Wasps Rugby has pledged to help England become the number one netball nation in the world after launching its own netball franchise.
The Premiership rugby club revealed earlier this week that it would be establishing its own club in the Vitality Superleague as part of an expansion plan. Today (29 June) at its Ricoh Arena home, chief executive David Armstrong unveiled England under-21 coach Tamsin Greenway as Wasps Netball’s first director of netball.
Greenway coached Surrey Storm to the Superleague title last season, and will prepare the new team for its inaugural season in 2017.
While Armstrong said that the move would help Wasps’ ambitions to expand its burgeoning sports brand, cementing the Ricoh Arena as one of the West Midland’s top locations for elite sport, he added that he wanted Wasps to make a “substantial contribution” to England Netball’s hopes of rivalling world superpowers Australia and New Zealand.
He said he was keen to “introduce a level of professionalism” in the sport by exposing the netball players to the same strength and conditioning, physiotherapy, nutrition and medical support that the rugby team has.
“We’ll be using the same techniques we bring to the rugby world where we are renowned for being a leader in that field,” said Armstrong.
Wasps’ netball players will use the University of Warwick as a training base. The base will undergo a £40m overhaul to transform it into a “world-class” sports facility over the next few years.
While netball adds to the Ricoh Arena’s growing reputation as an “elite sports hub” – the stadium also host Coventry City Football Club, weightlifting, darts and snooker – the sport will also allow Wasps to build on its community scheme which has seen it engage with 50,000 youngsters across the region since it moved to Coventry in November 2014.
Armstrong said the move was commercially attractive as “few sports are growing at the pace of netball”. As well as ticket sales, netball matches will offer more opportunities to exploit additional hospitality and food and beverage opportunities.
The CEO added that the club would extend its fan village concept – which provides family entertainment before matches – to netball games. While the Ricoh’s Jaguar Hall can hold 7,500 spectators, it is flexible enough to downsize.
