Netball: ANZ Premiership at tipping point after decade

Source: Radio New Zealand

Analysis: Netball New Zealand should be celebrating a milestone 10th season of the sport’s domestic showpiece, but instead officials are working furiously to secure its future.

The country’s elite netballers are about to head into a third season of uncertainty, when the ANZ Premiership begins this weekend.

Reflecting on a decade of the league would only highlight how much it’s gone backwards.

New Zealand’s top-flight netball competition has gone from attracting millions in broadcast rights from Sky to forking out some of its own money to stay on TV.

Last year, Netball NZ struggled to secure a broadcast deal for the competition and it has no plan in place yet beyond this year’s agreement with TVNZ.

Players had to take a 20 percent pay cut for 2026 and the six franchises are waiting to hear what the national body’s plans are for the competition.

Former Silver Fern Michaela Sokolich-Beatson began her elite career in 2016, when she joined Northern Mystics and will captain her side for another season.

A decade ago, she could not have imagined the competition would be at risk.

“When I joined, compared to now, I definitely saw growth,” Sokolich-Beatson said. “From 2016-19, there was massive growth and then, obviously with Covid, lots changed, but I didn’t think it would come to this, where year on year, we are wondering if we’re going to have a competition.

“I also have faith that there are people in places that are doing everything they can to make sure we do have a competition and I know that there’s people working really hard behind the scenes.”

Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic team relationship manager Gary Dawson said the past three years had been difficult for franchises.

“It presents some unique challenges in terms of doing long-term planning or even medium-term planning,” Dawson said. “We’ve had to make sure that we’re doing everything as cost effective as we can across every part of the organisation.

“It’s just the environment that we happen to be in in this semi-professional sports market.”

The real difficulties began at the end of 2023, when Netball NZ started negotiations with Sky for a new broadcast agreement to replace the one that expired at the end of 2024.

Eventually, the national body signed a significantly reduced one-year deal with Sky for 2025, which would be its last season as the sport’s major broadcast partner after 18 years.

It remains to be seen whether Sky Sport will hold onto rights for Silver Ferns tests or if TVNZ will vie for those as well. Neither broadcaster would comment on whether it was engaged in any discussions with Netball NZ for tests or the domestic competition from next year.

Australian league no silver bullet

Over the past few years, there has been a growing call in New Zealand to get teams into Australia’s Suncorp Super Netball (SSN) competition.

The former trans-Tasman league ended in 2016, when Netball Australia was confident it could secure its own broadcast deal to underpin its competition.

The two countries went their separate ways and fans have seen the SSN, with its unlimited import policy, become the strongest league in the world.

The salary level between the two leagues used to be similar, but the SSN now offers at least double what NZ-based players earn.

Last year, Australia’s governing body confirmed it was considering adding two new teams to the SSN from 2027 and was open to expressions of interest from New Zealand.

RNZ understands that’s not part of Netball NZ’s plans at the moment, with its focus on strengthening the ANZ Premiership.

The appetite in Australia for a New Zealand franchise is low, with calls for expansion focussed on giving local players more opportunities.

If Netball NZ went down the path of pursuing a licence, the best it could hope for might be one franchise, running the risk that the country’s top talent would be condensed into one team.

Pursuing an SSN licence would take a lot of resource and Netball NZ would rely on variables outside its control.

Netball Australia is also trying to negotiate their own broadcast deal from 2027, as its current one runs until the end of 2026. The national body is reportedly also eyeing at least a partial return to free-to-air.

The current Collective Player Agreement (CPA) for SSN players will expire at the end of the 2026 season and collective bargaining can’t start until a new broadcast deal is in place.

New model needed?

Dawson said Netball NZ had been working with the franchises and other key stakeholders over the future of the domestic competition.

“They now need to work through all the different options, and the board and Netball NZ senior management then need to make a decision as to what that will look like, but they have been communicating with us in terms of the work that’s going on.”

No doubt the biggest challenge and priority for interim Netball NZ chief executive Jane Patterson since starting in January has been figuring out how the domestic league can be funded.

Patterson is expected to share some news about the future of the competition later this month.

The Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic is one of three franchises under the administration of Netball New Zealand, along with the Stars and Mainland Tactix.

With half the six franchises unable to stand on their own financially, the national body must wonder if it can go down a more sustainable route.

The current ownership model sees the Netball New Zealand zones own and operate their respective ANZ Premiership franchise teams, but private ownership would take the pressure off the netball eco-system.

In 2022, the professional women’s basketball league – Tauihi Basketball Aotearoa – was established and, while the league itself is owned by Basketball New Zealand, the five franchises are privately owned.

Last year, New Zealand’s most successful Olympian, Dame Lisa Carrington, joined the ownership group of the Auckland-based Kāhu – the first all-women-owned sports team in New Zealand.

At one point, as many as half a dozen England internationals played in Australia’s Suncorp Super Netball (SSN) competition, but more and more have returned home, with England Netball ramping up efforts to improve their domestic product.

Last year, a revamped Netball Super League (NSL) launched in the UK, after undergoing a major transformation to attract private investment and take a big step towards making the top-flight competition fully professional.

For example, English Premier League football club Nottingham Forest invested in and launched a team to compete in the Netball Super League (NSL) 2.0.

This year, just three England Roses internationals are playing in Australia.

Last year, Sport New Zealand helped cover the cost of broadcasting one game each round on TVNZ, which Netball NZ self-produced, but the government agency says it won’t fund any production costs this year.

Moving the domestic competition to free-to-air will hopefully lead to better sponsorship opportunities, with more people able to watch the league this year.

The team structure may also come under review.

Netball NZ may consider whether it can afford to also support the National Netball league (NNL), which serves as a feeder league into the ANZ.

The competition has been watered down since it was introduced in 2016, with teams now playing just one round robin.

The Netball South Zone initially decided to not field a team in the 2026 NNL season, given the costs of supporting a team, but backtracked.

Could the very best of those 60 players be folded into the top domestic league by increasing squad sizes or adding another team?

Meanwhile, Sokolich-Beatson said she felt for the younger players.

“If anything was to happen, I’ve had real quality time playing at this level,” she said. “My biggest thing is those young ones who haven’t been able to showcase their full skills yet and, honestly, we have some incredible talent coming through.

“I want them to get the opportunity that I’ve been fortunate enough to have.”

Sokolich-Beatson said she was proud of the commitment players had shown, despite pay cuts.

“I just think, ‘Good on you’, because it could be easy to walk away, and just try and get a full-time job, but you can see that they’re here because they love it and they want to keep playing for as long as they can.

“You wouldn’t know by the way that we’re training and the things that our management have done that people have taken pay cuts, because everybody’s still working just as hard.”

Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.

– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand