The relaunch of a Super Netball club under the brand Sydney Sirens on Wednesday was hailed by many fans as a source of celebration, energising the sport as it soars towards its Australian centenary in 2027 and a World Cup in the city. The coral and teal of the logo reflect a modern palette, designed to attract today's generation of netball fans, and tomorrow's. The slogan is slick: "...impossible to ignore", drawing on the Sirens' mythological origins. Investment in the club by its new owners brings excitement around the high hopes for Australia's best attended women's sport league.
For some, however, the birth of netball's Sydney Sirens triggered other emotions. "I just felt a little bit sick," says Dawn Watt, the president of Ice Hockey NSW. Watt was also the first coach of the Sydney Sirens – not the netball team, but the three-time champions of the Australian Women's Ice Hockey League, and also one of the inaugural members of the competition when it launched in 2007.
A Long History with the Sirens Name
Watt has a long history with ice hockey in New South Wales, including as first commissioner of the national league. In her current role, the corporate entity she chairs has legal responsibility for the Sydney Sirens of the ice. Her connections to the club, however, are more personal; she even designed the Sirens' first logo. "That name [Sydney Sirens] was suggested by a player at the time, and it just felt right, it has been in my heart for 20 years," she says.
So on Wednesday when the Sirens became Sydney's second netball team – alongside the NSW Swifts – there was little for Watt to celebrate. "I felt a little bit sick that we might get pushed by [what is] obviously a larger entity, with maybe more connections and more followers, to change our name to something that doesn't match, or doesn't give that feeling of success and achievement when you finally make the Sirens," she says.
Communication and Trademark Concerns
She had an idea Wednesday's announcement was coming due to a trademark application made with IP Australia for the "Sydney Sirens" name two weeks ago, but says the owners of the netball club only reached out to her about the rebrand – from Giants Netball to Sydney Sirens – on Tuesday evening. The netball club is now owned by the Sports Entertainment Group (SEG), widely known by their media brand SEN, after taking on the licence of the soon-to-be-defunct Giants to go with their other Super Netball franchise the Melbourne Mavericks. SEN declined to comment on Wednesday, but challenged Watt's assertion that their first communication with the ice hockey club was on Tuesday.
The broader SEN conglomerate is an Australian sporting success story, having grown its footprint in media, broadcast, production and more recently club ownership over its 20-year existence. The Melbourne company is now a huge presence in the sector, employing hundreds across the country, and especially in women's sport. In addition to two netball teams, the group owns two WNBL clubs and last week clinched the purchase of New Zealand's largest radio business Mediaworks for NZ$130m ($108m).
Legal Steps and Uncertainty
Watt's organisation's intention is to lodge an opposition to SEN's trademark application, and she has already sent a file of material – including her early logo sketches and minutes from meetings in 2006 – to a lawyer in preparation. A trademark dispute might last for years, but according to Dr Ben Hopper, lecturer at Melbourne Law School, the ice hockey team will not be disadvantaged for failing to trade mark its name when it was founded. "There are procedures and there are laws that are designed to protect the interests of the first users of the trademark," he said.
As the Super Netball season is in the midst of the signings period, the ice hockey Sirens are holding try-outs on Sunday as they seek a fourth national title in a competition where players are self-funded but still passionate. To Watt, the legal bills are an unfortunate necessity. "Could we exist together? Potentially. Collaboration, potentially. But first and foremost, our intention is to not lose that name. I would not be comfortable if we had to change the name in any way, shape or form," she says. "There's a lot of angst around it. To a lot of people, [the Sydney Sirens] means a lot of things, so I'm uncertain if it being tied to a netball team is something that our fans, our sponsors – hundreds of thousands of dollars of sponsorship over the years – I'm not sure how they would feel about that."
