As the 2015 Netball World Cup begins this week in Sydney, all eyes are firmly fixed on the netball court, and here at Charles Lawrence we’re getting geared up for the 2019 World Cup – which will be hosted in England for just the third time in the competition’s 56 year history.
The bid to host the event was put forward by Liverpool in 2014 as part of UK Sport’s Gold Event Series, a £40 million investment to bring more of the world’s prestigious sporting events to the UK. In February 2015 the announcement was made live on Sky Sports News HQ that the bid was successful.
The event will be hosted at ACC Liverpool located on a World Heritage waterfront site. This will utilize the Echo Arena as the competition venue, the Exhibition Centre as the training venue, the BT Convention centre as the NF Congress venue and the Pullman hotel will be the official INF hotel.
It is hoped that the event will bring much more publicity to the sport, with Minister for Sport Helen Grant telling Sky Sports News: ‘I’m delighted that the 2019 Netball World Cup will be held in Liverpool. Not only is it a major coup for the city, but for the country as a whole. I have no doubt that by hosting this major event on home soil we will raise the profile of this great sport even further and boost women’s sports generally.’
Indeed, Netball is a sport growing in popularity, with the 2015 Active People Survey revealing that 25,000 more people now play netball at least once a week compared to the previous year, and INF President, the Hon. Molly Rhone, OJ, CD saying: ‘It is an exciting time for netball right now, which is growing at an unprecedented rate throughout the world. We look forward to seeing this growth continue to soar and to working with the Organising Committee in bringing the INF’s most important event to England in 2019.’
Netball, squash and basketball are the only sports that receive funding from Sports England on both the elite and grassroots level. £5 million of which has been invested into the elite netball programme to support the England team on its journey to this year’s world cup, meaning that the team have every opportunity to bring the title home and defend the title on home soil next year. So, from everyone here at the Charles Lawrence team: good luck England, we’ll see you on the court!
If you’re interested in picking up Netball either competitively or casually and need somewhere to build up your skills, Charles Lawrence can help build your own indoor or outdoor netball court. Or, if you’re inspired to pick up the old habit, we can help you maintain or resurface your neglected court. Contact us today for more information.
