Australia’s national elite basketball competition for women is at a crossroads after the Perth Lynx collapsed under the weight of financial losses. Just one week after Collingwood announced it would hand back its licence for its Suncorp Super Netball franchise, Australian women’s professional sport has taken another body blow with the Lynx licence to be put up for sale.
NBL majority owner Larry Kestelman offered to help Basketball Australia revive the WNBL in April and there is increasing pressure for the women’s competition to follow a similar model to the NBL.
The eight WNBL clubs lost almost $5million combined last season and the Lynx are the only club run by a state association. In the end, those crippling losses were more than Basketball Western Australia could bear.
It has led to increased pressure on Basketball Australia to relinquish control of the WNBL that it has owned and managed for 43 years. While the women’s elite competition is hemorrhaging money, the men’s NBL which is independently owned and managed has turned a corner in recent years and is making a profit.
Acting chief executive of Basketball WA Evan Stewart said the Lynx was vital for pathways, but said the difficult decision needed to be made for financial stability. The Lynx licence will now be placed up for sale.
‘We have, every year, invested members [state association] funds into the Lynx and we were happy to do that, but we can’t do so at significant losses like we have been incurring,’ Stewart told the Herald Sun.
‘It’s been a bit of a balance between us owning the team because we think it is a pathway versus making sure we’re not losing too much money.’ ‘We will be going out more formally in the next week or so looking for a private investor, a partner or a new owner.
Evans said the financial pressures largely sprung from greater competition in the elite women’s sporting landscape. In the last 20 years Australia has seen the rise of professional cricket, football, AFL and NRL women’s sides, all demanding their own slice of the pie.
‘We won’t just give it away to the wrong people, we’ll go through a thorough process and we’ll do what we think is best for the pathway and for our organisation to be in a more positive spot than what it has been over the last three seasons.’ There are real fears that other WNBL clubs will follow suit.
Evans said the model that once worked for the WNBL would need to be revised. ‘There’s a lot more competition in female national sporting leagues these days and it can’t be run like it used to be 20 years ago,’ Stewart said.
‘We need to move with the times and I think the league is certainly doing some good work to look at that. ‘We do believe BA will be doing some positive things in the next 12 months to make the league more competitive, which it needs to.
‘There’s no one that denies that.’ It comes after the Collingwood Magpies Netball chief executive Craig Kelly announced the club would withdraw its Suncorp Super Netball licence at the end of this season. ‘It’s really tough because the girls are hurting,’ Richardson revealed.
‘While we are disappointed by Collingwood’s decision, we thank them for their participation in the Suncorp Super Netball competition,’ Netball Australia CEO Kelly Ryan said in a statement.
‘I don’t know what type of performance they’ll put in. ‘Emotionally, physically, mentally, it’s been a tough week. We’ve got to make sure we get around each other.’ While the Magpies recorded a $7million profit in 2022, the club made the decision to hand back the licence to focus on the AFL and AFLW operations.
