Netball: League expansion could signal split

Netball Australia announced yesterday it is seeking to introduce as many as three extra franchises to the league in 2017. Photo / Alan Gibson.

The push from across the Tasman for further Australian teams to be added to the ANZ Championship may be the first step in competition splitting entirely.

Netball Australia announced today it is seeking to introduce as many as three extra franchises to the league in 2017.

The expansion will not come at the cost of a Kiwi team, with Netball New Zealand committed to retaining five franchises, but it might come at the cost of a week-in, week-out transtasman competition.

While the new structure of the league is a long way off being confirmed, it is understood Netball Australia's preference is that each country hold their own conference, with the top sides meeting in a separate series at the end.

That format is unlikely to have the backing of Netball NZ, nor its broadcast partner Sky, with concerns that five Kiwi franchises battling it out among themselves for 14 weeks will fast become repetitive.

Netball Australia chief executive Kate Palmer would not be drawn on what shape the 2017 competition might take.

"We're very open to what the future looks like," she said. "We really need more information before we can decide. We want to continue for it to be the best league in the world. What that will look like, we're not sure yet."

"I can understand [why Kiwi fans may be nervous], but they need to have faith in Netball NZ and Netball Australia that they will deliver what is right for the sport."

Palmer said plans for expansion hinge on securing a paid broadcast deal.

Currently Netball Australia, with the support of government grants, pay the production costs for ANZ Championship matches, and then supply them to the broadcasters. But with the sport enjoying increased support on the back of the success of the Netball World Cup in Sydney earlier this year, Palmer believes broadcasters across the Tasman are beginning to recognise the commercial value in netball.

"A paid broadcast deal is critical to our future," she said. "We need production paid and we need rights fees. We obviously have great partners in Fox Sport and Ten and Sky New Zealand have just been astonishing over the past eight years. We need to generate revenues across all elements of our business if we are going to make this fly."

Despite the uncertainty over what format an expanded competition will take, Netball NZ chief executive Hilary Poole said her organisation is fully supportive of Australia's push to include more teams."From our perspective, it's a real positive to see that the competition is poised for growth heading towards 2017," she said.

"The league needs to both grow and innovate as we enter the next phase of development of the competition."What we need to do is to understand the what and where first and then from that we can lok at the competition structure and work with out respective broadcast partners in terms of the level of content. You can look at different formats, you can look at different longevities, you can look at split rounds, you can look at different mixes of teams."

Registrations of interest for the new franchise licences will close at the end of February. Palmer said the key criteria is that the teams be based on the eastern seaboard of Australia to open it up to bigger markets. Netball Australia are also looking for bidders to have stronger high performance resources, and an ability to commercialise.

The extra franchises may not necessarily fall under the umbrella of one of the existing state bodies in Australia, with officials there open to considering bids from private enterprises.