The UK Netball Superleague: a case study of franchising in elite women's sport organisations

Abstract

This paper draws on theories of franchising in examining the emergence of the UK Netball Superleague (UK NSL) in 2005. The focus of the paper is to explore the development of an empowered franchise framework as part of England Netball's elite performance strategy and the consequences of the Superleague for player performance, team success and commercial potential of the franchises. Twenty-two in-depth interviews conducted between 2008 and 2011 with franchise and sport media/marketing personnel inform the discussion. The paper explains the UK NSL as an empowered franchise model characterised by a shift from the centralised hierarchical model of the business format franchise to one which is decentralised and informal and whereby different franchises are characterised by high degrees of diversity in terms of organisational environment and their own structural characteristics of specialisation and standardisation.

Resourcefulness, reciprocity and reflexivity: the three Rs of partnership in sport for public health research

“…However, it is worth noting that existing scholarship on sport partnerships has variously focused on managerial structures and processes and the organisational dynamics within a range of multi-agency contexts including: public sector sport and leisure services (Frisby et al 2004, Thibault et al 1999Shaw and Allen 2006); elite sport development (Green and Oakley 2001); county sport partnerships (Mackintosh 2011); sport in international development (Lindsey andBanda 2011, Kay et al 2015); school sport (Smith andLeech 2010, Flintoff et al 2011) and community sport (Frisby and Millar 2002;Miesner andDoherty 2009, 2012). Alongside a focus on the more functional aspects of implementing and working in partnerships, further research has raised critical questions about the contested nature of partnership arrangements in sport in conceptual, applied and case study accounts of the policy context and politics of partnerships (see for example, Green andHoulihan 2004, McDonald 2005;Green 2007, Hayhurst and Frisby 2010, Mansfield and Killick 2012. Scholarly analyses of partnership theory and practice in policy work, including sport, has led to the articulation of partnership models identifying the organisational structures, roles and responsibilities of actors in particular inter-agency collaborations including: strategic and communicative models in county sport partnerships (McDonald 2005); advocacy coalition frameworks (ACF) in elite sport development contexts (Green and Houlihan 2004); and empowered franchising in the UK Netball Superleague (Mansfield and Killick 2012).…”

A losing battle? Women’s sport pre- and post-COVID-19

“…Elite-level women's sport is often characterised by desires to embrace, or an inability to avoid, commercial imperatives (Forster, 2006), with the sport-media relationship central to promote commercial interest (Mansfield & Killick, 2012). This is seen as essential to the financial sustainability of women's sport and the move towards professionalisation, with Lough and Geurin (2019) proclaiming -albeit pre-COVID-19 -that women's sport was in a position to break new ground both socially and economically.…”

Resourcefulness, reciprocity and reflexivity: the three Rs of partnership in sport for public health research

“…However, it is worth noting that existing scholarship on sport partnerships has variously focused on managerial structures and processes and the organisational dynamics within a range of multi-agency contexts including: public sector sport and leisure services (Frisby et al 2004, Thibault et al 1999Shaw and Allen 2006); elite sport development (Green and Oakley 2001); county sport partnerships (Mackintosh 2011); sport in international development (Lindsey andBanda 2011, Kay et al 2015); school sport Leech 2010, Flintoff et al 2011) and community sport (Frisby and Millar 2002;Miesner andDoherty 2009, 2012). Alongside a focus on the more functional aspects of implementing and working in partnerships, further research has raised critical questions about the contested nature of partnership arrangements in sport in conceptual, applied and case study accounts of the policy context and politics of partnerships (see for example, Green andHoulihan 2004, McDonald 2005;Green 2007, Hayhurst and Frisby 2010, Mansfield and Killick 2012. Scholarly analyses of partnership theory and practice in policy work, including sport, has led to the articulation of partnership models identifying the organisational structures, roles and responsibilities of actors in particular inter-agency collaborations including: strategic and communicative models in county sport partnerships (McDonald 2005); advocacy coalition frameworks (ACF) in elite sport development contexts (Green and Houlihan 2004); and empowered franchising in the UK Netball Superleague (Mansfield and Killick 2012).…”

“…Alongside a focus on the more functional aspects of implementing and working in partnerships, further research has raised critical questions about the contested nature of partnership arrangements in sport in conceptual, applied and case study accounts of the policy context and politics of partnerships (see for example, Green andHoulihan 2004, McDonald 2005;Green 2007, Hayhurst and Frisby 2010, Mansfield and Killick 2012. Scholarly analyses of partnership theory and practice in policy work, including sport, has led to the articulation of partnership models identifying the organisational structures, roles and responsibilities of actors in particular inter-agency collaborations including: strategic and communicative models in county sport partnerships (McDonald 2005); advocacy coalition frameworks (ACF) in elite sport development contexts (Green and Houlihan 2004); and empowered franchising in the UK Netball Superleague (Mansfield and Killick 2012). There have also been critiques of the political rhetoric purporting that there is any inherent progressive capacity to partnerships.…”