The traditional Saturday scheduled match is no longer assumed to be the default for Duch hockey as the sport adapts to changing participant behaviour across the country, senior sport figures warned recently.
At the annual Nationaal Hockeycongres in Utrecht, attended by around 300 hockey club officials from across the Netherlands, keynote speaker Jan-Dirk van der Zee, director of amateur football at the Royal Dutch Football Association, delivered a stark message about the future of team sports.
He said that increasing demand for flexibility and personalised schedules requires a fundamental re-thinking of how competitions are organised, including potentially moving games away from traditional weekend slots.
Developments highlighted at the congress included a decling fit with fixed weekend slot due to youth players pushing for greater control over when they participate. Saturdays and Sundays, it was revealed, are often too congested with other commitments.
There was a trend noted towards flexible formats with smaller sided games already rising in youth football, and which are expected to grow in hockey as well. This included an nnovative 3v3 hockey format, backed by Nike, which is expected to launch this year in the Netherlands.
Meanwhile, the Dutch hockey federation reported just over 252,000 registered players last season, up by about 4,000 from the year before.
Yet club officials remain concerned about retention, particularly when offerings don’t align with players’ lifestyle needs.
Van der Zee urged clubs to work with grassroots members to create new formats and schedules that retain engagement and reflect societal shifts toward personal choice.
Van der Zee framed the evolution as essential both to keep the sport relevant and to harness the communal value clubs still offer.
