The Central Pulse and Waikato-BOP Magic will herald in a new shortened era of ANZ Premiership netball when they meet in the opening match in 2025.
Netball New Zealand confirmed next season's compacted schedule on Thursday, with the Pulse and Magic set to get things underway on Saturday, May 10 at Palmerston North's Fly Palmy Arena.
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The competition takes on a different format next year, with the regular season shrinking from three full rounds (45 games) to two (30 games) over a 10-week period, leading into a two-match finals series.
The six teams - the champion Northern Mystics, Northern Stars, Magic, Pulse, Mainland Tactix and Southern Steel - will complete the round-robin phase, ending on July 14, before an eimination final and grand final later that month, dates TBC.
Netball fans will only have to wait until Round 2 for a re-match of this year’s grand final thriller between the Mystics and Pulse, where the Mystics claimed their third crown and back-to-back victories.
ANZ Premiership general manager Emma Fowlie said the success of this year’s league was recognised with the grand final being the most-watched match in ANZ Premiership history and the 2024 season had reached more fans than ever before.
“Our ANZ Premiership teams have delivered one of the most exciting leagues in the history of the competition,” she said.
“The regular season was not determined right up until the very last match and our Grand Final which was an absolute thriller went to the wire with just one goal between our finalists.
"We had really strong fan support in 2024 with a 49 percent increase on our average live broadcast audience up from 2023 and 20 percent increase in crowd attendance at matches.”
Fowlie said under the new competition format, with just two full rounds, every league match would be vital for points in the race for the finals series and was a new direction for the ANZ Premiership after considering feedback from teams and the public.
“With two rounds, teams will need to deliver at every outing and every match will count. We are excited to secure our regular viewing times meaning fans will be able to continue tune into ANZ Premiership netball," she said.
Each team will host five matches during the regular season, with the venues for the ANZ Premiership finals series to be determined after the regular season.
All ANZ Premiership Sunday and Monday games will be available to watch live on Sky, with Saturday afternoon games broadcast with a delay on Sky Sport, Sky Sport Now and Sky Go.
Next year’s Saturday afternoon ANZ Premiership matches will be broadcast live and free-to-air exclusively on TVNZ, with the option of watching live on TVNZ 2, or live and replayed on TVNZ+.
The two finals series matches will be available live, with free-to-air coverage (live start) on Sky Open.