Netball Jamaica braces for $75m bill

Karen Rosen-Baugh, president of Netball Jamaica, says it will cost in excess of $75 million to prepare and send the Sunshine Girls to the next Netball World Cup in Sydney, Australia.

The global showpiece, which will feature the world’s top netball nations, is scheduled to run from August 25 to September 5, 2027.

Rosen-Baugh said while the focus is already shifting towards the World Cup, the association is simultaneously preparing teams for other major assignments.

“We have two teams preparing now for the Commonwealth Games and CAC (Central America and Caribbean) Games in 2026 but we really have our eyes on our squad for the preparations for the 2027 World Cup tournament which will be held in Australia next year,” she said.

Rosen-Baugh noted that rising travel costs remain one of the biggest challenges facing the programme.

“One of the biggest expenses is airfare and airfare right now is moving in an upward direction because of what is happening with war between Iran and the United States, so that is an area that we are paying some attention to in terms of what the airfare will look like because this is the single largest expense that we have but it is in the excess of $75 million, I would say,” she said.

Beyond travel, Rosen-Baugh pointed out that preparing a competitive team requires significant investment across multiple areas and therefore her organisation will be pulling out all the stops to secure the required funding to support the Sunshine Girls.

“We know that in the past preparing for a World Cup takes a lot of investment, a lot of team management and we appreciate that some of the team members not only reside in Jamaica, but are overseas playing with their clubs for a great part of the year. But that the programme itself always requires proper investments not just in coaching, but proper nutrition and a sports psychologist and all the things that go into preparing a team.”

STEPPING WITH CONFIDENCE

The Sunshine Girls will enter next year’s tournament with confidence, having secured a bronze medal at the last World Cup in 2023 in South Africa.

To help offset the financial burden, Rosen-Baugh shared that her association plans to revive a previously successful initiative.

“We have had an adopt-a-player programme before and it was quite successful because it allows individual companies to focus on one player at a time instead of sponsoring the whole programme, so they will say I will sponsor one player and so by the time we get to next year, we will cover the airfare because the federations will have to provide that support because we don’t get enough support, unfortunately, from the world body.”

She underscored that early planning will be key to ensuring the team is adequately funded and prepared for the championships.

“We will have to cover airfare and accommodations and we should be able to afford that and so we are starting early with the fact that we do have two other teams preparing for major competitions this year. The adopt-a-player programme allows companies to come and lend their support at various levels.”