Lisa Alexander column: Where it went wrong for Netball Australia

Netball Australia thought it was the equal of the AFL, NRL and cricket. They had good intentions, but the income generated was on par with 1980s VFL, writes Lisa Alexander.

Lisa Alexander has a plan to fix Netball Australia. Picture: AAP Images

This is a rude awakening for Netball in Australia.

The sport that is potentially financially bankrupt and fighting for survival: is this a surprise?

Netball in Australia must look to the future and make some big decisions that will elevate the sport from its financial mess and realise its full potential.

And the first thing Netball Australia (NA) must do is privatise the Suncorp Super Netball (SSN) league and relinquish any control they have over the professional competition, but more on that later.

WHERE IT WENT WRONG

Historically NA has been under financial pressure since 2007, when NA moved its headquarters from Sydney to Melbourne to run under the wings of the AFL at the time, literally in the carpark of the now Marvel Stadium.

It had, at that time, a mean, lean team to run the core business of NA which is to support the Diamonds program, get the talent pathways going, run coaching and umpiring courses and liaise with the now World Netball, state and federal governments, and the Australian Sports Commission.

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Lisa Alexander has a plan to fix Netball Australia. Picture: AAP Images

The new fiefdom was then created with NA moving away from the core purpose and now finding itself millions of dollars in debt while the state associations run Super Netball teams at six-figure losses every year in addition to the debt worn by NA.

This is the reality of trying to run a not-for-profit association as a whiz bang billion dollar empire. It is like a start-up trying to tackle Google.

NA thought it was the equal of the AFL, NRL and Cricket, they brought in many non-netball people to work on the business of netball that were just up against a wall of difficulty selling our sport to the marketplace.

They tried hard and had good intentions but were literally paddling upstream without a paddle.

Remember the Fast5 experiment? The attempt to copy cricket’s T20 success.

A small group thought it was a good idea, NA threw resources at it but it made very little profit for all the time, effort and resources consumed by it. Another good business idea to make money trapped in the netball paradigm of not enough resources to actually make a proper go of it.

Now NA are doing the exact same thing with SSN, but on a larger scale, and at a greater loss.

With some risk management and a rushed business concept, NA bulldozed through the SSN start-up to save face with the Netball public and the states, to create a genuine legacy for the future and to break away from New Zealand and the old Trans-Tasman Competition.

Eight teams always looked better on paper from Australia than five.

Now, it cannot get on free to air TV and the sport can’t get the sponsorship dollars the game could potentially earn if we created the conditions for really successful business people to take the game to the next level.

The income generated by netball is currently at the level of the 1980s VFL days, we think we’re competing with the big boys but we are still 40 years behind.

A rude awakening means netball is now grappling with the fact it is the Xerox photocopier of Australian sport. Out of date. Out of time. And running out of money.

Lisa Alexander saw the mistakes Netball Australia was making. Picture: AAP Images

SELL TO SAVE

If NA don’t sell the SSN to private investors, it will continue to strangle its lifeblood from the sport.

I do NOT want this to happen to the Women and Girls at Avoca Netball Football Club in Country Victoria, nor the Perth Netball Association Courts in Jolimont Western Australia.

NA can’t keep losing money and diluting the preparation and program of the national team because the Diamonds is the team everyone wants to see. It’s what fuels dreams at local netball courts and inspires the next generation.

In my opinion, the new way of operating should keep the eight Australian teams but also expand to New Zealand, get a trans-Tasman series going again with up to four teams from over there and run a 12-team competition. Just an idea and not financially tested.

But whatever is going to be the new ownership structure, they will decide how to shape the SSN, and it must be with Australia’s best interests at heart and its connection to the global world of netball and sport.

NA needs to diligently find the right business people to take over the league so they (NA) can get back to their core business.

It will save the sport and it will enable the right people to take the SSN to the next level.

WHAT DOES NETBALL AUSTRALIA DO?

NA must get back to working for the grassroots, the participants who dream of being a Diamond.

The world has changed and sport is now replacing community, villages, towns and churches as a gathering place for people.

Netball must embrace its entire ecosystem of women, men and mixed participants (3.2 million participants in total) and champion all their competitions as much as the women’s.

We must do this if netball is ever going to get into the Olympic Games and that should be NA’s second highest priority after the Diamonds.

This will create the legacy all netball people crave.

NA is wasting too much time, resources and money propping up a professional league at the expense of the Diamonds and the next generation of players, coaches and officials.

NA invested just $103,009 on umpiring and $189,878 on coaching last year - not even 0.7 per cent of total revenue. This is simply not good enough.

How do you safeguard the future of your own sport if you’re not developing players, umpires and coaches for the game?

The Diamonds need to be Netball’s top priority. Picture: AAP Images

HARD DECISIONS

Tough decisions and challenging conversations must be had.

Our relationship with our First Nations people must be fixed now and quickly because it is the right thing to do.

Sell the building in Fitzroy and reduce the staff from all superfluous roles. NA could set up their offices at the AIS in Canberra being close to the original High Performance hub for Netball and to the Federal Government, Sport Australia and the AIS Performance Services and Support.

If the staff are competent at their job, I’m sure they’ll be snapped up in various roles with the private owners of the new SSN and/or the state associations.

Let the State Associations run netball like they have for around a century and co-operate together to run national championships, coaching and umpiring courses.

The job of NA has become so big that it must guide the sport through tough times while catering to the needs of more than 1 million participants and 2 million social players; and expecting the Diamonds to remain No.1 in the world!

Juggling these challenges whilst trying to get a professional league running in a tough, unforgiving and growing women’s sports market is just too difficult and setting the sport up for failure.

It’s why the professional competition must be distinctly separate from NA head office.

It’s so the people who make decisions about junior sport, talent pathways and grassroots funding aren’t the same people who are then conflicted by the business of professional sport.