NEW NETBALL UNIVERSE
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when it became blatantly obvious that the best players in<br />
the world were receiving benefits considerably higher than<br />
one would expect from an amateur sport, “shamateurism”,<br />
was the quip. The introduction of the World Cup in 1987<br />
took the game to a new level and put the sport on a four<br />
year cycle. But in the short term, this just<br />
saw rugby union lose more and more<br />
of its top players to professional rugby<br />
league. Something had to give.<br />
Enter Rupert Murdoch, the then<br />
Chairman & CEO of News Corporation.<br />
Armed with the experience of<br />
what Kerry Packer had done in and<br />
for cricket in the late 1970's, he identified<br />
an opportunity.... The 1995 World<br />
Cup was to be held in a South Africa<br />
where charismatic leader Nelson Mandela,<br />
would be hoping to show the watching<br />
world a united nation that was successfully emerging<br />
from the dark days of the Apartheid era. Murdoch saw it as<br />
an open door for his TV Empire to change rugby forever.<br />
Hundreds of millions of pounds and dollars later and News<br />
Corporation had it all sewn up, even managing somehow<br />
to get rugby league to become a summer sport so as to provide<br />
a better fit for their sports broadcasting calendar!<br />
But whether all this happened for the good or bad of rugby<br />
union and/or rugby league is spurious and inconsequential.<br />
Fact is, it happened.<br />
So how and when will it happen in British Superleague netball?<br />
In many ways, it’s already happening. There are already<br />
the select few, the Michael Lynagh’s of English netball<br />
if I may, who derive benefits above the norm. The obvious<br />
examples are those that benefit from the excellent centralised<br />
full-time programme that England Netball established<br />
to prepare its best players for an attempt at making the final<br />
of the 2019 World Cup in Liverpool. Such an approach was<br />
highly necessary. After all, could anybody reasonably expect<br />
England’s best to hold down full-time jobs or<br />
study all day - training only in their mornings<br />
and evenings - and arrive at a<br />
World Cup ready to go toe-to-toe<br />
with full-time professionals whose<br />
lives are solely committed to developing<br />
as netballers and athletes?! I certainly<br />
hope not!!<br />
Without doubt, the centralised programme<br />
marked the beginning of a domino<br />
effect that inevitably, will end with<br />
professional franchise netball in the UK.<br />
When will it happen? When the whole world is watching,<br />
on the coattails of the 2019 World Cup itself... just like rugby<br />
union in 1995. And the expiry of the current broadcast<br />
deal with Sky Sports will be the final tipping point.<br />
Should England reach the 2019 final as we all hope, then<br />
our nation will rally around netball. Sports journalists will<br />
take out their iPads & Apple Macs, star players will become<br />
heroes to the UK’s young girls, sponsors will be queuing up<br />
to get involved, and most significantly, Joanna Adams will<br />
have broadcasters clamouring to be in the room when the<br />
next TV rights deal is on the table.<br />
If England have a successful tournament, then it is not inconceivable<br />
for us to think there'd be offers that could go<br />
When opportunity knocks! Former Chairman & CEO of News Corporation Rupert Murdoch,<br />
used his TV Empire to change rugby union forever. The 1995 World Cup, presented by former<br />
President Nelson Mandela to Springbok captain Francois Pienaar, provided the perfect platform!<br />
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