Jane Bennett: Northern Stars general manager on the uncertain future of the ANZ Premiership

The body blows keep coming for netball's ANZ Premiership as the uncertainty rolls on over what shape, if any, the competition will take next year.

Administration staff at the three Netball New Zealand run franchises - the Stars, the Waikato-Bay of Plenty Magic and the Mainland Tactix - have been told their contracts will not be renewed at this stage.

Stars general manager Jane Bennett says she received that message and says usually she'd be in the midst of player contract renewals.

"Due to the uncertainty of where we're at, which we all know - we're in a difficult position where contracts can't be extended." 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good afternoon. As we've told you today, there is more
speculation now about whether there will be an A and
Z Netwall Premiership next year. Administration staff at three of
the franchises these are the ones owned by Netball New
Zealand have been told in the last couple of days
that their contracts will not be renewed after they expire
at the end of the month, which is ten days
from now. Jane Bennett is the general manager of the
Stars and is with us.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hijane, Hi, Heather, how are you?

Speaker 1 (00:22):
I'm well, thank you. Do you get one of these emails?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (00:25):
I did, and what does it say?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Just due to the uncertainty of where we're at, which
we all know that we're in the difficult position where
contracts can't be extended. A lot of those contracts are
specific to the season, so that's not completely abnormal.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
For some contracts. Is it abnormal?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
No, like we're always sort of work season to season.
But there, yeah, I guess is that tricky situation. You know,
normally now I would be working on player contracting. Well,
that can't happen when we don't have stat certainty for
the composition year.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
So this is your contract as well. So in previous years,
have you been told with ten days to go, there's
no contract for next year?

Speaker 2 (01:06):
No, Because as we'd come to that time each year,
we did know what that competition looked like next years.
For that conversation was able to carry on.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
So what happens in ten days, Jane? Do you just
not get any pay?

Speaker 2 (01:17):
No? There's still things being worked through, of course, but
it's not really so much about me. It's about all
the amazing people that are very dedicated to finding the
solution and knowing what's great about our sport and I
just seeing that commercial value come through.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Is there a risk that some starf How many staff
at the Stars will have got this email? And I'm
not talking about players and coaches because obviously we know
that they are kind of locked into NEPLE, but people
with transferable skills like yourself, how many would have got
these emails? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:44):
To be the only one that's sort of I guess
full time in this gig as myself. The other roles
are very specific to the contract and part time and
what have you. But there's probably another six people that
have decent contracts with us.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
Well, how many of them in ten days are going
to go look for other gigs and are not going
to come back.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Potentially the majority of them. This is our life in sport,
to be honest. So a lot of them have a
lot else going on and always have done. So that's
what I say. It's not completely abnormal for them to
finish the contract, go back into their other work then
and come back and when the season sort of kicks
off again. So that's not yes, not entirely news.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Do you think that there is a premiership next year?

Speaker 2 (02:27):
Look, I'm still extremely hopeful because of the strength of
our game. You know, people are watching, people are coming,
people are playing, So I am hopeful that we can
get to a solution. But I'm not you know, I'm
not unaware that it's just an extremely complex and challenging
environments to get that solution as well.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
If there is a solution, does this and there will
be a solution, will it look like the premiership that
we had this year?

Speaker 2 (02:52):
I think it won't be too dissimilar because again, people
are watching, We've got growth and viewership and attendance. There's
nothing wrong with our product. Yes, it's how do we
make that commercially viable? And who are the broadcasts and
partners that can help us do that.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
Okay, So does it sound to you like there will
be something that looks like what we had this year?
And what they're doing at the moment is they're simply
trying to not carry a labor cost until they make
their mind up and know for sure, and they're banking
on the fact that all of you guys will be back.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Yeah, I guess there is an element of that, right,
they do need to be make some hard decisions about
the cost they're running in the meantime. Yeah, so you
know there is a level of pragmatism there, and yeah,
I mean I know they would really. All the people
we have are extremely dedicated and good at what they do,
so if we can get them back in when we're
able to do so, hopefully that can happen.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
All right, Jane, best ofluck, and I hope that you're
right that Jane Benett, thank you obviously. Jane Bennett, Stars
General Manager.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
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Speaker 1 (03:48):
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