Sports sponsoring in the Netherlands

The sponsorship market in the Netherlands has in the year 2000, a size about the 1 billion Euro's. Of this amount goes the half to the Dutch sport. Of this amount goes the to football clubs. In the year 2000, the Royal Dutch Football Association(KNVB) starts an investigation into the social significance of football and the contribution football makes to the Dutch economy.

The study showed that corporate sponsors 347 million euros paid by the total annual spend of around 1.6 billion euros. The government contributed only 118 million euros. The remainder is paid by consumers through volunteer time and effort. That sponsorship has been accepted in the Netherlands is unmistakable.

A disadventage is that when the sport club had a gap in the budget they would easy fall back on the sponsors. Many companies been bombarded with requests for money, for the image of sponsorship this is not particularly beneficial.  In many projects, clubs, leagues and events there is no longer the original principle, that sponsorship is something extra. It does not, but the sponsoring money does not used for the gap in the budget of the sport club. The government is working enthusiastically to the misconception that the industry wil take care for the missing money. In the Netherlands we have become quite dependent on sponsorship. A good example is the footballindustry, which sponsors more than 40 per cent of the budget covers. This is considerably more than the income from grants.