Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Marg Foster: Former Silver Fern on the confirmation of a privatised domestic netball competition

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Marg Foster: Former Silver Fern on the confirmation of a privatised domestic netball competition · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Netball's Domestic League is getting privatised. Anna Mowbray and Ali
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Williams taking over. Thank you very much. But with most
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: of the Silver Ferns signing on to overseas contracts, mainly
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: in Australia for 2027, is it too little too late?
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: That's the question.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: What I want them to know is that work is
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: now commencing on ensuring that the domestic competition that is
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: up and running for 2027 is something enormously attractive that
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: will bring them back to New Zealand in the not
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: too distant future.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Marg Foster, former Silver Fern, is with us this morning. Marg,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: good morning.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: Good morning.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: I know you'll be very happy with this news.
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely. Jesus. Like, it was getting a bit scary
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: there for a moment.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Because it did seem for a while, like, if they
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: don't get something done now, the whole thing could collapse,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: everyone leaves the country, and starting from scratch again is
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: very hard.
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it certainly is. And, you know, like, we... We
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: know that our product is a great product and it
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: has been like in the past. We've had some really,
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: I mean, obviously the participation rate here in New Zealand
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: is huge for females. So, you know, this is a
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: really good thing. But, you know, we can't just rely
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: on philanthropy. You know, it's a whole lot of... Yeah,
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: lots of things that we need to be able to
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: get out of this, like making it really commercially attractive
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: for investors. Yeah. So they get a genuine return.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. You need investors, you need advertisers, and you
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: need to make sure it's not just a giant money pit.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: Oh, absolutely. And look, I know we're growing our product,
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: but the audience, sponsorship, broadcast, fan experience, commercial partnerships, I mean,
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: it's huge. So I really take my hat off to
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: Anna and Ali stepping up. That's just phenomenal what they're
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: looking to do and real great backing from all of us.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: Hopefully we can get on board with it and get
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: the right investors in each oven.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: Marg, tell me about the contracts that some of these
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: players would have signed over in Australia and elsewhere. Are
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: they for next year, and are they normally one-year contracts?
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Could you get them back after that, or can you
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: get them out of existing contracts? What is going to happen?
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: No, like, you know, like a lot of the athletes
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: have signed for two years and they're also, we're talking
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: our second tier athletes have gone over to the UK. So,
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: you know, like we, like there's more athletes in the
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: 10 that have been signed that are, you know, current
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: Silver Ferns. And so, you know, we've got to like,
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: I just don't see, like, I think probably their salary
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: over in Australia is around about 90,000. Like, that's a lot, like,
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: you know, for a young athlete. So I think, you know,
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: we might need to be starting a little bit lower
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: than that with how we start here in terms of,
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: you know, that professional side and the salary cap. Yeah.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Margaret, good to hear.
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: I don't know how we're going to put it, but
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: I do honestly feel that New Zealand, that we can,
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: like we can be a competitive market and really, you know, like,
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: you know, we.
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: We need to start to lower them back.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: It's very exciting, Margaret. I can hear it in your voice.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: But we've got to get the money.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: We've got to get the money and we've got to
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: lower them back and it might take some time. Mark Foster,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: nice to have you on the program this morning. Former
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Silver Fern.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: to News Talk ZB from 5 a.m. weekdays or follow
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: the podcast on iHeartRadio.