Nottingham Forest FC will expand its activity in sports via the planned launch of a Netball Super League (NSL) team, taking notice of netball’s UK popularity.
The team will begin playing in 2025, with the move forming part of a wider strategy by Forest’s owner, Greek businessman Evangelos Marinkakis, to develop a diverse sports portfolio.
Marinkakis has been actively pursuing this at his other sports club asset, Olympiacos CFP. Although best known for its football team, which won the UEFA Europa Conference League this week, Olympiacos is also active in basketball, volleyball, water polo, handball, athletics, swimming, table tennis and boxing.
Forest believes that netball is the ideal place for the club to begin its multi-sport ambitions. Netball is the most widely played team sport by women in the UK with annual participation of three million and over 8.5m viewing the sport on TV last year.
A Nottingham Forest spokesperson said: “Nottingham Forest is a brand that is recognised globally as inclusive and progressive. Like our sister club, Olympiacos, the opportunity to extend our brand into Netball was too good to be missed and we are delighted with today’s announcement.
“We have so many young female fans who can now dream of not just playing in the Garibaldi red of Forest in football matches, but now on the netball court.
“The club is delighted to announce the team’s home fixtures will be played at the Motorpoint Arena providing supporters with even more exciting opportunities to watch Nottingham Forest.”
As mentioned above, netball has a strong following in the UK with a substantial media viewership last year. The NSL maintains a joint-broadcaster partnership with the free-to-air BBC and pay-TV outlet Sky Sports, two of the UK’s leading media providers.
Forest’s planned expansion into netball could come with some commercial opportunities for prospective partners. Although stating that the netball side will share its football counterpart’s colour of red, there is no indication as to whether the two will have the same front-of-shirt partners.
The team’s home stadium has been confirmed, however, as the Motorpoint Arena in Nottingham city centre, around a mile-and-a-half away from the football club’s City Ground stadium. The arena is currently home to Nottingham Panthers of the Elite Ice Hockey league (EIHC).
Martin Ingham, Chief Executive at Motorpoint Arena Nottingham, said: “As an established arena partner with England Netball for both international matches and the Netball Super League Opener, we have a proud history of hosting world-class netball events.
“We are absolutely delighted to become the host for Nottingham Forest Netball Club’s NSL 2.0 franchise and look forward to creating an exceptional match day experience for netball fans in their new home venue.”
