Next Far North visitor is netball
Horizons expand in Queensland’s role as pandemic sporting mecca
IT TOOK a pandemic, but Cairns is on the radar of yet another elite sport with officials to get a glimpse of “what could be” with the hosting of three Suncorp Super Netball games this weekend.
A pop-up stadium in Cairns in a building that was a Bunnings outlet was a hive of activity on Friday as final preparations were made ahead of the triple netball treat.
Tickets to the games were snapped up by locals hungry to see the game’s best players in action in the Far North for the first time and both days should see crowds of about 1000.
Sunday’s game featuring “home” side the Queensland Firebirds playing competition leaders Melbourne Vixens was the hottest property and the initial ticket release sold out in four hours.
Suncorp Super Netball chief executive Chris Symington said games were regularly taken to regional areas during a season and he was already impressed with what the Far North had to offer.
“Clearly we want to expand our footprint in terms of the competition,” he said.
“Being able to come up for the first time gives us a taste for what could be.
“Ticket sales have gone really well.”
The entire competition was moved to Queensland due to COVID-19 with Brisbane and the Gold Coast hosting the majority of games, but Cairns and Townsville are sharing the Indigenous round.
Teams are to wear special edition uniforms for the weekend games.
Netball is the fastest growing sport in Cairns and while no one from the Far North has ever reached the top level it was “only a matter of time”, particularly if they kept bringing top level games here.
“Be what you can see,” Mr Symington said. “All young girls aspiring to be professional players, if they see them in the flesh it’s definitely going to help.”
The court for the games this weekend was specially trucked in from the Sunshine Coast.
This will be the first use of the pop-up stadium after it was originally repurposed for the Cairns Taipans.