The Netherlands

This chapter sheds light on the characteristics of the Dutch sport system, sport policy, and sport participation. In addition attention is paid to facilities use for sport participation and the role of sport facilities in enhancing sport participation. For this purpose an overview is given of recent policy documents related to sport, and analyses are conducted on national sport participation surveys that include the abovementioned topics. In this chapter we conclude that in the Netherlands the sport clubs are the most important frameworks for organized sport activities. The Netherlands is characterized by a strong sport club system and a good sport infrastructure. This is a result of the investments of the government in facilitating sport and the high degree of sport voluntary work in the Netherlands. The government considers sport as a mean to achieve objectives set out in other policy fields such as welfare and public health. Most prominent policy target is to increase sport participation to 75 % in 2016. Although, the results indicate that sport participation has been stable for the past 5 years, around 65 %. To raise sport participation rates, additional sport facilities seem to have little effect given the high standard of sport facilities in the Netherlands. Offering new proven effective activities to target groups in cooperation with local partners using existing facilities is a more promising and viable approach to increase sport participation rates in the Netherlands.