Every New Year’s Day in North America, the National Hockey League, usually an indoor sport, plays an outdoor fixture. It’s an awesome spectacle typically involving two marquee teams and a huge audience.
This year’s game between the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs attracted more than 105,000 spectators in Michigan.
Could a sport that is typically played indoors in Australia or New Zealand be staged outdoors with success?
Though the marketplace and population are much smaller and some serious logistics would have to be resolved, wouldn’t netball be an ideal sport?
Yes, a netball Test at, say, AAMI Park.
Australia versus New Zealand internationals are typically blockbuster contests. Of the 115 games played between the two countries, 59 have been decided by five goals or less.
Games between Australia and New Zealand are always fast, gripping and entertaining.
More importantly, games between the two never have any problems selling out and often in big arenas.
Hisense Arena, with a captaincy of 10,500, in Melbourne is a frequent host of netball Tests, as is Vector Arena in Auckland with its capacity of 12,000.
The 2002 Commonwealth Games Final in Manchester drew over 20,000 spectators.
People go and they make a raquet – netball crowds are as fervent as any sporting crowds in Australasia.
Additionally, the novelty of playing outside is bound to attract non-netball people.
Besides it’s not uncommon for the sport to be played outside anyway.
Thousands of girls in both countries play club matches outside and even internationals used to be held outdoors, the 1987 World Championships were held outdoors in the cold of Glasgow.
Logistically the match would be best held in the summer to avoid the risk of poor weather. But this match can’t be like cricket where they go off for shadows, a little bit of rain and wind is just another element to add to the excitement.
Playing on hardwood in the rain, are you nuts? What about changing the surface, play it on grass with clear linings?
To maximize the cost of such an event, it might be worth adding five minutes to the end of each quarter so the fans get more bang for their bucks.
Add some original entertainment and corporate hospitably and you have yourself a memorable night out.
Players have rejected Netball Australia's latest pay offer with former great Liz Ellis fearing the relationship between the warring parties may not be salvageable.…
More than 20 of Australia's biggest sporting bodies have joined together to support the Voice to Parliament. After weeks of announcements from the various…
Collingwood will withdraw from the Super Netball competition at the end of the season. The struggling Magpies conducted a review of their future viability…
As a member of both Collingwood and the Melbourne Storm, I have been to numerous AFL / NRL ANZAC Day double headers. This year…
Australia's Diamonds have underlined their global netball supremacy
Both sides won their last round-robin matches in South Africa.
