03 Oct 2019
Netball World Cup inspires the nation – provides participation boost for sport
BY Tom Walker
This year's Netball World Cup, held in Liverpool in July, is already providing a legacy by growing the sport's participation numbers in England.
A survey conducted by YouGov on behalf of England Netball shows that 160,000 adult women who followed the tournament have been inspired to start playing netball.
England Netball also revealed that, following the event, the national governing body has experienced a "1,000 per cent increase" in visits to its online netball session finder.
There has also been 900 new school registrations for England Netball's Bee Netball programme and a 71 per cent of clubs saying they had more people showing an interest in playing than before the tournament.
There has been a surge in followers across England Netball social media channels too, with Instagram seeing a 28 per cent increase in followers throughout the tournament.
The YouGov survey shows that, in total, 6.07 million Brits said they 'followed or attended' the event.
"The Vitality Netball World Cup was an absolute whirlwind and a huge success," said outgoing Netball England CEO Joanna Adams. She added that a record-breaking 112,000 tickets were purchased for the games, with all England games being sell-outs.
"It was the best sold Netball World Cup to date and we had 9,900 people register their interest to volunteer at the tournament, plus extensive press coverage across the 10 days.
"It seemed as though everyone was talking about netball during that time and the buzz around Liverpool was spine-tingling. Whilst the Vitality Roses didn’t get the colour they were gunning for, they truly had the backing of the nation during every game and inspired many to have a go at the sport.
"To see a sea of red and white filling the arena during every England game will be a memory that stays with me forever. To the Netball World Cup team, all the volunteers, athletes, umpires, partners, fans and everyone else who played a part, thank you for making this a phenomenal success and for putting netball in the limelight once again following last year’s gold medal success at the Commonwealth Games."
Commenting on the research, Simon Morton, COO of UK Sport, which invested National Lottery funding into the event, added: "We believe world-class sport has the power to inspire the nation, so it’s wonderful to therefore see the Vitality Netball World Cup have a meaningful positive impact on a significant number of the fans.
"A major part of our strategy, backed by the Government and National Lottery, is to bring more of the world’s most prestigious sports events to the UK. Sport has a unique opportunity to drive positive change, which has been demonstrated in netball, and we will continue to work in partnership to reap the benefits of hosting major events for the nation."
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