The Holland Heineken House will disappear, NOC*NSF reports on Thursday. The sports umbrella organization will itself organize a ceremony location for the athletes during the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris.
NOC*NSF had been toying with the idea of taking a different tack since 2019. The sports umbrella organization will operate the new location together with sports center Papendal under the flag of TeamNL. Heineken must comply with “a possible catering role”. The exact details will be announced at a later date.
There was no Holland Heineken House at the previous two Olympic Games in Tokyo and Beijing either, but that was for a different reason. Because of corona, hardly any spectators were allowed at those events.
The Holland Heineken House has been a household name in the sports world for decades. The Dutch beer brewer first organized the occasion at the Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992. It was intended as a meeting place for top athletes and the public.
Willem-Alexander often present
In practice, the Holland Heineken House mainly gained fame as a ceremony location. Dutch medalists were enthusiastically welcomed in a bacchanal filled with sweat and beer fumes.
King Willem-Alexander also liked to show up there. That resulted in a photo during the Sochi Winter Games in 2014 that he will not like to be reminded of. Willem-Alexander and Maxima then happily posed with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The next Olympic Games in Paris will start on July 26, 2024. The event lasts more than two weeks.
