Lisa Alexander: What needs to be done to seize Super Netball’s momentum and ensure netball’s future, putting pay dispute into distant past

While the Super Netball season has gotten off to a strong start there is still much work to be done, including expanding into new states and countries, but everyone must play their part, LISA ALEXANDER writes.

This is the most important year in netball’s history and we need to seize this momentum to create the future the game deserves.

Super Netball started with an almighty bang last week with record crowds, sensational performances on the court and hope for better times ahead.

Last year was a triumph for the Diamonds winning the World Cup, but the off-court tumult impacted the game’s ability to create a legacy.

Women’s sport has never enjoyed greater promotion or recognition, so now is our time to act.

The players led the way in fighting for what they believed in last year, now it’s up to everybody else in the game to fight for the future we all want and believe we deserve.

And, everybody has a role to play.

EXPAND THE LEAGUE

Is expansion to New Zealand a step forwards or backwards?

As long as we have the right leadership at the top of the game it can be the type of transformation and growth netball needs.

Like John Kennedy once said to Hawthorn – enough with the talk, we need to do.

Open our minds to the bigger picture.

We want to expand this league and to do that we need a private injection of capital.

Who will be the next entrant into the Super Netball competition, when and if it expands? Picture: Getty Images

There is a real fear of change in netball and a fear of giving away the family jewels.

But our sport is still stuck in volunteerism. Nobody understands you need to spend money to make money.

The member organisations will desperately hold onto their clubs, but it’s not sustainable.

A professional club cannot operate in this environment. When staff at one state organisation are so consumed with setting up for the venue for a Super netball match, the rest of the business all but grinds to a halt.

We have employees all around the country pulled from pillar to post to try to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.

At local level of course volunteers are important, but at the elite level the needs of a professional club in terms of resources and activating a growth plan require full-time attention.

Private venture capital must be sought and partnered with to provide the necessary scaling of investment to take netball to world class level.

The game does need to expand. We need two new teams in Australia at either the Northern Territory, the ACT, Gold Coast, Geelong or Tasmania.

We do need to expand to New Zealand. I would suggest at least two teams.

Super Netball should aim for a 12-team competition running a 22-week regular season with a top five finals format.

Noeline Taurua was coach of the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic when they won the now defunct ANZ Championship in 2012. Picture: Getty Images

TALENT DEPTH

I’ve got no doubt there is enough talent, not just here in Australia but netballers around the world who are dying to come to Australia from England, New Zealand, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.

We have a lot of players playing the global game and we need to stop losing some of our best athletes to other codes.

Issy Borlase who just went No. 20 in the WNBA draft, her mother Jenny is an ex-Diamond and high performance coach in netball.

We have a real chance to create the world’s best women’s sporting league, better than the WNBA and women’s Super League.

Isobel Borlase was one of three Aussies taken in last week’s WNBA draft. Picture: Getty Images

THE ROLE OF FANS

Fans need to show they’re willing to back netball with their hearts, their minds and their wallets.

Purchase club memberships. That is the No. 1 priority and the lifeblood of all the major sporting clubs in Australia.

Get behind your local team and keep going to games – even if they are having a tough season.

When you can’t get to the games, watch it on TV.

Add weight to the numbers watching it on TV, support the sponsors and advertisers who invest in the sport, engage in the commentary on social media and consume the mainstream media that grows external interest in our game.

Stop being a tight a**e and expect everything for free.

Whether it’s tickets to games or national titles, subscription TV to watch every game or read articles about the game – why shouldn’t you pay to watch sport?

That is part of the problem with netball and women’s sport in many respects. We want women’s sport to grow and gender equality, but too many are not willing to pay for it.

We still expect people to do things for free and in return they want things given to them for free. It is completely disrespectful and counterproductive to growing the game.

We have a netball family of over 6 million – we must convert the 1 million registered players and their families into regular consumers of the game.

The Mavericks had a strong turnout to their innagrual match. Picture: Getty Images

WHY YOUR BEHAVIOUR MATTERS

We all live busy lives, but being a true fan is about changing your behaviour to make watching netball part of your life.

The more netball can grow their numbers and grow the television audience the greater revenue teams and the league can command in commercial partnerships and future TV rights discussions.

Our viewership behaviour in the next two years will greatly influence the future of the game.

Netball requires partnerships, partnerships and more partnerships where the power in the relationship is equal at most times.

This includes with media organisations, TV broadcasters including pay TV and free to air networks, sponsors, venture capitalists and benefactors.

Welcome people who are willing to invest, don’t push them away.

Netball should never sell out our integrity, but we need to command our true value and maximise every possibility.

Our brand is worth more than companies are paying now. They know it and (sometimes) snigger behind our backs.

Former Netball Australia CEO Kelly Ryan. Picture: Getty Images

WHAT NEXT

Netball Australia is currently searching for a new chief executive and the AGM is being held next month where the current board should be challenged on how they intend to lead the sport into the future.

Netball in Australia is facing the literal precipice, the Sigmoid Curve moment in time when the sport must choose the correct path.

Will netball believe in itself and its capacity to take the risk and jump into the right way forward.

As I’ve written before, if we do the same old thing we will get stuck in a cycle of mediocrity, whinging and moaning about the “patriarchy”.