The Netball Mainland Zone has confirmed today that the organisation has recommended to its members at its 2020 Annual General Meeting on Saturday the 4th of April that it be placed in voluntary liquidation.
This recommendation was accepted by the members and will now be the subject of a ratification at a further meeting in 30 working days time.
Netball Mainland Board Spokesperson Darren Wright said that due to the ongoing effects of COVID-19, Netball Mainland has been placed under unprecedented financial pressure.
“There has been a massive amount of work by the Netball Mainland Board and staff to get the organisation into a positive position in 2020 however with the financial impact of COVID-19 Netball Mainland could not continue. It was a very difficult decision for Netball Mainland but after undertaking a thorough review of its financial position and regrettably with there being no certainty as to when both community and high performance games will resume, the difficult decision has been made to liquidate,” he said.
“Before making this decision, Netball Mainland explored a number of potential alternatives, including Netball New Zealand, but none were able to help in the current environment. Whilst understanding the position of Netball New Zealand, we are extremely disappointed to have to make this call, particularly with this being such devastating news for our Centres, staff and team.”
Netball New Zealand has announced that it will now enter into discussions with stakeholders of The Good Oil Tactix whilst retaining head coach Marianne Delaney-Hoshek and players of that team. Netball New Zealand will work with the Netball Mainland Board to ensure the community side of Netball is also managed accordingly.
Netball NZ Chief Executive Jennie Wyllie said the liquidation of the Netball Mainland Zone showed just what a significant financial impact COVID-19 was having on all businesses in New Zealand.
“Our hearts go out to the Mainland Board and their staff, Netball NZ will now work through a process of how the ongoing management and servicing of the game will work. These are challenging times and businesses are having to re-think their structures for both now and the future. We know our Netball Centres are well placed to maintain our community game and we will be working with them to ensure the future of local Netball,” she said.
“We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the incredibly hard work that the Board of Netball Mainland have put in over the past 18 months to restructure the Mainland Zone and we are gutted that the great strides being made in the Zone will now not have the time to come to fruition.”
A liquidator will be appointed to work with all relevant authorities to address Netball Mainland’s winding up. Netball Mainland will be contacting all customers and suppliers about that appointment in the coming days.