a 15 p.c improve. This extra cash will probably be spent, amongst different issues, on the just lately introduced contract extensions of skilled internationals Frédérique Matla, Joosje Burg, Sanne Koolen, Josine Koning and Pien Sanders. Emma Reijnen, who progressed to the Dutch nationwide workforce from the Junior squad, additionally prolonged her contract, as did coach Marieke Dijkstra and her assistant Austin Smith.
Emma Reijnen made the transfer from the younger nationwide workforce to the Dutch nationwide workforce and just lately signed an improved contract with Den Bosch. Picture: WorldSportPics
There are nonetheless golf equipment the place the hole between males’s and ladies’s salaries is way higher. In that respect, together with Amsterdam, we’re already doing fairly properly. Marc Lammers, board member of prime subject hockey at Den Bosch
Lammers: “We predict the dialogue about equal salaries is vital. It’s our ambition to get these budgets nearer collectively. For subsequent season that has been achieved. The gamers who’ve re-signed have extra expertise in comparison with their earlier contract and should be rewarded financially for that. The step we’ve got taken is to their satisfaction.
Lammers doesn’t need to put concrete quantities on the desk. Nonetheless, he does state that the ratio between the boys’s and ladies’s budgets is 58/42. Two years in the past, when the dialogue about equal salaries was brisk, chairman Rob Almering referred to as the ratio 60/40. It exhibits how slowly change is going on. No leaps are taken, however small steps.
‘Our ambition is to equalize salaries. We’re working exhausting on that. There are nonetheless golf equipment the place the hole between males’s and ladies’s salaries is way wider. In that respect, along with Amsterdam, we’re already doing fairly properly. After all, there’s nonetheless room for enchancment. However all of a sudden dividing the price range for prime subject hockey fifty-fifty between the boys and the ladies, that’s not doable. Then the boys gained’t make the playoffs. In the end, the market has to maneuver with it. The market worth of males in subject hockey remains to be increased than that of ladies. You may’t simply shut that hole all of sudden. One thing like that takes time.’
