Facing losses of more than $600,000 a season, there are fears more WNBL owners will try to sell off their teams after one club was put on the market in a league already facing a tumultuous future.
The only state basketball governing body with ownership of a WNBL club, no longer able to bear losses in the realm of half a million dollars per season, has resolved to find new owners or investors as the crisis in the women’s league deepens.
Perth Lynx players, agents and other key WNBL stakeholders were, this week, informed of Basketball WA’s plans.
Code Sports, last month, revealed the eight WNBL clubs lost almost $5 million combined, last season, sparking calls for Basketball Australia to give up control of the women’s league it has owned and operated for 43 years.
BA has privately acknowledged change is inevitable and there is some positivity among clubs around the work it is doing, including the involvement of NBL owner Larry Kestelman, but any change will come too late for Basketball WA.
“We have, every year, invested members (state association) funds into the Lynx and we were happy to do that, but we can’t do so at significant losses like we have been incurring,” acting chief executive Evan Stewart said.
“It’s been a bit of a balance between us owning the team because we think it is a pathway versus making sure we’re not losing too much money.”
He said Basketball WA had engaged a firm to shop the Lynx in the hopes of attracting a suitable owner or investment.
“We will be going out more formally in the next week or so looking for a private investor, a partner or a new owner,” he said.
“We won’t just give it away to the wrong people, we’ll go through a thorough process and we’ll do what we think is best for the pathway and for our organisation to be in a more positive spot than what it has been over the last three seasons.”
It comes amid broader woe in women’s sport, following Collingwood Football Club’s decision to axe its Super Netball team at the end of season 2023.
A source told Code Sports said there were now fears other WNBL owners could also look to exit their clubs after losses that amounted to, on average, nearly $625,000 last season.
“There’s a lot more competition in female national sporting leagues these days and it can’t be run like it used to be 20 years ago,” Stewart said.
“We need to move with the times and I think the league is certainly doing some good work to look at that.
“We do believe BA will be doing some positive things in the next 12 months to make the league more competitive, which it needs to.
“There’s no one that denies that.”
Every contracted player from Perth’s 2022-23 campaign became a free agent at season’s end, leaving the club with a mammoth task. Three WA natives have already signed – Amy Atwell, Chloe Forster and Mackenzie Clinch Hoycard – with two more set to be unveiled this week. Stewart said all had been made aware of the situation.
Basketball WA, which, in 2020, was handed control of the Lynx by late former Perth Wildcats’ owner Jack Bendat, will maintain control of the club this season.
Code Sports has contacted Basketball Australia for comment.