Analysis: This country is good at making netballers, it’s just not that great at marketing them, writes Scotty Stevenson.
Netball New Zealand’s decision to allow Grace Nweke to remain eligible for the Silver Ferns despite playing club netball in Australia has, as expected, opened the door for others to follow suit, and they have not wasted time in doing so.
At last count, seven of New Zealand’s top players – Maddy Gordon, Jane Watson, Kate Heffernan, Kelly Jackson, Karin Burger, Whitney Souness and Te Paea Selby-Rickett – have opted to join Nweke in taking contracts with Super Netball teams in Australia instead of recommitting to the ANZ Premiership here in New Zealand.
At first blush, it’s a big blow to an organisation that is trying to promote its top tier competition, and to rediscover its television audience with a move to free-to-air coverage on TVNZ from next season, but you can release those pearls from your panicked clutch.
Netball still boasts impressive participation numbers and as such playing stocks can always be replenished, and new stars will certainly emerge. There will be another Watson, and another Jackson. Netball New Zealand does not have a player pathway issue. The fact Super Netball clubs have come calling for Kiwi talent is demonstrative of this.
This country is good at making netballers, it’s just not that great at marketing them.
Netball New Zealand’s problem is not players, it's pennies.
Please don’t tell me eight of our biggest names are leaving for better competition. Money talks, and New Zealand’s whispering. Like other major broadcast sports in New Zealand, the national body has for many years been wedded to the same basic fiscal strategy: sell television rights, use the money up, sell the television rights again.
It is a rinse and repeat sugar hit that has been central to the current accounts of major codes in New Zealand since the introduction of subscription television.
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Unfortunately for netball, those in the market to buy the rights (which in New Zealand is a very, very short list) haven’t exactly been falling over themselves lately to stump up what the sport thinks it's worth.
Which leads us to the most important question of all: how does a sport enjoyed by tens of thousands of players and watched live at venue by thousands of fans, somehow find itself unable to attract and maintain the television revenue that underpins its own financial model? Blind assumption and a lack of audience curation would be the short answers, and ultimately those in positions of governance and leadership – across all of netball – must put their hands up and say, “that’s on us".
The blind assumption within netball’s administration has been that the sport will simply continue to be the first choice for girls and women, a not too dissimilar and often criticised point of view long held by rugby union when it comes to boys and men. It’s an easy trap to fall into when you have enjoyed dominance for many decades, but dominance does not always equate to dollars, and it certainly hasn’t in this case. Netball has never had more competition for talent and attention.
Rugby, rugby sevens, league, football, and cricket have all made huge strides in creating semi-professional or full-time professional environments. Other sports – hockey, basketball, volleyball, lacrosse, rowing – all feed into potential US College placements. If netball had noticed the rising threat to its position in the sporting landscape, it’s done a great job pretending not to.
The lack of audience curation is the other major factor, and it flows on from the last point. Sports like the rugby codes, cricket, and football, and more latterly basketball, have been able to leverage existing rights deals for men’s content, or at least push for more space within those deals, en route to creating marketable products of their own. Those sports have expanded their reach. Netball has not. And that’s where a greater understanding of the audience – existing and potential – comes into play.
It’s all very well to sign over the rights and bank the cheque, but how a sport is shown, and when it is shown, should be something sports organisations take an active role in shaping. If you can’t find it, you can’t watch it, and netball has most recently found itself consistently marooned on the Outer Hebrides of the satellite television world. An understanding of how to reach, maintain, and grow different audiences – core fans, casual fans, fluid fans – should be a competency of the boards of all major sports.
If there is one upside of the current situation, it’s that netball is making headlines. As a sport it can choose to gnash the teeth and complain about where it finds itself, or it can come together in a cohesive way to address the existential challenge it faces. Netball New Zealand has an incredible opportunity to reset its vision, reconnect with existing fans in a more meaningful and collaborative way, and rebuild its reach to better serve an audience that is more dormant than extinct.
If the ANZ Premiership is to thrive, and there is no reason it shouldn’t, the players and the game need to push through the crowd and take a stand, front and centre. The people are waiting, so give them what they want. Just make sure you figure out where to find them first.
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