Australasian netball competition will be the ANZ Championship
Tuesday 9 October 2007, 2:42PM
By Netball NZ
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The new Australasian netball competition will be called the ANZ Championship, Trans Tasman Netball Ltd (TTNL) announced today.
ANZ has signed a three-year sponsorship deal with TTNL, the company running the premier competition.
TTNL General Manager Tony Holding said the deal was critical to the viability of the new competition.
"The ANZ Championship is a significant new venture. We're pioneering semi-professionalism in a woman's-only sport through a competition spread between two countries. Without a cornerstone sponsor willing to back our idea, it simply couldn't happen," he said.
"It's an added bonus to find a sponsor with a name made for the competition - our name couldn't be more perfect than the ANZ Championship," said Mr Holding.
Wayne Besant, Managing Director of ANZ Retail Banking, said ANZ had been fast to adopt the concept of an Australasian netball league.
"We wanted to be part of this idea because we think this competition has the potential to ignite the imagination of New Zealanders and Australians alike, and it's an important new part of our sponsorship portfolio" says Besant.
"Trans-Tasman competition at the national level already excites huge public interest in our two great sporting nations. We believe that both countries are ready for a sustained competition between ten elite teams.
The ANZ Championship will see five teams from New Zealand and five teams from Australia compete in 69 games starting in April 2008. The competition will run over 17 weeks, with the finals played over three weeks in July 2008.
Each team will host 6 or 7 home games. Australian teams will play each other twice and the New Zealand teams once; and the New Zealand teams will play each other twice and the Australian teams once.
Games will be played on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays. All matches will be covered by SKY TV in New Zealand and Fox Sports in Australia.
The names of the new teams will be announced towards the end of October.
www.anz-championship.com