The Netball World Cup will be a biennial event from 2027, so who benefits? And who may be disadvantaged?

Australia Broadcast Center

7 days ago

Netball's governing body has unveiled a new global events strategy that will see the World Cup held every two years instead of four, as well as significant format and schedule changes to the major tournament.
An extra piece of silverware will be introduced for Sydney 2027 that'll give teams finishing lower in the group stages a plate to fight for, while the top sides continue to compete for the cup.
Qualification from 2029 onwards will operate very differently — in a move that has upset Asia — and there'll be a permanent shift on the calendar to November.
A designated window later in the year should help to avoid clashes with other codes and less interruptions to the top-flight domestic leagues played in Australia, New Zealand and England.
Beyond this, World Netball plans to run a separate biennial event and a men's World Cup. As a result, both the FAST5 World Series and Netball World Youth Cup will be paused indefinitely. It is also assessing the appetite for an international club competition.
In a press release, the governing body said it believes these drastic steps are necessary to sustain the sport long-term, and that it was taking hold of its own destiny as uncertainty surrounds the future of the Commonwealth Games.
But it's certainly rare for a sport to host its World Cup every two years, and this is the change that has sparked the most debate.
Largely, World Netball.
As part of the hosting agreement, either a percentage of profits or a fixed sum will be handed over to the governing body. Increasing this revenue would help World Netball to grow on a faster scale and spread its global footprint.
It may also lead to further visibility and bigger sponsorship deals.
ABC Sport understands previous agreements fixed the profit sharing with World Netball at 55 per cent. The worth of that is now estimated to be over $1 million.
Cyrus Medora was the chief executive at Netball Singapore for two decades before retiring at the end of last year, and oversaw its hosting of the 2011 World Cup.
"From a non-financial perspective, I think all participating countries would benefit from more regular and intense competition," Medora said.
"Plus, the publicity and exposure could lead to increased financial support for the smaller netball countries from their sports ministries."
Previously, some member organisations, like Netball Jamaica, have needed to crowdsource funding to afford to send their team to the major tournament.
This is a team ranked in the top three, so there are genuine concerns about the financial strain an increase in World Cups might cause for poorer nations.
According to Medora, the cost to send a team, coaches and support staff can typically amount to over $70,000 if you're staying at a lower-level hotel.
Aussie Diamonds vice-captain Paige Hadley said the disparity could lead to countries opting in and out, "and not going to every World Cup".
Do we want the showpiece event to only feature teams that can afford to be there?
Since World Netball went public with its new events strategy, it has provided further details in a member update to explain its decision-making.
Here, it dropped a bombshell about the qualification process.
"In order to deliver the best netball event in the world for the best athletes in the world, the current qualification process will be changed," it read.
"Regional qualifiers will no longer take place after 2027, and qualification will be based purely on world rankings."
Previously, the top five ranked teams have qualified, as well as the host. Then two teams from each of the five regional qualifying tournaments held across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania fill the remainder of the 16 participating spots.
This change could easily wipe Asia from the World Cup altogether.
Its highest-ranked team is Sri Lanka at number 22, and several countries from the region are said to be extremely disappointed; questioning what advantage they get from being a World Netball member — which incurs a fee of about $2,500 annually — if they're ruled out of contention.
Scottish Thistles head coach Kath Tetley originally hails from Australia and has held several high-profile administrative roles in the sport over her career.
Tetley was the general manager of the Sydney 2015 World Cup and believes the change may not be a bad thing if it encourages each nation to step up and maintain its world ranking.
"I actually think it challenges us to be good and be consistent more often, especially with a faster 24-month rotation of the cycle rather than 48 months to build towards success," she said.
World Netball argues the revenue generated by biennial World Cups will help it better support regions and members. Though, how much of that revenue will flow onto the rest of the world is anyone's guess, and right now there are only a few obvious options for potential hosts.
By the end of 2027, Australia will have hosted four times, New Zealand and England three times, Singapore and Jamaica twice, and Trinidad and Tobago, Scotland and South Africa once.
Medora believes the cost of a World Cup really depends on the logistical expenses that differ between countries, and that smaller nations may only be able to host once every 20 years.
"It is extremely costly to host the event and only a few countries will have the financial resources and technical know-how," Medora said.
"For Singapore, I believe we would now need at least $6-7 million to host now … Back in 2011, it was about $4.8 million.
"Countries would need substantial funding from their sport ministries and tourism boards, while sponsorships, ticket and merchandise sales are also vital.
"Overall, we generated about $2.4 million at current rates in net revenue and were fortunate that the government waived the 22 per cent withholding tax when making payments to World Netball and the 15 other countries."
Tetley said the onus would be on World Netball to offer additional support in the early stages of the transition.
"I would expect ticketing, fan packages and commercial global interest will continue to flourish and thus enable World Netball to create a support structure for nations that qualify to request financial support … Perhaps grants for nations based on a method of application via the World Netball integrity unit," she said.
England's Rose Helen Housby said she would, "rather go back to the same country and play on the world stage than not do it at all".
"I loved going to Cape Town and for us to push the boundaries more often, but being realistic, I don't mind where they're played as long as we get to play."
Beyond the players' perspective, is there enough buy-in from fans? Would they be happy visiting the same countries repeatedly? The majority of top-paying spectators come from the trans-Tasman region.
"In 2011, we had over 5,000 overseas spectators and 4,400 came via appointed travel agents in Australia and New Zealand," Medora said.
"Hopefully, with the event held every two years, these fans will continue to travel."
There's a lot to digest and because of that, the reaction has been mixed.
Most seem to be thrilled about the introduction of a men's World Cup, and there's widespread sentiment that the plate and cup divisions in the women's major tournament is a step in the right direction.
But when it comes to an increase in frequency of World Cups and the new qualification process, it depends on who you ask. Especially seeing as most member organisations claim there was little to no consultation from World Netball before such drastic decisions were made.