Netball South's soon-to-be-appointed board should think twice before rubber-stamping a recommendation to establish its headquarters in Invercargill.
Netball New Zealand's landmark decision in Auckland on Saturday to move to a zone-based management structure means Netball Otago and Netball Southland will have to merge.
The new entity - Netball South - has been in the planning for the last six months and now has the go ahead.
International and Dunedin-based umpire Jono Bredin headed the working party charged with laying the groundwork for the amalgamation and the committee will recommend the organisation be based in Invercargill.
Netball South's board is expected to be in place by the end of the month, so it is not a fait accompli.
It is not that Invercargill would not make a fine home for the regional body, it is just that Dunedin mounts a more compelling case and is better positioned to served the needs of wider netball community.
There are, though, some very good reasons for establishing Netball South in Invercargill.
The sport enjoys a big profile and, since the Sting days, the city has tended to be viewed, rather romantically, as the game's spiritual home.
Southlanders have not embraced the Steel in quite the same way as they did the Sting.
Their passion for the code, though, remains unrivalled in New Zealand and certainly in Dunedin, where the locals have been slow to accept the Steel into the fold.
The Steel's board has accepted some responsibility for that. The franchise largely ignored Dunedin in the early years and did little to promote the Steel's profile in the city.
That mistake has been acknowledged and the board is now committed to lifting the Steel's profile. So to a certain extent, Dunedin's appetite for the Steel has not been fully assessed.
But the major reason for establishing Netball South in Invercargill, of course, is financial and focused on the top end, rather than the game's grassroots.
The Steel administration is already based in Invercargill, so there are savings to be made by not packing up and moving north to Dunedin. But most importantly, the Steel's major sponsor, the Invercargill Licensing Trust, is based in Invercargill.
The ILT's constitution prevents it from providing funding for any organisation which lies outside the borders of Invercargill.
Its money has been a crutch for both the Steel and Netball Southland and they have been leaning on it so long they are convinced they would fall over it was suddenly removed.
By establishing Netball South's administration in Invercargill, there is no urgency to look elsewhere for financial support. Invercargill-based teams will enjoy preferential funding while the rest of the catchment will fight for a prime spot.
How does that best serve netball in the expanded region?
According to Netball New Zealand records provided to the Otago Daily Times earlier this year, there are 845 registered teams in Otago and 547 in Southland.
Surely it makes more sense to have the headquarters centrally located and where the bulk of the netball community reside.
The University of Otago remains a trump card when it comes to attracting the best young talent to the region. The institution provided the spine of Otago's championship-winning under-21 team this season and has supplied a steady stream of class players throughout the years.
High Performance Sport New Zealand in based in Dunedin and the facilities at the Forsyth Barr Stadium are a huge drawcard for athletes.
There is also an international airport inside the city's boundaries, which makes recruiting players and high calibre administrators that much easier, if they plan to commute.
Dunedin's commercial sector is larger than Invercargill's, something the Steel failed to exploit.
While there is no licensing trust dishing out money, the Otago Nuggets struggled for years before partnering with Oceana Gold, so there are willing sponsors, despite the challenging financial environment.
The Steel may labour to find new backers initially, but the Netball South board needs to consider the bigger picture. Not everyone who ties on a bib can play for the Steel. And not every netballer is lucky enough to live in Invercargill.
