Super Netball: Netball Victoria working on modelling for a third Super Netball franchise in Victoria

Expansion remains a big talking point in Super Netball and Netball Victoria is pushing the case for a third Victorian team in the state’s biggest growth area.

Netball Victoria is confident the state can sustain a third Super Netball franchise alongside the Melbourne Vixens and Melbourne Mavericks as it continues to work on modelling for a team in Geelong.

Amid ongoing debate about the merits of Super Netball expansion, Netball Victoria (NV) has investigated the viability of a regional club and has no doubt greater Geelong – the top growth area for the sport in the state – could support a “really strong SSN team”.

After the demise of Collingwood in 2023, NV made a submission to Netball Australia for the eighth Super Netball license for a regional-based team in the state’s western corridor in Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo.

While Craig Hutchison’s Sports Entertainment Network was granted the license for a second Melbourne-based team – resulting in the birth of the Mavericks for 2024 – NV chief executive Andrea Pearman remains convinced the Geelong region should be an expansion priority if Netball Australia decides to grow the eight-team league.

“We’ve done a lot of the modelling around what it looks like and we feel very passionately that this region could sustain a really strong SSN team,” Pearman said.

Netball Victoria wants to see a third Victorian Super Netball team based out of Geelong.

“(NV) did a lot of work around the viability of an eighth licence in that Geelong region and – for us having a Melbourne-based team (Vixens) – we felt very passionately about Geelong as a region that is full of netball, but also as potential for an SSN licence.

“It is a big market, it has got a huge growth opportunity for netball and continues to grow and I would say that it is probably the area where facilities are just not keeping up with the demand for netball, so there is a lot of work going on in that region.

“We know that it is the third biggest postcode in terms of Vixens membership down there, so the appetite from the grassroots right through to the elite is really strong.”

Pearman was confident the netball market was big enough for three teams in Victoria and another franchise in the state would not “cannibalise” the NV-run Vixens’ supporter base.

“I do believe it is (market is big enough) if it is done well,” Pearman said.

“We looked quite a lot at … if we had a second team, how would we not cannibalise the Vixens and what would we do differently.

“So what audiences you would appeal to, the age demographics and really starting to look at potentially a team attracting a younger audience and being more innovative whereas the Vixens is quite traditional.

Netball Victoria CEO Andrea Pearman is confident the market is big enough. Picture: Jason Edwards

“We have people following Mavericks and Vixens, so the tribalism in netball is alive, but it’s not like it is with some other football codes – Collingwood fans would never entertain following Essendon, for example.

“I think our supporters just love netball and they love seeing high quality netball, so we find they are much more supportive of other teams.”

Geelong and Melbourne’s western corridor is Victorian’s netball biggest growth region.

NV has projected greater Geelong will be the number one growth area for the sport until at least 2036, while the City of Wyndham – in Melbourne’s outer west – is the second-fastest growth area.

It is predicted there will be 543 new teams in Geelong and Wyndham in the next 12 years.

Pearman said some clubs and associations were having to cap the number of players or teams due to a shortage of courts in the area.

Victoria already hosts the Vixens and Mavericks. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

The sticking point for a Super Netball team in the Geelong region remains an appropriate venue.

While Bendigo and Ballarat have suitable indoor stadiums, Pearman hoped planning for a new indoor sporting complex at Waurn Ponds could be expanded to include a 5000-plus seat venue.

“The difficulty …. in the near future is the stadium,” Pearman said.

“Obviously without a stadium to host an SSN game – you would be looking at least a 5000 person stadium – it is very difficult.

“In the short term we had some suggestions around what a hybrid model could look like and leveraging some of the regional infrastructure in Ballarat and Bendigo, as well as obviously back into Melbourne.

“The state government through its legacy funding through Commonwealth Games is building a six indoor court stadium down at Waurn Ponds and the council are looking at supporting us through outdoor infrastructure as well.

“The only missing piece is being able to build the indoor venue of a minimum of 5000.

“We would be really interested to see where we could find the extra money to really future-proof that stadium down there, which is a greenfield site at the moment.”

Pearman said NV would be open to different ownership models should NA decide to expand the league.

“Obviously last year with the sense of urgency around the eighth licence, it was very much a Netball Victoria-led submission,” she said.

“However, with time, we’re certainly looking at the possibility of partnering with people and doing things a little bit differently.”

Pearman said the time was right for the league to look at expansion to increase opportunities for local talent.

“It definitely is time for us to consider it and I think Netball Australia is going through a process at the moment of consulting with current teams and key stakeholders to see what the possibility of an expansion could look like,” she said.

“We only have 10 players in an SSN team, for Victoria that is only 20 spots and if you look at the pipeline of talent coming through, there are not enough opportunities for Victorian talent, let alone Australian talent more broadly.

“So I think being able to have more teams, or larger list sizes is absolutely one thing we should be looking at.”

Originally published as Super Netball: Netball Victoria working on modelling for a third Super Netball franchise in Victoria