Netball New Zealand and its Australian counterparts "confirmed the transtasman league will be axed at the end of this season, with both countries to move to back to standalone domestic competitions," according to Dana Johannsen of the NEW ZEALAND HERALD. The announcement "brings to an end a nine-year transtasman partnership." Netball NZ revealed the new competition will "feature six teams, including the five existing franchises and a new start-up club." In the "new triple round format teams will each play 15 round robin games, including Super Sundays featuring all six teams in action at the same venue, before it culminates in a two-game finals series with the top three." The national body also confirmed it is "working on a new international component, the details of which will be announced in due course." This will be a "Champions League" style playoffs series, "featuring the top franchises from New Zealand, Australia, and potentially further afield." This "will be a Netball NZ-run event, rather than a joint initiative with Netball Australia." Australia is "set to move to an eight-team domestic league, featuring three new franchises backed by private investors." Netball Australia announced the "three preferred bidders for new teams are Collingwood Football Club, Melbourne Storm Rugby League Club (based at Storm's Sunshine Coast facilities and in conjunction with the University of the Sunshine Coast) and Netball NSW (in a strategic alliance with GWS Giants)." The mixed ownership model of state and private enterprise is "already creating tension in Australia, with the state-run franchises concerned they will be unable to compete with the resources of the likes of the Storm and Collingwood." To fund its new league, Netball Australia has "finally landed its Holy Grail -- a paid broadcast deal" (NZ HERALD, 5/19). In Brisbane, Greg Davis reported Netball Australia CEO Kate Palmer declared the new format and deals "a significant moment for women's sport and said the five-year broadcasting contracts would provide higher salaries for players, higher distributions for the clubs, better sponsorship opportunities for Netball Australia and individual teams and unprecedented exposure for netball." She said, "This is the most significant broadcasting rights agreement in the history of Australian women's sport. It is truly transformative. It lays the foundation for the full professionalization of elite netball and the cementing of Australia's reputation as having the prime netball competition in the world." The Fast5 Netball World Series, to be held in Melbourne this October, "will be the first event to be broadcast under the new agreements with Nine and Telstra" (COURIER-MAIL, 5/18).
COLLINGWOOD'S NEW VENTURE: In Melbourne, Linda Pearce wrote Australian Football League side Collingwood Magpies' vision "to become, like some of its big European soccer brethren, far more than just an AFL club had its genesis at board level seven or eight years ago," when the blueprint was established for what club CEO Gary Pert said was a "broader and more diverse, community-focused entity." Next came a Victorian Football League team; "count on there also being a licence granted for a women's AFL club." In the meantime, netball is its "latest venture, and pretty much all but the human elements are in place." Players and coaches will come next, "along with the marketing strategies that will surely come wrapped in oh-so-recognisable black and white." Pert said, "We're a big brand and that'll be a big announcement, so we'll hold that back. But I think most people would look at it and go, 'It makes sense that there'll be a Collingwood element in the branding and the marketing and the look of the club.' That's pretty obvious, I think." With the Collingwood Netball Club, its establishment overseen by Graeme Allan, "there will be common resources, expertise and innovations." Pert stressed that "cross-pollination," and "plenty of it," but not, a financial burden on the club, or any distractions to any existing teams or their ambitions. Pert: "We have modeled ourselves off the big European community clubs but we haven't been able to just say, 'That's what we want to do,' bang, and make it happen. We've had to go through steps of that" (THE AGE, 5/19).
SPORT THE COLORS: In Sydney, Sygall & Pearce reported GWS Giants officials "are keen" for netball's Sydney-based expansion team to wear the club's "distinctive orange and charcoal colours" and incorporate the Giants name in the title, clearing the way for a rivalry with Collingwood to extend into a different code. GWS CEO David Matthews said that the prospect of playing a "major supporting role" in the establishment and running of a second local team alongside the Swifts should "help both entities expand their fan base." Matthews will meet with Netball NSW officials, including CEO Carolyn Campbell, in the coming days to "begin developing the new side, which could not only share facilities and resources, but also club colours and names." Matthews said, "There's certainly a possibility of that. It's a possibility that's very attractive to us and we just need to work through it now with Netball Australia and Netball NSW. It's really been a pretty quick announcement, only decided in the last few days, so the work really starts from here" (SYDNEY MORNING HERALD, 5/19).
