Netballers should be aware how hard it is for women’s sport to attract sponsors, West Coast Fever’s CEO has warned after the club was left “collateral damage” in netball’s $15 million Hancock Prospecting row.
When Australia’s richest woman Gina Rinehart withdrew Hancock’s proposed deal with Netball Australia – after debate over the use of the company’s logo on Diamonds players’ dresses – reigning Super Netball champions Fever lost $2m principal partner Roy Hill, too.
Fever CEO Simone Hansen said players and those involved in the NA debacle needed to be mindful “money doesn’t grow on trees” – especially for women’s sport.
Watch the latest Test series as the Origin Australian Diamonds face the England Roses on Wednesday from 7PM AEDT Live & Free on Kayo Freebies. Join now and start streaming instantly >
“Our West Coast Fever and Netball WA, and you can take it much broader than just netball, is very reliant on the mining industry and the success they have,” she revealed on ABC Radio.
“Healthways are a key sponsor of ours as well – so we don’t talk to alcohol, we don’t talk to fast food and we don’t talk to gambling (for sponsorship money).
“Our players and our playing group have been and remain 100 per cent behind the partnership that we had with Roy Hill.
Diamonds claim Constellation Cup! | 01:40
“I wish there was (other companies throwing money at netball). It is hard.
“I’d love all players of netball across Australia to understand – I’m pretty confident that our West Coast Fever players have that understanding and appreciation … that it’s not that simple. Money doesn’t grow on trees. We need to go out there and work hard and build relationships and get companies to understand the value of being involved in women’s sport and netball in particular – it’s not an easy task.
“Everyone needs to consider bringing money into sport isn’t easy – bringing sponsorship money into female sport is even harder.
RELATED NEWS
REVEALED: The truth behind netball’s $15m bombshell
SHOCK STANCE Rookie was prepared to wear dress before $15m sponsor deal pulled
CHAMPS HIT Fever claim they’re ‘collateral damage’ as principal partner bails
DAMNING Ex-board member alleges ‘racism at every level’ of the sport
DEAL GONE Hancock pulls richest netball deal amid dress controversy
“We don’t have the same viewership, we don’t have the same broadcast money coming into netball as male sports do. We need to be, and I need all our players at the national and state level, to be mindful of that because we want to provide the best high performance systems for our players.
“We want the right programs and opportunities for them, and also provide our players a reasonable pay – but that all costs money.”
Hansen admitted netball, particularly netball in WA, was now facing a “challenging time” as a result of the actions this past week.
Netball Aus bunker down after unrest | 02:22
“There are going to be consequences of this (dress row with potential future sponsors) – everybody, not just the administration but the playing group need to understand that there are consequences when things like this play out in the media,” she said.
“I think it’s going to be a more challenging landscape for netball, especially in the short term as we work through this.”
The Australian public has been quick to weigh in on the scandal, which has been likened to the NRL’s Manly-Pride jersey fiasco, with indigenous politician Jacinta Price calling on netballers to “suck it up” and “get on with it”.
“You make your bed, you lie in it. Unless you’ve got a cool few million in your back pocket to support your sporting code, your woke sense of self importance should be your private opinion and your private opinion only,” she posted on social media.
“If we chose to judge others on the actions or words of their family members we’d no doubt be peering down our noses with disgust at everyone we came across if that’s how judgemental we are to be. It’s time to grow up.”
Hansen said it had taken the Fever and Netball WA eight months to work through its $2m deal with Roy Hill, and revealed securing money for women’s sport was only getting more competitive as the likes of WBBL and AFLW continue to grow.
Hansen said she was left devastated by Hancock’s decision on Saturday, and admits questioning if there was anything the club could do to keep Roy Hill as a partner – independent of the Netball Australia chaos.
“We worked hard with Roy Hill to develop this partnership. But there were things happening outside our control,” she said.
“It would have been nice if we could have been to the side and not impacted – but that isn’t how this played out.
Diamonds sponsorship drama escalates | 00:44
“(After meetings) Friday night I went, ‘Oh I think there’s a way through this’, but by Saturday morning it was clear something had changed.
“When this came to light, it came to light in the media. You sit back and go, ‘Why couldn’t this have been dealt with internally?’
“It doesn’t need to go out into the media and the public. We need to do this together to work collaboratively to find a solution.
“I’d like to think it could have been dealt with differently (if kept internal). When it’s in the media, you’ve got other people not even involved in netball today who want to have a comment and a say, and it puts the individual involved under even more pressure.
“It’s not easy to stand up and have a view that’s different to other peoples.
“I do think that for everybody, that if we could have dealt with this internally, it could have been a different outcome.”
