 |
AllWomenSport.com
* Home * What's new * Sports index * Features * My story * Employment * New products * Archives & downloads * Coming events * Links * The trade * Fitness & health * Editorial * About us * Letters * Return to main Guidomedia index |
What's
new Our
other mags |
Netball's
battle for resources Where
does the gender gap end? It doesn't matter that the Australian Netball team
is the best in the world, they still can't give up their day job. Earning
a deplorable amount of around $4000 a year, netball players are continually
being left behind when comparing to elite male sportsmen. And it's not just
netball players, but female cricket, soccer and hockey players that have
to juggle a full time job with a full time career as an elite sportswoman.
Netball has one of the highest participation rates yet when it comes to
funding and sponsorship deals, they fall way below the threshold.Netball players don't have the luxury of a supporting pay packet, most of Australia's elite players also work full time jobs. Australian and Sydney Swifts Captain Liz Ellis has been most vocal and the driving force behind the recent move for players to join the Australian Workers Union in attempt to negotiate fairer wages that will hopefully include travelling and medical expenses. "The players are really realistic. We won't be sitting there saying we want $100,000. We understand that the money just isn't there yet," Ellis told the Herald Sun. "It's about making sure we are not out of pocket when we're injured and that our medical costs are covered." The Sydney Swifts players don't even have training facilities and they use AFL team the Sydney Swans in the evening. "They've spent the entire day training and are about to have a massage while we're just about to start a two-hour session after a full day's work," Ellis told the 2004 winter edition of the Australian Worker . For some netball players there comes a time when it's just too difficult to keep playing. Former Melbourne Kestrels player Amanda Burton was forced to quite the national competition because she was finding it hard to hold down a career as a pharmacy sales representative. "It was my fifth year and it just got to a point where I was putting my career on hold as opposed to playing netball," Burton told the Sydney Morning Herald. The players would not have to make these decisions if netball was a financially viable career. Another hindrance on the sport is that it doesn't generate large sponsorship deals at an elite level. But it is still one of the highest participated sports among children and adults. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that in 2003 the participation rate of children was 9.1 per cent in netball while only 7.3 per cent in Australian Rules Football, Australia's highest profiled sport. Soccer rated the highest among boys a with 22.2 per cent participation compared to 13.6 per cent in Australian Rules Football and total of 13.4 per cent for both girls and boys. But even eliet men's soccer in Australia isn't a high profile sport. In 2004 Netball Australia received 24.3 per cent of their revenue from registration fees. There is not a lack of involvement or participation but the industry still cannot support their elite players properly yet, but hopefully with the new agreement with the AWU, we will see a change for the better. So while netball doesn't attract a typical AFL crowd, it is consistent and growing over the years. A world record crowd for netball was set at the Sydney SuperDome on July 30, 2004, with 13,436 spectators attending a round 13, Commonwealth Bank Trophy game. But the record was short lived when 14,339 spectators turned up to watched the Australian - New Zealand Test in November 2004. The Melbourne State Netball Centre, home to netball's Melbourne Phoenix and Melbourne Kestrels, and NBL team Melbourne Tigers, holds a capacity crowd of 3,500. In February this year the Australian netball team defeated England in front of a capacity crowd. While only the recent form of the Tigers in the last season has helped to generate capacity crowds.  If
the pay for an elite netball player is to ever reach what elite AFL players
receive there needs to be a lot of work done on promoting the sport. Spectators
cannot watch something that they don't know is on. Without people watching
the game there is no interest in sponsorship and therefore no chance that
netball will ever be a lucrative industry.At the moment the ABC televises the Commonwealth Bank Tournament on Saturday afternoons and various Australian games. In 2001 the ABC's sports coverage was hit with a funding cut and then again in 2003 where they lost $530,000 in funding. The Shadow Minister for Sport and Recreation, Kate Lundy said that it was women's sport such as netball and basketball that would be hit hardest. "There is a critical link between coverage and sponsorship, as well as between sponsorship and the development and promotion of a sport; therefore to abandon or reduce the broadcasting of matches will directly impact on the viability of the sport," she said. At the moment Netball Australia's main sponsor is the Commonwealth Bank and according to the 2004 winter edition of the Australian Worker it's for a rumoured amount of $1.1 million but they only come in at number 40 on the list of Australia's top 40 corporate sports sponsors. Because netball isn't high profile, team sponsors want to know that they are getting exposure, but not just from a logo on the teams uniform, but apart of the teams name. We then have the creation of the Sydney TAB Swifts, the Medibank Adelaide Thunderbirds and the McDonald's Hunter Jaegers. We all know that the Essendon Football Club is sponsored by 3 mobile, but they aren't called that Essendon 3 Bombers. The current teams in the Commonwealth Bank Trophy have become advertisements for their sponsors. There's really not a high incentive for females to become elite netball players. They are effectively juggling two full-time careers, one that supports them financially and the other is what they have always dreamed to do. By Taryn Preston Liz Ellis Homepage Netball Australia
| We
cover... |
|
AllWomenSport.com
* Home * What's new * Sports index * Features * My story * Employment * New products * Archives & downloads * Coming events * Links * The trade * Fitness & health * Editorial * About us * Letters * Return to main Guidomedia index |
Return
to top