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’ collection, we look at what has modified since then. On this second installment: high 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 ladies have dominated Dutch subject hockey for years, successful as many as 22 nationwide titles in 27 years. The lads’s championship tally stands at two. They’ve been ready for the nationwide title since 2001. But the funds of Males’s 1 remains to be increased than that of Ladies’s 1. Closing the hole takes time, if in any respect doable.
Marc Lammers, the previous nationwide workforce coach who led the Dutch ladies to the Olympic title in Beijing in 2008, is accountable for distributing the cash. Within the 2022/2023 season, he was coach of Males’s 1 and the workforce completed in sixth place, exterior 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 identical time, discussions flared up in regards to the unequal salaries in males’s and ladies’s subject hockey. On the identical time, sponsor revenue was slowly coming underneath strain. Purpose sufficient for Lammers to depart teaching behind and focus fully on funds. In September 2024, he formally took over as board member of high 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 in regards to the Bossche Golden Group
‘It has change into harder to search out sponsors. Firms 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 lately, 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 successful the Olympic title with the Dutch ladies he made a reputation for himself within the lecture circuit. Along with Gerard Booij, the daddy of former worldwide Minke, he went full throttle on the lookout for sponsors. The exhausting work resulted within the ‘Bossche Gouden Group’: 24 devoted companions who put cash on the desk on high of the prevailing sponsors. An additional penny for the membership, supposed for Girls 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 % enhance within the funds for Girls 1
This season it’s the males’s funds that has acquired a giant increase. The arrival of Thierry Brinkman, the captain of the Dutch nationwide workforce, absorbs a big a part of that funds, however on the identical time gives a top quality increase. The identical goes for the contract extension of worldwide Koen Bijen. A transparent sign that the membership not solely places its concentrate on the ladies, but additionally needs to carry the lads to the highest.
For subsequent season the state of affairs is totally different. Then the funds of Males’s 1 will stay the identical, whereas the funds of Ladies’s 1 will catch up, Lammers says. He speaks of a 15 % enhance. This more money will probably be spent, amongst different issues, on the 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 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 far larger. In that respect, together with Amsterdam, we’re already doing fairly effectively. Marc Lammers, board member of high subject hockey at Den Bosch
Lammers: “We predict the dialogue about equal salaries is necessary. 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 lads’s and ladies’s budgets is 58/42. Two years in the past, when the dialogue about equal salaries was brisk, chairman Rob Almering known as the ratio 60/40. It reveals 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 far wider. In that respect, along with Amsterdam, we’re already doing fairly effectively. In fact, there’s nonetheless room for enchancment. However abruptly dividing the funds for high subject hockey fifty-fifty between the lads and the ladies, that’s not doable. Then the lads 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 possibly can’t simply shut that hole all of sudden. One thing like that takes time.’
