THE countdown is on as we are now only five days away from the day that most netball fans have been waiting for. The Sirens, Netball Scotland’s new professional team will take to the court to face The Wasps in their first game in the Vitality Netball Super League.
This is a coup for The Sirens as they are the first fixture to be televised live by Sky Sports Mix; The fun starts at 7pm and the game will commence at 7.45 Tickets are getting scarce, but if you are quick you might be successful.
This day has been a while in the making and it has seen those involved with Netball Scotland, sweating blood and tears to get to this point. But what ambition, what inspiration and what a build- up.
Let’s be honest here, it hasn’t been easy, they don’t have sponsors falling all over them, they don’t have unlimited finance to buy success, but what they do have is passion and belief in abundance.
It was quite a statement to make all these months ago, particularly as it came from the incoming Chief Executive, Claire Nelson who was new to sports administration and was following on the footsteps of a long and successful tenure by Maggie Murray. Claire vowed at that time Scotland would participate in the Super League, which was completely populated by English teams and she has kept her word.
Her vision for women in sport is second to none and if energy and hard-work was a guarantee of success, not only playing but financial success, they would be winners already.
However the reality is that it has been quite a roller coaster for Netball Scotland putting all the component parts together. Even although many of their games will be televised by Sky, that elusive priority sponsorship investment has been extremely difficult to come by. So opportunities are available if you are interested? This is a call to action – there couldn’t be a better time to get involved in women in sport. You can contact The Sirens direct at info@sirensnetball.com Putting together a top class team of athletes, bringing them to Scotland and settling them down is a task in itself, but all the transitions have gone extremely well for the players and they are more than ready for the challenge.
It is also heartening to know that Netball Scotland are competing and winning their bid for players from some of the strongest Netball nations who have supported professional netball for many seasons.
Bringing together a range of new partners to support the activities of The Sirens was another task, and they pulled of a coup when they landed Caroline Mansley as chair, a highly experienced business professional, and matched this with their partnership with The University of the West of Scotland working directly with Johnny Mone, Head of Enterprise Services at the University.
With extensive social media coverage building up to the game, The Sirens and Netball Scotland are intent on #ChangingTheGame for women across the country and they have put down a challenge for us all to get involved. #ChangingTheGame is a celebration of active people who are doing their thing no matter how well they do it or how they look doing it!
The aim is to support each other and help girls and women of all ages, shapes and abilities overcome the fear of judgment that is stopping too many females from being active.
Want to join them? It’s easy, just take a pic, post it on social media and use the #ChangingtheGame.
So now it is over to us, the sporting public to assist them in creating a strong fan base which will be pivotal to the success of the team.
Netball Scotland have given us strong role models for our young women and girls, they are putting the Sirens to work in the Community, they are bridging the gender gap in sports boardrooms and they are offering good entertainment at a reasonable cost.
What’s not to love? Hope to see you there on Tuesday.
To find out more about The Sirens you can log onto their website at http://sirensnetball.com/ or if you want to know more about Netball in general their website is http://www.netballscotland.com
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