Super Netball facing $7.5 million losses over next three years

Details from an unreleased Netball Australia report have revealed that the Super Netball competition is losing millions of dollars and is being supported by money from the grassroots level of the game.

The report, authored by former NRL and Football Australia Chief Executive David Gallop (who was yesterday named as the new Chair of Venues NSW), was commissioned by the sport to establish the value of its elite national competition.

Not shared publicly, the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday reported that Gallop’s study had warned Netball Australia that the competition, once envisaged as the “commercial jewel” of the sport, was ‘highly unlikely” to “return a dividend to the game.”

The findings, coming just a week after the Australian Diamonds won the Netball World Cup for the 12th time, show that the Super Netball competition - which feeds the national team - is on track to lose $7.5 million in the next three years.

The predicted loss of more than $7.5 million by 2026 was based on revenue staying flat, as well as including a cost increase of 3.5% a year. It stated that the League and its clubs would be reliant on other aspects of the sport to “sustain them”, such as “money flowing” from the grassroots level - which would consist of fees from clubs, players and parents.

It also suggested that, should the competition remain unchanged in its structure, Super Netball and its teams would struggle to break even during its current broadcast deal with Foxtel, which is in place until 2026.

The report also casts doubt on the League’s ability to keep paying its players at current levels. Super Netball players received an increase in their pay in 2022 of up to 22% after Netball Australia struck a five-year broadcast deal in 2021 with Foxtel, which took the majority of the competition’s matches behind a paywall.

The report was presented to Netball Australia last year before the collapse of the Collingwood netball team this year, but after the governing body rejected a $6.5 million bid from private equity firm Tier 1 to buy the League outright.

In response to the Sydney Morning Herald obtaining the report, Netball Australia Chief Executive Kelly Ryan confirmed that the League had been loss-making, despite the $300,000profit reported for the previous financial year.

Responding to the report’s findings, Ryan advised “Netball Australia has been transparent about its financial position. We are continuing to grow the business and posted a profit in 2022.

“To put this report into context, it’s one of many tools we are using with our stakeholders as we continue to transform Suncorp Super Netball into the commercial jewel in netball’s crown.”

Ruling out a complete takeover of the competition, Ryan said while the sport was looking into potential models for capital injection, the organisation was focused on other priorities for the foreseeable future.

She added “we need to make sure this sport is not just surviving, but thriving”, indicating that further consulting needed to happen before changes were made.

Sources briefed on the report, who were not authorised to speak publicly as its contents are confidential, expressed frustration and dismay that there had been little action since it was handed down.

Australia’s biggest participation sport for women and girls, netball is facing fierce competition from rival professional women’s leagues, such as AFLW and cricket’s Women’s Big Bash League, and amid an explosion of interest in football with its co-hosting of the FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Images: Super Netball at Melbourne's John Cain Arena (top, credit: Shutterstock/Alex Bogatyrev) and Netball Australia Chief Executive Kelly Ryan (below, credit: Netball Australia).