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The crowds are booming, but netball has a $30 million problem
By Carla Jaeger
The enormity of the challenge confronting Netball Australia’s new administration to successfully commercialise Super Netball has been underlined by the revelation the league lost $30 million in the past five years.
The multimillion-dollar loss, buried in financial statements lodged with the corporate regulator, comes amid a changing of the guard at the top of the cash-strapped sport, following the appointment of netball great Liz Ellis as chair.
Ellis has been one of the most vocal advocates for overhauling the world’s best domestic netball league, which has never returned a dividend to the sport over its seven-year lifespan.
This masthead can reveal that in 2023, Super Netball operated at a loss of $7.4 million and racked up its highest ever expense bill of $11.4 million, which Netball Australia boss Stacey West largely blamed on inflationary pressures and the cost of bigger stadiums to house more fans.
Netball Australia boss Stacey West.Credit: AAP
“This includes the general cost of running the league such as significant increases to the cost of team, staff, umpire and officials travel and accommodation around Australia as a result of general cost-of-living expenses that impact all national sports,” West told this masthead.
“There were also increased costs associated with hiring bigger venues for Suncorp Super Netball finals to accommodate bigger crowds and maximise attendance.”
Overall, the governing body posted a profit of $236,000 for 2023, a small drop from the previous year’s $300,000 profit.
Netball Australia also has $4.2 million debt due for repayment in August next year, which West is adamant will be paid off in full by that time.
“Netball Australia’s stated goals are growth – growth of ticket sales, growth of broadcast audiences, growth of commercial partnership revenue, growth of player participation,” she said. “On all those key metrics, netball is heading in the right direction with interest and engagement in the sport at record levels.”
A $41 million expense bill: Cost of the league revealed
Super Netball is celebrating record crowds and streaming numbers in 2024, with the Melbourne Mavericks joining the league following the collapse of Collingwood. Round one pulled a record 20,802 people through the gates, and more than 9000 fans watched last weekend’s NSW derby between the Swifts and the Giants.
However, the financial statements reveal the league has bled millions of dollars each year since its inception in 2017.
Netball Australia has sunk more than $41 million into the league since 2019, but its inability to turn a profit has left a $30 million hole in the cash-strapped sport’s pocket in the same timeframe.
While the league has increased its earnings each year since its inaugural season – excluding the COVID-affected 2020 and 2021 seasons – costs have continued to creep up.
It is a trend across its seven-year life span: the 2022 season generated $3.1 million in revenue, but cost $10 million. The 2019 season generated $1.6 million, but cost $6.1 million.
There have been various attempts to canvass ways to commercialise the league. In 2022 Ellis – who then did not have an official role in netball – backed a $6.5 million bid from private equity firm Tier 1 to buy the league outright. That deal was ultimately rejected.
A secret report handed down in 2021, written by former NRL and Football Australia boss David Gallop, warned that without significant change to the model, the netball league was on track to lose $7.5 million by 2026 when the current broadcast deal with Foxtel expires.
An earlier state of the game review, written by Ellis, said Super Netball should be the “commercial jewel in Netball Australia’s crown”, noting its current structure was “not optimised for commercial growth”.
Last year’s modest profit was a success for Netball Australia, which two years earlier was facing financial ruin after posting a loss of $4.3 million.
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