International Women's Day: Female sport is a crowded market, so Netball has to fight for a place

The theme for this year's International Women's Day is 'Make it Happen' and Stephen Naylor is a man doing just that...

Netball Superleague side Yorkshire Jets have been the surprise of the 2015 season so far, sitting third in the table and putting in some impressive performances. But it's not just on the court that the Jets have been making strides, behind the scenes the franchise's sponsorship and media profile has enjoyed an injection of passion.

PR consultant Stephen Naylor and his company Waverley Consultancy have been shortlisted for Man of the Year at an awards ceremony celebrating International Women's Day, for his work improving the clubs' social media, media output and developing key sporting partnerships which has helped Yorkshire Jets reach a much wider audience.

We caught up with Naylor to ask him how he's making a difference. 

How did you get involed with Netball?

STEPHEN: "It came about because I started working with Jo Walker who played for Jets last season. I got to know her well and went to watch her play in Leeds, and was introduced to Jets.

"I sat in the crowd for a Netball Superleague game for the first time and it wasn’t what I expected – the number of people, the atmosphere and the passion of the people that love the sport from young schoolgirls to people who have played for years.

"My thoughts as I sat in the crowd were ‘I want to know more about it’. It’s an amazing sport with big crowds of passionate people yet it wasn’t getting the coverage or recognition it deserves."

How did you approach the task of working with a Superleague franchise?

STEPHEN: "I approached it like you would sell any product in the sense that there was an amazing product on court, but there were other things happening behind the scenes that there was a huge interest in. I spoke to the papers about what netball is and why their readers want to know what is happening with the Jets. Interestingly, the journalists were really receptive.

"Women’s sport is at a good point after the Commonwealth Games and people are receptive to it once you’ve explained that the Jets are the only professional, female sports team in the region. There are Yorkshire publications that want to be part of that."

What are the challenges of promoting women's sport?

STEPHEN: "Women’s sport is now a crowded market so you’re always fighting to get your match report above countless others.

"One of the things we’re trying to do at Jets, and it’s working really well for us in terms of media, is explaining that netball has so many people playing at grassroots levels from kids in the playground to after-school clubs. Now at the elite level, these top eight clubs are getting all the best players from abroad.

"Talking to the journalists, they realised this is an amazing sport because it had a breadth of people taking part."

What can be done to help raise the profile of Netball?

STEPHEN: "This season there’s more and more matches on, and Monday Night Netball is great. There’s a demand for it, people are saying ‘can we have more games on TV, can we have more coverage’.

"The trick is to make sure we keep people engaged. In the gaps between the World Cup and Commonwealths we have to keep up the engagement.

"Superleague is a relatively short campaign – there’s a lot of matches in a short space of time. It’s important to keep people’s attention between May and the season restarting in January.

"There’s netball taking place every day but we have to keep people’s attention on the elite level."

Do men need to take more reponsibility for 'Making it Happen'?

STEPHEN: "We don’t want coverage of netball or women’s sports solely because of the fact it’s about women. We want coverage because it’s brilliant sport whatever the playing field. It’s not great just because it’s played by women, it’s great because it’s sport at the highest level that people engage with.

"We shouldn’t be afraid to say it’s a sport mainly played by women but it shouldn’t get special treatment because of that, it should be a level playing field."

For more information about Yorkshire Jets head to www.yorkshirejets.net and don't forget you can watch their match with Loughborough Lightning live on Sky Sports 1 from 7.30pm, Monday March 9.