New Netball Australia chair Liz Ellis has declared she wants her sport to create a “signature moment” and has targeted a crowd of 50,000 for the 2027 World Cup final in Sydney.

The former Diamonds captain took over as chair in May, in an appointment that marked the end of a tumultuous period for the sport. Although Ellis is only weeks into the job, she says netball’s future involves making decisions with the grassroots in mind, harnessing Super Netball as the “engine room for growth”, and being ambitious.

“You’ve got to think about what’s your big Diamonds moment going to be, and it’s about creating that moment, but then out of that grows the legacy and the interest in the sport and more people playing, more people watching,” Ellis said. “I’ve challenged our staff to think big about what that moment might be, and that moment might be 50,000 people at the final.”

Australia last hosted the World Cup in 2015. That tournament set a new crowd record for the sport of 16,752 at the final in Sydney, but Ellis has set ambitions higher.

“It came out of a couple of conversations that I had about netball needing a signature moment, and you don’t want to do what you’ve done before,” Ellis said.

The Netball World Cup is planned to be hosted in Sydney in the winter of 2027. It serves as the next high-profile opportunity for netball, which is already the most popular organised team sport for women and girls in Australia, according to national survey AusPlay.

Venues in Sydney that could accommodate such a crowd are Accor Stadium or Allianz Stadium, both arenas that will be used by the NRL and potentially the burgeoning NRLW around the time. Ellis said it’s still early days in planning, and she hasn’t thought about whether this means netball pitting itself against rugby league.

“This is my big dream, when we get down to doing a bit more planning and understanding what’s viable, then we’ll worry about who we do pit against where,” she said. “I’m not in the business of going, ‘oh yeah, this is a fight’, I’m in the business of relationships and understanding how we can really set ourselves up for success beyond 2027.”

Netball Australia has been beset by controversy in recent years, culminating in the pay dispute between Super Netball players and the governing body last year. Although the organisation has a $4.2m debt that must be repaid next year, Netball Australia recorded a surplus of $235,657 in 2023, and Ellis – despite airing concerns around the direction of netball last year and issuing support for the players during the dispute – says she wants to be on good terms with the entire netball community, including those involved in the previous administration.

Ellis’ appointment comes after Netball Australia’s board overhaul, which saw Wendy Archer step down as chair but remain on the board.

“It has been really helpful for me coming into the role as chair, to be able to ring Wendy Archer and say, ‘what have you always done on this, what do you think about this?’,” Ellis said. “There’s people on the board who have really worked very, very hard for the sport and my job is to make sure that we still make them feel like we want them to continue to contribute.”

While a bargaining agreement was struck between Netball Australia and Super Netball players last year, the Diamonds are currently negotiating their own deal covering the national team program.

Ellis said she is enjoying being part of negotiations, given she was involved in setting up the Australian Netball Players’ Association, and she recognises that the players are not only key assets for the sport, but stakeholders and “custodians” of the game.

Australia’s most capped international netballer, Ellis is confident they will get to a resolution, while chief executive Stacey West is running negotiations.

“There will be times where we will really push hard against each other, but I also think there will be times where will be in furious agreement,” Ellis said.

The 51-year-old former Diamonds captain – who was named Australian netball’s most valuable player four times over her 15-year international career – has shown an ongoing interest in netball and its future since retiring. She was head of the panel that put together the 2020 State of the Game Review, which was the largest independent review conducted into the sport.

“Super Netball has to be the commercial jewel in the crown, and we’re very, very close, but we’re not there yet,” Ellis said, flagging Netball Australia is currently speaking with those involved on how to get the most out of the competition widely known as the best league in the world.

Just weeks into her new role, Ellis is still in a process of talking to stakeholders, from the thousands of volunteers who help run the grassroots through to the highest political office in the country.

The federal government sensationally pulled $18m earmarked for Netball Australia in December after it deemed a key funding proposal not satisfactory.

However, relations between the government and the sport appear to be improving. Ellis visited Canberra last month, speaking to politicians including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, and stood alongside sport minister Annika Wells when she announced $6m in funding for the Netball World Cup last week.

“There’s a genuine desire to see the sport grow and prosper, which I really took an enormous amount of heart from,” Ellis said of her discussions with government. “I really felt that we were able to get an understanding of where the sport sits and where our opportunities are.”