News

Netball Australia is in financial peril and facing a potential $25m sponsorship crisis after a player union revolt led to Hancock Prospecting walking away from the sport, with the possibility more key sponsors could follow.

The company of mining billionaire Gina Rinehart pulled its $15m sponsorship on Saturday and there are fears it could balloon to a greater financial loss for the sport, as current and future sponsors may be put off from backing netball due to the players’ stance on issues.

“It could potentially turn into a $25m problem in the near future,” said one netball source. Netball Australia chief executive Kelly Ryan confirmed to The Australian that the survival of the sport, which has been $4m in the red, was again on tenterhooks and they will now have to consider cost cutting.

This comes after the organisation in June was issued with a “going concern” notice from its auditors after it had lost $7.2m in the past two years.

“Financially it puts the sport in a really compromised position again,” Ryan said. “We have done a power of work to get us into a more stable position. This money (from Hancock Prospecting) was going to help us accelerate our sport ­not only correct what has been out of balance.

“(It) was going to help us get ahead and now we’re back, literally looking through the budget as we speak.”

Members of the Australian side refused to wear the new sponsor’s logo on their uniforms in the series against England after objections from Indigenous player Donnell Wallam, citing discomfort over the company’s record on Indigenous issues.

There was optimism on Friday night that the dispute had been resolved after reports Wallam had agreed to wear a uniform with the sponsor’s logo but those hopes were dashed on Saturday when Hancock tore up its proposed four-year partnership “effective immediately”.

The company — and its majority-owned iron ore outfit Roy Hill ­– also withdrew from its deal with Super Netball premiers West Coast Fever. The company said it had been unaware of “the complexity of existing issues between Netball Australia and the players’ association”.

Hancock Prospecting also said it did not insist the logo be on the uniform.

It has been confirmed to The Australian that funding from Hancock Prospecting had also been committed to delivering netball programs in Indigenous communities as well as talent pathways for Indigenous players.

The Australian Diamonds in a statement on Saturday dismissed suggestions the dispute was over climate change.

“Reports of a protest on the part of the players, on environmental grounds and a split within the playing group are incorrect,” the players’ statement read. “The singular issue of concern to the players was one of support for our only Indigenous team member.”

Ryan revealed she had been trying via the Australian Netball Players’ Association (ANPA) to have “direct communication to the players”. She said despite months of overtures to the union powerbrokers, they had not provided a time to meet.

“We have been advocating for a while to make sure that we are able to have direct communication to players, that’s something that we want to have,” Ryan said. “I’ve been asking since July to meet with the players’ association board and have never been given an opportunity.

“So I am all for having direct conversations and our reality is we need to have direct conversations – the fact that they’re saying they weren’t consulted on this deal, and yet there is an email to them on the 29th of July that tells them how the deal is being structured. I mean, what else were we meant to do?”

Ryan did not rule out engaging with gambling companies in an effort to keep the sport afloat.

“I know everyone’s got an aversion to betting, but we are the only sport that doesn’t have an association with a betting agency and that already financially compromises us,” Ryan said. “Whether it’s right or wrong for the sport, we don’t know yet.”

Brian Burke was WA’s Labor premier in 1984 when Mrs Rinehart’s father, Lang Hancock, infamously proposed sterilising “half caste” Aboriginal people.

“He excited some people by occasionally expressing himself inappropriately on a range of controversial topics,” Mr Burke said on Sunday.

Mr Burke said he could not recall Mrs Rhinehart – who he believed was living in the US at the time – supporting any of her father’s “extreme views”.

“It is sad to see her criticised for the views her father expressed, and we are the only losers from the bullying that caused Mrs Rinehart to withdraw her sports sponsorship,” he said. “And that’s when, as has been repeatedly pointed out, we think it’s fine to accept sponsorship from gambling, alcohol and fast food.”