Lisa Alexander: Netball Australia has promised a vision for the future but we’re running out of time
Netball Australia has promised it all, but with a 2027 home World Cup drawing near, LISA ALEXANDER declares the sport is running out of time and is losing out to the other major codes.
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Netball is still at war with itself.
Diehard fans like me have sat back for the past few years watching the game tear itself apart with factions wanting control and fighting with each other over the direction of the game.
Three years ago, I wrote about my vision for a netball pathway forward and here we are in 2025, and we still haven’t seen a proper strategy for the growth of netball with real threats from AFLW, NRLW, Wallaroos, WNBL, Matildas and Australian Women’s Cricket to our athlete and pathway production and talent line.
The war going on behind closed doors has been a problem forever in my experiences over 30 years in Netball high performance programs and as a member of the grassroots community.
And from the people I talk to, it is definitely still going on behind the scenes today.
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I could write a spy thriller novel with Netball troubles as part of the plot, but I will digress and speak about the current state of play and the annoyances and frustrations I feel when I watch, consume and talk about our great sport.
I played the Wicked Witch of the West in my Year 10 school play, and I feel like this now when considering the state of Netball in Australia.
However, Glinda the Good Witch has the final say as I do believe, I do, I do, that Netball has an extreme silver lining to travel on in future.
Looking back at that article I was positive about the future and the opportunities that could be leveraged at the time, there was private investment money at the table and many interested parties.
My view was we needed to embrace privatisation and for Netball Australia to relinquish control of the Super Netball league.
The game needed to expand to New Zealand and become a 12-team competition, increasing opportunities for players and growing our commercial success.
But that could only be done by a private entity so Netball Australia could go back to the core business of Diamonds and development – with a strong view of pushing for Olympic inclusion in 2032.
When I wrote that article Netball Australia had come off a 2021 season with revenue of $30m, but had only invested $103,009 on umpiring, $189,878 on coaching, $6.79m on Super Netball, $7.234m on employee benefits and $2.635m on high performance.
Well in 2024 revenue climbed to $45.42m which is a wonderful 50 per cent growth in three years – but what have they done with it?
The annual report shows the most money was spent on Super Netball ($11.272m), employee benefits ($11.168m), sponsorship and commercial ($4.89m) and high performance ($3.399m).
More money in, more money out. But what do we have to show for it?
Netball Australia has been promising us a vision for the future, but the 2027 Netball World Cup in Sydney is just over two years away and we are running out of time.
Chief executive Stacey West oversees three different entities – Netball Australia, Suncorp Super Netball and the 2027 World Cup.
It’s a ridiculous workload for even the most experienced bosses in any sport, let alone a CEO who is still on her learner plates as someone less than a year into their first job leading an organisation.
It reminds me a little bit of Michael Warner’s recent criticism of the AFL talking about a C-grade board. This current NA board has not got many runs on the board yet and this is the most crucial two years in Australian netball history.
It could use the strength of netball in this country, TEAMWORK, getting people to collaborate for the common good, but with a much more ruthless and accurate business plan to ensure the game’s success.
Where are the sponsors lining up to promote and partner with the sport?
Where is the billion-dollar media and production plan for the game to take it global?
The TV deal is up for negotiation in two years – have we done enough to drive that revenue even higher for the next deal and create a competitive marketplace among networks wanting a piece of our great sport?
And by we I mean the players and teams in promoting the game, and us the fans who need to watch every week on TV to show netball is a valuable commercial sport worth investing in because the audience is engaged.
Just getting through the Covid years and paying off debt is not good enough; we need significant investment and a bold and innovative strategy to capture the hearts and minds and subscription paying mindset of the many participants and their networks to consume the sport as well as participate in it.
We could be on the precipice of making a good harvest in the sun if we can get it right.
But I am nervous waiting for what is about to come because I still hear all the dramas going on behind the scenes.
I am really concerned if we are indecisive we could end up with the sport declining like Rugby Australia has done in the past.
If we are infighting, players versus administration, umpires versus coaches, and parts of our sport fighting for respect within our sport, I fear we will NOT get there!
We need to harness the energy and enthusiasm of our young people, coaches, players, umpires, administrators, the media, volunteers and their families to create a competition and organisation that is both WORLD CLASS and the BEST sporting organisation in the country.
But we can only do that when we all know what the vision is.
So where is it?
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