Netball's Jamie-Lee Price is frustrated. This is what she wants to see change in her sport

After a physically exhausting Super Netball game, Jamie-Lee Price sat in her car after arriving back at her home in Melbourne.

She'd spent the almost two-hour drive back from Bendigo after the loss to the Melbourne Vixens ruminating about all the missed opportunities in women's sports for growth.

Still in her Melbourne Mavericks polo top, she got out her phone.

"I just can't believe that fake tanning brands have not collabed [sic] or sponsored a netball team," she said in a TikTok.

"I just feel like there is such a huge market and they're just missing out."

It was the weekend after the Formula One and a month after the Australian Open, which both saw record crowds in Melbourne.

During those events, Price watched on knowing Super Netball and the national team had the potential to pull people in like those tournaments.

"The way they've marketed things, they get influencers, they make it a fashion show and then everyone wants to go because it's cool to go there," Price tells ABC Sport.

Super Netball has a loyal and dedicated supporter base.

Last year, total attendances reached a record 386,455 fans across the entire season at an average of about 6,400 per game. 

This was a steady but slow increase from three years prior, where crowds were just over 5,000 per game in 2023.

But Price wants to look at ways to bring the public into home-and-away-season games more regularly.

"And as soon as someone goes to a game, you're like, 'Holy shit. I didn't realise how athletic and physical it was,'" she says.

"Like, yes, until you come to a game, you're not going to know that … [so] how do we get those people that don't know much about games? 

"We have a huge fan base of netball supporters but how do we get the general public or other people coming to games and falling in love with our game?"

Her frustration comes from knowing how good the product of netball is at the elite level and how successful it can be, if it just taps into a bit "more fun" and allows for greater self expression for players.

"We've always done it 'this' way, which works and that's cool, but we're not keeping with the times," she says.

"It's probably the fine line of yes, keeping the traditionalists happy, but also how do we keep evolving the game and all the experiences and the storytelling?"

Price would love to see netballers be allowed to walk into stadiums in different outfits rather than club polos or dresses.

The WNBA has successfully crossed over into the fashion space where the players' pre-game looks are now an iconic part of the build-up, helping to attract different audiences.

It is one of many sports to tap into big-name beauty and fashion brands.

British beauty brand Charlotte Tilbury is the official partner of the F1 Academy, MECCA has hosted fan experiences at the Australian Grand Prix and Australian Open and the WNBA has deals with both cosmetic brand Glossier and Kim Kardashian's SKIMS.

"The game [netball] itself and the product is amazing, but it's just the game day experiences, the merchandise, the sponsorships, the storytelling, all the little things that become big things," she says.

"Especially moving to the Mavericks, where I think there's a huge emphasis on doing things differently."

As other women's sports continue to rise, internationally and here in Australia, she knows netball needs to evolve to keep up.

The WNBA is about to enter its 30th season with an 11-year $US3.1 billion media rights deal that puts games on major networks and streaming services, and player maximum salaries hitting $US1.4 million.

Meanwhile, the North American women's ice hockey league, the PWHL, recently sold out Madison Square Garden and Arsenal Women has sold out Arsenal Stadium four times as of May 2026.

The Matildas hype from the 2023 Women's World Cup saw momentum through to this year's Women's Asian Cup, while AFLW and NRLW continue to grow and cricket maintains a strong interest.

The surge of interest in other women's sports presents a new challenge to netball, which has long been the prime sport for women and girls in Australia.

One of the main questions Netball Australia has long grappled with is how to convert netball players across the country, particularly young girls, into Super Netball fans and members.

And there is increasing anxiety in corners of the netballing world about the sport being nudged off its podium as the number one team sport for girls in Australia.

"There's so many avenues and so many opportunities in regards to being able to play soccer, AFLW, NRLW, [rugby] sevens, there's so much opportunity, which is amazing," Price says.

"But also the competitiveness within me is like, we are still number one. So why are we just happy with that? We need to keep evolving and we need to keep lifting our game and just doing things a little bit differently and trying things."

She knows there's public interest in netballers and their stories after sharing so much of hers on social media. 

"There's so many personalities," she says. "And I think that’s what frustrates me [that they’re not shown enough]."

She has a solid following online of 66,000 across Instagram and TikTok, along with other fellow popular netballers Jo Weston (109,000), Rudi Ellis (55,000) and Sophie Garbin (58,000).

While there's match day content, Price has also shared a lot of her personal journey, including moving to Melbourne and her engagement with Collingwood AFL footballer Harry Perryman.

Last trade season, she was the headline story of Super Netball when she was released from the final year of her contract with the Giants to make the move interstate to be with Perryman.

When she wanted to sign with the Mavericks, it didn't come as a shock to her old side. She'd been transparent with them through the year prior about finding her long-distance relationship hard.

"I guess you do have to be a little bit selfish in what makes you happy off the court. And I think it definitely shows on the court when you are happy. And not that I wasn't happy last year. It was just hard," Price says.

"If there are opportunities that present to be able to be in the same state as your partner, like, why not? Why not take that with two hands?

"I feel like it's definitely been such a refresher for me as well."

Price had been coached under Julie Fitzgerald for more than a decade.

Born in Sydney, Price grew up in New Zealand when her dad, NRL premiership-winning captain and Australian representative player Steve Price played for the Warriors.

She made her elite netball debut at 17 for the New Zealand side Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic under Fitzgerald.

Then when Fitzgerald was tasked with starting a Super Netball team from scratch in Sydney, she convinced Price to make the move and join her inaugural side.

Price stayed a Giant for nine seasons. There, she became a Diamond, which saw her become a 2023 Netball World Cup champion, and last season awarded the 2025 Liz Ellis Diamond, Australian netball's highest individual honour.

"When I think about the person that I was when I was 21 to like the person that I am now, the Giants and the people that were at the Giants at the time really shaped me," she says.

"And really taught me the balance of life and actually enjoying it."

In her early 20s, Price leaned towards staying home a lot but Fitzgerald and Jo Harten, her former teammate, would convince her to go out and explore, especially when they were in new cities.

She soon realised "there was so much more to life than just being at home and training".

She always needed a little push to get out of her comfort zone, but now that comes from her own head.

When she didn't want to initially leave New Zealand and the familiarity of being where all her friends were, her parents told her they didn't want her to regret not trying.

They asked her: "Don't you want to play in the best league against the best players?"

Ever since, she's lived by the motto 'no what-ifs or buts; just go for it'.

"Once you make that decision, don't look back," she says.

She's excited about being in a new chapter of her netballing and personal life, which comes amid another one for Super Netball.

Last month, Price and Mavericks captain Amy Parmenter were invited to Netball Australia's head office as the governing body grapples with another leadership change. 

They were there to discuss the state of the game and its future.

Last month, Stacey West stepped down as Netball Australia CEO after two and a half years at the helm. It came one week after a new free-to-air broadcast deal was signed.

West originally took the job as interim CEO after a difficult period at the end of 2023. Kelly Ryan had resigned effective immediately after two and a half years following a bitter pay war with the players' union that ended with a new Collective Player Agreement signed.

At each new appointment or deal signed in the past decade, "a new era of netball" features in headlines, press releases and news articles.

Price doesn't feel that netball has gone through a series of renewals, but rather has been "very standstill" among the turbulence.

But she does feel hopeful about the sport's future. She recounts the well-used and loved line about wanting to leave the sport in a better place than when she started.

Especially as it enters another "new era".

"When you've just been hassling for a really long time, 'Like, come on, I know the potential, we can do this' … I feel like there's finally going to be action and we're finally going to see change," she says.