Leeds Rhinos Netball want help from England Netball to build home arena

Rhinos are reaching out to the sport’s governing body to help them lay down roots in their home city as they approach the end of their third year of existence.

On the court the team has gone backwards in year three while off it, although they have made a success of playing at five different venues across Yorkshire including three outside of Leeds, the long-term aim is to build a small arena for their home games.

The Rhinos have opened talks with Leeds Council and could engage the city’s university network which they have good relations with. The Leeds Rhinos Foundation is also an option, as well as enlisting commercial partners.

But they need the assistance of the governing body, one that nearly a decade ago revoked the Yorkshire Jets’ Superleague licence in part because they didn’t have an arena to call their own.

Mariana Pexton, a director of Rhinos Netball and the chair of the Leeds Rhinos Foundation, says there are no concerns that the club is on shaky ground, and if anything, they want to use the strong relationship they have with Netball England to tap into their well of resources.

“England Netball are very happy with us,” says Pexton.

“They see the Rhinos giving a level of professionalism, a level of commercialisation across the club, a level of reach across the area through the foundation and they really like the business model.

“So we’re not worried about anything in that respect, but it is why we want them to help us and work together.

“We are trying to engage England Netball and say Yorkshire could really do with some grants or funding either through Sport England or UK Sport, could they help us navigate that national system?

“Their aspirations are to play more games out of arenas, but we have got the FD Arena, so it’s not necessarily a game-stopper at this stage. Having an arena of our own is definitely our aspiration and we need it to sustain our business model.”

On their latest stop across Yorkshire last Friday night, the Rhinos lost 72-56 to play-off bound Loughborough Lightning. Their final ‘home’ game of the season is on Saturday at Hull’s Allam Sports Centre when they entertain Team Bath before two road games to close the campaign.

It has been a season in which they have struggled to get out of Superleague’s bottom two, but Pexton says the club is happy about the direction Liana Leota is taking them in her first year of a three-year contract.

“It was always going to be a building period,” said Pexton.

“We had an amazing first season with Dan Ryan; an excellent coach, a lot of good signings, we had a lot of things go our way. We lost Dan late in the day, but got Tracey Robinson in who did a really good job.

“So having got Liana now for a three-year period, a lot of new faces, it feels like the first year.

“We’re happy and we’re seeing progression. We’re looking forward to finishing the season as well as we can, we’ll then look at player recruitment and making sure we’re holding on to players and make sure Liana can get her squad ready for next season and hit the ground running.”