The Netball Super League gets underway today, 14 March, with every game being shown by broadcasters for the first time.The BBC will broadcast one fixture per week of the Netball Super League.A number of changes have been made to the competition this season, with rule changes, professionalisation and games taking place in arenas, “Suddenly the whole game has changed,” Greenway said.The BBC’s content will be, “Really, really important, especially when you’re trying to grow a fan base, because people want to know about the stories,” Greenway said. “They want to support their team. If they don’t have a team, they’ll suddenly have a chance to watch all four and go, ‘Actually, I want to be behind these guys.’ We know sport is all about that journey, the fairy tale moments, the good, the bad, and the ugly, and you won’t miss any of that now, and that is going to be a real game changer.”The hope is that increased exposure on TV will lead to more ticket sales at the arenas that the league is moving to this year: “We’re all realistic about the fan base taking time to grow. But if we can start to grow that across different platforms, it only takes people to see it to go, ‘I’ll come to that game in one day in a few weeks.’ We’ve never given fans that opportunity before.”In terms of the content itself, Greenway believes, “We’ve just got to be creative with it. It isn’t going to massively change overnight, but we’ve got the opportunity to build stars, and to talk about the game in a different way. Having those spaces to discuss gets it taken more seriously. From that, you start to get that regular sports fan involved, because who doesn’t love watching a great game of any sport, the big clashes, the rivalries, the superstars.”Looking ahead, Greenway is realistic about where the league can get to, with the hope that this relaunch isn’t a flash in the pan: “For me it’s the retention of [the growth], so it’s not just a one-hit wonder. We don’t launch this year and everyone goes, ‘Oh wow, new league,’ and we get eyeballs on and we don’t retain. That’s our job, on the court but also off the court, and I believe we’ve got such a good team working with Sky that we can do that. We can get new fans on board, retain the regular ones and start to build a big fan base.“If you do that, you know, we could we could end up in five years time having professional leagues across football, rugby, cricket, and netball. How incredible is that for any young female growing up to go, ‘I can play professional sport.’ That would be the biggest goal.”
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