Netball Australia CEO Kate Palmer said that she would "welcome the idea" of a professional football club -- like an Australian Football League team such as the Sydney Swans -- putting its hand up "to start up one of three new ANZ Championship teams" set to be included in the '17 season, according to Tom Decent of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. Last week Netball Australia called for "expressions of interest from Australian franchises on the east coast to join the 10-team Trans-Tasman tournament." Netball New Zealand has "no plans to expand on its five teams." Stakeholders and corporate partners have "made it clear they want to see more Australian domestic games" given the "disproportionate participation numbers in Australia compared to New Zealand." It is not yet clear where the three teams will come from, "but there is sure to be plenty of interest nonetheless." The Sydney Swans -- "who are a partner club of the NSW Swifts -- is an example" of the kind of sporting organization Palmer believes would be "perfect to oversee a new netball franchise." Palmer: "We're being very open-minded about it. We would expect there would be interest from other entities who are professional sport teams. We have an obvious partnership with the AFL across Australia but certainly there are [rugby] league teams, football teams, basketball teams -- there are a lot of different entities that already run professional sport teams and are very good at it." Palmer even floated the idea of a "tertiary institution, such as a university, buying into the revamped competition" for the '17 season. If three teams were to be added to the competition, Palmer said the length of the season "would not change, but double headers and other commercially viable ideas would be put on the table" (SMH, 12/21).
