Marathon skating, crisis number 1000

A big sport during the winter in Holland is marathon skating. The games are most of the time on an ice rink with a length of 400 meters. The competition is at least 25 rounds and at most 250 rounds. It has a long history. In the 17th century, the most popular skating tour started, it’s called the ‘Elfstedentocht’ (literally translated: eleven cities tour). It’s a 200 km long tour and according to participants a ‘ones in your lifetime experience’ riding it.
But at the moment marathon skating is in trouble. A lot of athletes, who are participating in this sport, are down. The problem is that the promised broadcasting time came true as a delusion.

One of the most famous riders Hulzebosch said about it: “If we’re all gonna sit down in despair, you can better directly quit. There has to happen something, otherwise we really have to stop.”
The newspapers already forecasted to head sponsor (but maybe more sugar daddy) DSB that this will be the final death blow. The costs don’t outweigh anymore the viewers, so the sports channel will not broadcast the events live anymore. Other sponsors already retreat for the coming winter competition because the events were not live broadcasted. Because of all the fuss with the officials and the unprofessional behavior it’s almost over with marathon skating.

So, the other way around, there is also a possibility of problems. If there are no sponsors, a sport cannot exist. Sports that are not really big, are dependent on their sponsors. They cannot continue without sponsoring. In this case, it will be really sad, if this sport is no longer played in a professional way because it’s one of the oldest and most typical Dutch sport.