Netball fans to miss out

NETBALL Victoria chief executive Rosie King says Netball Australia should be kicking itself for missing the chance to showcase Sunday’s semi-final between the Vixens and the Magpies.

However, the sport’s governing body claims it had its hands tied and locked-out fans will have to watch the clash on Channel 9.

The Super Netball semifinal between the cross-town rivals will be squeezed into the State Netball and Hockey Centre in Parkville after an eSports extravaganza booked out Melbourne Arena, Margaret Court Arena and Rod Laver Arena this weekend.

The State Netball and Hockey Centre only holds about 3000 people, while Melbourne Arena has a capacity of 9500.

The Vixens alone have enough members to almost fill the state netball centre twice over and angry fans have bombarded Netball Victoria with complaints.

Netball Australia runs the Super Netball finals series and is in charge of booking and securing venues.

King said two Melbourne teams playing in the minor semi-final at a low-capacity venue was “a mess”.

“This would probably be Netball Australia’s worst case scenario,” King said.

“I think that they would be absolutely kicking themselves that they didn’t find the fortitude to put a deposit down to secure the booking.

“If we want to be in this competition against lots of other sports we’ve got to step up to the opportunities as they present.

“We just got overrun by a sport that can put their hands in their pockets and secure the booking and we can’t. What does that say? It’s just ridiculous and frustrating.”

Super Netball chief executive Chris Symington said the league “wouldn’t be able to put down enough money” to secure a speculative booking.

“You can put down a pencil hold but you can’t actually book a venue with a speculative booking,” Symington said.

“The Esports competition were able to confirm they were going to use all three venues and lock them up and at that point we didn’t even know that we were going to be hosting a final in Melbourne.

“We’ll continue to look at all the options and try and ensure it doesn’t happen again but it’s not something we can guarantee.

“The fans will just have to tune in on Channel 9.”

While the Vixens members fight for tickets, Magpies’ supporters face even more of a squeeze.

As the host team, the Vixens have a ticket allocation of 80 per cent for members and the Magpies 20 per cent.

There is an even smaller allocation of about 300 tickets for the general admission.