Introduction
In the height of the off season I take a look at what is happening in the netball world.
January netball notes
New Southern Steel and Netball Southland chief executive David Bannister wants to make one thing perfectly clear – the franchise isn’t moving its home base from Invercargill to Dunedin.
Last week, the Otago Daily Times reported the Queenslander as saying that from an outsider’s perspective, Dunedin offered appeal and Steel might be better served by relocating there.
Yesterday, he told The Southland Times that his comments had been taken out of context and Southland netball fans had nothing to worry about.
“Most certainly not. If you look at the player base, five out of the 12 are Invercargill girls and our community, financial and corporate support [in Southland] is second to none. Ninety-five per cent of our membership is from there.
“I can’t envisage any move.”
This is a point of interest because so far whatever happens at least for now, the Southern Steel won’t be moving there commercial base to Dunedin. Interesting times lie ahead for Kiwi ANZ Championships if Netball New Zealand restructure goes ahead. A team like the Canterbury Tactix desperately needs to get its book into the black. The tough news is that in an era of rising costs across the board things aren’t going to get any easier. The of hiring the CBS Arena for a season worth of home games, would be staggering to some people. As an educated guess the cost would easily run into six figures , no trouble at all. Speaking of the Tactix judging from these pics they have yet to gain a sponsor for there training gear.
Canterbury Tactix host pre-season games
The Tactix are hosting a pre-season tournament at Lincoln Events Centre on the 11th and 12th of February
The Southern Steel are making the journey up the South Island to compete in this tournament. The feature game between the only two southern teams in the ANZ
Well this is good news for Tactix fans and supporters. I am sure the games are being held out at the Lincoln Events Centre because no other suitable venue was available. The only suitable venue would have been Pioneer Recreation and Sport Centre. Otherwise I have called the venue Pioneer Stadium in past entires. QEII as a venue is still waiting to be bulldozed due to quake damage. Christchurch suffers from a serious shortage of venues in general. It is going to be a future issue for event planners. Incidental what happens if a big aftershocks hits during a Canterbury Tactix home game this year?
At least of parts of Pioneer Recreation and Sport Centre have been evacuated if after a 5.0 after shock. A mandatory engineering inspection is then done. I don’t know the policy for the CBS Arena. But given the differences between the buildings a 5.0 shouldn’t shut the place down.
