England Netball has unveiled a plan to revamp the Netball Super League (NSL) beginning in 2025, marking a significant step toward making the sport fully professional. The proposed changes include matches being played in larger venues, offering better salaries to players, and intensifying competition amongst the teams in a bid the elevate the sport to an elite level.
Following England Netball’s recent announcement, we caught up with NSL Managing Director, Claire Nelson, to discuss some of the biggest talking points around NSL 2.0.
Can you summarise the recent announcement?
Yesterday, we announced England Netball’s plans to make the Netball Super League professional, and we will be relaunching in the 2025 season. We’re calling it NSL 2.0, marking the start of a new era for us.
We know that we need to take our sport to new heights. The Super League represents a huge opportunity for us to build our fan base, create an exciting product, strengthen our pathways, and expand our talent pool.
We’ve been discussing this for a while, it’s part of our adventure strategy and it aligns with our governing body’s strategy. We’ve consulted with stakeholders for a couple of years following an independent review on professionalisation. We have had a massive summer of success with the Roses at the World cup. Women’s sport has incredible momentum, and this is the perfect time for us to take this bold step into a new era.
You’re relatively new to this role. Did the ambition for this come from you, or has it been in the works for a while?
The Super League has been around since the mid-2000s, and it has been evolving over the years. In 2008, Glasgow was awarded a franchise known as the Glasgow Wildcats, and I was actually working with Glasgow life at the time who happened to own the franchise. I was collaborating with Netball Scotland, and this marked my first foray into women’s sports. It was during this period that I initially contemplated the idea of creating a strong and appealing brand, much like what the NBA does with their shows. This moment ignited my passion, and it marked the beginning of my journey advocating for the empowerment of women’s sports. I’ve been a huge supporter of this cause for a considerable amount of time. However, the Super League has also been on its own transformative path. Since 2017, there has been a tender process where we looked to raise standards and had new clubs join. This is where I built Strathclyde Sirens and began to strive and improve. Significant events such as the NSL Season Opener and the Grand Final, really started to get a lot of support behind them.
The support on an international stage is just going from strength to strength. We hosted the World Cup in Liverpool, which drew enormous crowds and experienced remarkable highs following the 2018 gold. We then witnessed the sale of 150,000 tickets for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, as well as last years NSL Grand Final completely selling out within 12 days. It is evident that there is a significant demand for women’s sports.
People like myself are just really championing that the time for change is coming and that this is the right thing for us to do as a sport. This vision is not exclusively mine; it represents a collective effort throughout the entire sport.
There have been concerns about the gap between people playing the sport and those supporting it at higher levels. What plans do you have for fan engagement?
Our goal is to create a compelling product that attracts fans into our arenas. We’ll work on improving the on and off-court experience whilst using storytelling to connect with fans. Our aim is to foster an emotional link with our fan base with players and fans delving into aspects such as lifestyle, health, well-being, fashion, and more, as integral parts of their journeys. Our approach is firmly rooted in a digital and data- driven strategy, and we are committed to continuous innovation around our product and its concept. All of these elements come together to capture the attention of our social media audience, drive attendance at our events and encourage engagement. This is more than just sport, it is not merely a women’s version of a men’s game. We are actually completely redesigning the experience of netball as our vision extends beyond gender lines, we aspire to be inclusive for all while simultaneously resonating profoundly with women and girls. Our ultimate goal is to create something that is exceptionally cool and fresh, that makes fans want to show up consistently. If we can get even a percentage of the 3 million that are playing every single year converted into fans, then we are going to be pretty powerful.
Can you explain the tender process for the NSL and what criteria will determine which teams can be involved?
We’re open to existing clubs, that we hope will come along on this journey with us and new entities to join us. We have clear criteria, including access to a 5,000-seat arena, and we’re committed to a phased approach to ensure sustainable growth. To perfect our product, were focused on driving the commercial sales for tickets, partnerships, sponsors, broadcasts. Right now, my call to action is to get in touch and explore opportunities with clubs we already have . We invite you to invest in them and support them. Our recent announcement was not only to get fans excited but to put our flag in the ground in inviting partners and sponsors to join us locally and at the club level.
It’s never been more exciting to get involved in woman’s sport, and I think what we bring to the market is just unrivalled at this moment in time.
How will the new NSL affect pathways in the sport, and what is the process for that?
Our pathways will feed into the clubs, and this process will strengthen and enhance our domestic infrastructure. We want to ensure that our clubs offer the best environment for players and create an aspirational route for young talent. We need to understand who our clubs are first and then we can build. This is an opportunity for us to really reset and give everyone involved within an enhanced experience from pathways players to volunteers and officials.
How will you ensure sustainable growth for the clubs, avoiding the issues faced by other sports leagues?
Sustainable growth is woven into everything we do because we talk about transformational change, but we have to manage expectation. We are not expecting clubs to be playing in an arena every game from day one, we will be looking at that phased growth. We will have a new code that supports all clubs as well as shared services, smarter ways of working, and data-driven approaches. We’re committed to growing costs in line with revenues and making smart, sensible decisions. This is a long-term journey to build something that lasts. The reason we are doing a tender process is because we want to ensure as a women’s sport entity, our growth is driven sensibly and independently, without undue influence or investment from larger male- dominated corporations.
What lessons can we learn from the Super Netball League in Australia, and when do you think the NSL will reach their level of professionalism?
I’ve seen some truly remarkable things happening in other leagues. The Suncorp products are incredibly appealing, and this year their league was so competitive. It was so compelling to see teams go to extra time. I love their formatting and how their arenas look. However, there is lots of lessons to be learned from their approach, as well as various sports leagues about how they’ve built their business. We’re studying these sports leagues and looking at best practices so that as a small operation, we can be really smart with all our tactics and moves. Our aspiration is to become the most compelling women’s sports property that others will look up to. We pride ourselves on being the most diverse league in the world, and we’ve fed more players into the World Cup than any other league. Even if we look at that Roses team, 11 of its members come from the Super League, so we’re doing a good job but our commitment is to innovate our own proposition and journey to do an even better job.
What impact do you think the NSL will have on other levels of the game and the broader netball community?
‘We aim to be the most compelling women’s sports property in the industry. We know that if we’ve got this entity at the top with these amazing players that we are going to attract people to our sport.’
When I look at sirens for example, having a product like that that is a catalyst for engaging with young individuals, fuelling the expansion of our junior membership and affiliation. It acts an inspiration for those looking to embrace the sport. As England Netball, it’s our responsibility to ensure we’ve got the breadth of opportunities for everyone to rekindle and expand their interest in the game. Whilst we aim to be number one in the world, our focus extends to driving participation. That’s why I emphasize the importance of fandom, as it is the key to growing our sport. We want to inspire more people to get involved in netball as a way to drive participation and promote physical activity.
Finally, what message do you have for the netball community, including players, coaches, and fans eagerly awaiting the relaunch of the NSL in 2025?
This is just the start of our journey. We don’t have all the answers yet, but we’re working to make every aspect of our sport better. Fans’ support is crucial, and we encourage everyone to get excited and be part of this exciting journey. Tickets for season 2024 are on sale now and we need to fill these arenas. If we have those bums on seats it allows us to bring partners, sponsors and broadcasters to the table which allows us to invest back into the game. The more people who show up and engage with our sport, the quicker we can realize our ambitions. There is going to be change undoubtedly, but this is an amazing moment for our sport.
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