Hands up—who knew the ANZ Premiership starts tomorrow?

This is netball.

I’m guessing not many hands went up, which is a worry. It’s somewhat forgivable, given the state of netball’s head office at the moment. It doesn’t have a permanent CEO, and the chair and several board members have recently resigned. So you can understand why things are a bit of a mess and the communication strategy isn’t quite working.

But it’s also not forgivable, because this is a pivotal season for netball. This season has to work. It probably won’t, but it at least needs the best possible chance, because professional netball in this country is fighting for its life.

There’s no broadcast deal this year. Sky pulled out at the end of last year, so netball has had to pay TVNZ just to get it on TV2. That means there’s no money coming in from Sky, and players have had to take a 20% pay cut—those who are still here, anyway.

Nine Silver Ferns have already moved to the Australian competition, where they earn double what they do here. And that will keep happening unless the local competition can start generating revenue again and paying players properly.

So you can see how important it is that this season gets things moving in the right direction.

It seems netball bosses are pinning their hopes on free-to-air TV being the game changer. Before, you had to pay to watch; now you can watch for free on TV2. The idea is you might fall in love with it again, start watching regularly, maybe even go to matches—and before long, netball secures another deal with Sky.

But will you watch it again? Will you love it again when nine Silver Ferns are already gone, and the competition isn’t as strong as it was last year—when you probably weren’t watching anyway?

Probably not.

And the fact that neither of us even knew the season was about to start is probably not a good omen.

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