A new collective agreement will take effect for next year's ANZ netball championship season.
The agreement, announced today following negotiations between Trans-Tasman Netball League, Netball New Zealand, the five Kiwi franchises and the New Zealand Netball Players' Association (NZNPA), contains a number of changes.
The key initiative is the introduction of an increase to a $380,000 salary cap for all teams and stricter control and monitoring of that spend, including a contract approval process.
The result is a harder salary cap for teams, although there remains an opportunity for franchises to enter into commercially beneficial third party arrangements for players.
Another change introduces the ability for teams to contract between 12 and 14 players in their squad.
This is designed to increase the number of players exposed to the high performance environment and to introduce a greater degree of selection within each squad.
There is an increase to the minimum retainer where a team contracts 12 players, which Tim Lythe from the NZNPA said was a "significant and important step forward".
"The parties have recognised the need to attract and retain players, and increasing that minimum retainer is a very important part of that and a significant step towards the competition becoming a more viable profession for players," Lythe said.
