While some of Australia's sporting codes have experienced a decline in crowd attendance this year, new studies show that netball has bounced back from the pandemic in a big way.
According to research from Gemba, an Australian company providing insights, strategy and communications data on sport and entertainment, fans are attending professional matches at a higher rate this Super Netball season than the year before the pandemic began.
Back in 2019, 17 per cent of Australian netball fans surveyed of the age 16 and over indicated that they'd attended at least one live netball match.
And in 2020 and 2021, during the height of lockdowns and state border closures – which forced the Super Netball league to play a lot of its matches in hubs or without crowds – this attendance dropped to 15 and 16 per cent respectively.
But in 2022, with a home and away season in full swing, that number has risen to 31 per cent over a four-month period from January through to April.
This spike so early in the year is probably a product of Super Netball's earlier start to the season, in order to finish the competition before the Diamonds start their preparation for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in July.
The league's pre-season Team Girls Cup was also reintroduced to the netball calendar this year and was held on the last weekend of February, after the previous two tournaments were cancelled.
Still, Gemba's head of marketing strategy Adam Hodge said Super Netball and its clubs must be putting in the hard yards to encourage people to turn up to the games.
"Our research data shows netball fans are flocking back to games post COVID restrictions," he said
"It would appear the sport has rallied hard and whatever they're doing is working."
Melbourne Vixens get creative with game-day events
One club that is trying new ways to entice fans back is the Melbourne Vixens.
The side already has an extremely loyal fan base and one of the highest membership tallies in the competition, having been around since 2017 and won three premierships over the course of the trans-Tasman Championship and Super Netball era.
However, during the last two years of the pandemic, they've only been able to host five games at John Cain Arena, and so the club has been desperate to reconnect with the community and rebuild an atmosphere at its home venue.
By listening to fans – who've long complained that the sport places too much emphasis on marketing itself to children, instead of the adults that can afford to invest in the game – and capitalising on Super Netball's new broadcast deal, the Vixens have come up with a clever way to try to tap into the adult market.
A move to Fox Sports for the 2022 season meant the league was able to reclaim its Saturday night prime-time TV slot, presenting an opportunity for the club to introduce Sippin' Saturdays, where fans can enjoy their netball with a glass of wine.
"We know that age group of 18-35 love their netball and are generally still playing or have recently retired and are big fans," Vixens general manager of netball development Angela Banbury said.
"It's been popular, and we've got another coming up this weekend with the Vixens and NSW Swifts Round 11 game."
Banbury said the nights have been a hit with men and women, suggesting it was a great idea for a date.
"Both men and women have been attending," she said.
"They get a reserved seat and a drink on arrival, and there's a dedicated room that overlooks a view of Melbourne where they sit before the game starts."
Inclusion is important
Other initiatives that the club has incorporated into its game-day experience in recent years include the Ingles Family Sensory Room and Cubs Corner.
Cubs Corner caters to new parents and young families, giving them the space to bring babies in prams and sit either in front or behind the glass of a converted corporate suite.
The sensory room is a similar setup, allowing fans on the spectrum and their families to watch from a comfortable space with activities like colouring and toy blocks on hand, as well as headphones, yoga mats, beanbags, and soft toys.
It was first introduced in 2019 – the same year Renae and Joe Ingles' son Jacob was diagnosed with autism. This year, the Vixens announced they'd officially named the sensory room in their honour.
"We'd seen a lot of sensory rooms popping up around the place, particularly overseas, and so that combined with our link to the Ingles made us think, why not introduce our own," Banbury said.
"The beauty of it, is that it's a safe space for the whole family, and stops them having to split up, in terms of one child going with Mum or Dad to the game and the other child staying home because it's too much for them to go to a sporting event.
"We're now three years down the track and during that time, there's been a lot more funds that have gone into the room to ensure the ambience is set up correctly."
Part of that involved working with KultureCity, an American non-profit organisation that specialise in the area and certify these spaces to make sure they meet the standard.
KultureCity have also helped the AFL set up their sensory rooms at Docklands and Kardinia Park, while both Renae and Joe Ingles sit on the board.
"KultureCity are one of the leaders in helping educate people involved in stadia and sporting clubs on what people on the spectrum need to attend a game," Banbury said.
"A number of our staff had to do some online training and then we had to send them photos of the setup and all the activities we had on offer to get it approved."
The Vixens' space is the first the non-profit organisation has certified in netball around the world.
