The loss follows the previous year's $21,000 deficit, and is more bad news for Southern teams.
Yesterday, the Otago Daily Times reported the Otago Rugby Football Union posted a $162,000 loss last year, a significant turnaround after recording surpluses the previous three years.
Southern United is also struggling to make ends meet, and last week set up a Givealittle fundraising page in a bid to raise funds to secure its future in the national football league.
Netball South chairman Paul Buckner agreed the latest annual report made for ‘‘alarming reading'', but said it was less than the $112,000 loss it had projected.
‘‘The reason we were able to do that sort of budget was with an assurance, not a guarantee, from Netball New Zealand (NNZ) being in behind us,'' he said.
‘‘They gave us an assurance that they would look after us, not a monetary amount, but we were aware when we signed off on our budget last year that there would be some further funding from NNZ.''
Netball South has a negative equity of $177,000, and is relying on assistance from NNZ to improve its financial situation and make inroads into the deficit, Mr Buckner said.
Without a $100,000 cash injection from NNZ in 2014, Netball South's $21,000 deficit would have spiked.
When asked if the current system was not financially sustainable without support from NNZ, Mr Bucker agreed.
But NNZ and the five netball zones - Northern, Waikato-BOP, Central, Mainland and South - are negotiating a partnership agreement, which will provide financial assistance to the zones.
‘‘Until that is completed, we just won't know the exact monetary movements. But we have a comfort from NNZ, which has been able to enable us to operate with that negative budget and continue on,'' Mr Buckner said.
He also confirmed the main factor for the latest deficit was an increase in expenditure - $2,006,000 in 2014 to $2,140,000 last year.
The main contribution to the rise was an increase in ACC levies and the cost of putting former coach Janine Southby through a high-performance coaching programme.
Netball South did not originally have to pay for Southby, now the Silver Ferns coach, to go through the programme, but when the original funding ended it took over the cost.
Mr Buckner also said the ‘‘uncomfortable'' deficit was partly down to the Steel hosting one home game fewer last year.
However, he has projected a ‘‘small'' surplus of between $10,000 and $20,000 this year. It does not take into account any future financial assistance from NNZ, which will go against the debt recorded last year.
The projected surplus is based on increased sponsorship, an extra home game and ‘‘tightening up'' on expenditure, including cutting back on physiotherapy services.‘‘We won't have one travelling with the team all the time,'' Mr Buckner said.
‘‘The prospect of a surplus gives us comfort and we are expecting some monetary assistance from NNZ,'' he said.
Netball South also went from having $114,000 in cash and short-term deposits two years ago to $18,000 in its latest report.
But Mr Buckner said the figure was not a ‘‘good indicator'' of the organisation's position, and said it fluctuated.
‘‘We're always dependent on the collection of our funding,'' he said.
‘‘It can be a month or two on either side. Sometimes the cupboard looks very good and sometimes it looks bare and we're starting to scratch around.''
