Amid the elevated player payments in netball and women's cricket in Australia, W-League side Canberra United has "turned to crowd-sourcing" to help raise A$500,000 ($380,275) to "boost player payments in the battle to compete" with reigning W-League champion Melbourne City, according to James Hall of the SYDNEY MORNING HERALD. Last week Cricket NSW "set a minimum of wage for its women's players" of A$35,000 ($26,600) and last month the inaugural National Netball League's collective bargaining agreement established a minimum wage of A$27,375 ($20,820). But Canberra United GM Heather Reid said that the money to be raised through the ASF "will simply contribute towards the club's revenue." She said, "We're not reliant on the funding but every little bit will help. In the future it could be very important depending on how tight the sponsorship dollars get, and even depending on the ACT election." But competing against the rising payments of rival codes "is not the only concern" for Canberra United which is the only stand-alone team in the W-League. All other teams "benefit from an association with A-League clubs," particularly Melbourne City which is owned by City Football Group. Melbourne City was able to "use that backing to quickly form a W-League powerhouse." Reid: "Melbourne City have brought a different flavor to the W-League and I think they've done the same thing in the men's A-League as well. They've raised the bar in terms of the level of competitiveness for attracting players and being able to pay the players a lot more than we have been able to in the past" (SMH, 10/10).
