Museum square
Before 1914 there were no places at all where so many people could come together for a sporting event. Jurryt van de Vooren gives the establishment of Ajax in 1900 as an example. The football players then were dependent on the goodwill of farmers. But that also meant that you could be thrown from their country again if they were tired of you.
“There is a lot of football in the Vondelpark,” says Van de Vooren, “and especially on Museumplein. That is from 1885, when the Rijksmuseum is built, the largest meeting place of athletes in the Netherlands. They played football, there was cricket and in the winter there was just a bit of a skill, but still.”