Trans-Tasman Netball Goes Semi-professional

A new trans-Tasman netball tournament will be launched in April next year, bringing together five teams each from NZ and Australia. The Tasman Trophy has secured ANZ Bank as its naming rights sponsor, and will screen on Fox Sport in Australia and Sky TV in NZ. The annual tournament will run from April to July and feature 69 games in total. “It’s a really exciting point in time,” said veteran Australian captain Liz Ellis, who has long agitated for higher pay for women in sport. “There’s talk of it being semi-professional; if things are done well, I think the product itself is so good it has to become fully professional sooner rather than later.” The Tasman Trophy has a total operating budget of around AU$20 million, with each player set to earn an average of AU$20,000 in its first year.