Essex Rebels join new Women's Elite Sport Partnership

Essex Rebels Basketball Club and four elite sports clubs today announced a new collaboration - Women’s Elite Sport Partnership.

This innovative group aims to create a unique and powerful opportunity for women’s sports clubs to collectively work together in order to grow and sustain the development of women’s sport in the UK.

West Ham United women’s team, Essex Rebels Basketball Club, London Pulse Netball Club, Sunrisers women’s cricket (along with partners Essex Cricket and Middlesex Cricket) and London Lions have formed the partnership following in-depth analysis of the challenges facing women in sport today, with the goal of supporting sportswomen in reaching their full potential, as well as continuing to progress elite women’s sport to the next level, in a sustainable fashion.

The five clubs which make up the Women’s Elite Sport Partnership will focus on supporting one another in three main areas; engagement, performance and commercial activity. They will efficiently develop programmes that grow women’s participation in sport, capture new audiences through exciting activations and work together in growing the fan base of the combined professional teams.

In terms of performance, the group’s focus will be around enhancing the player pathway experience, capturing key learnings that encourage each athlete to reach their full potential and growing the support staff structure at all levels, in order to improve the experience of female athletes.

Jack Sullivan, Managing Director of West Ham United women’s team, said: “Despite 2020 being a really challenging year for sports across the globe, women’s football is gaining huge momentum and we are looking to build on this in 2021, through this fantastic partnership. The collaboration is a great opportunity for us to help each other grow and in turn, we hope that the fans of each team will support us all on this journey. Over time, we hope to welcome even more elite teams across England, giving everyone the same unique opportunity to work collaboratively together. The Club and I are really excited about this partnership and look forward to growing women’s sport further, as we look towards the future.”

Dr Dave Parry, Director of Sport at the University of Essex, home of the Essex Rebels said: “Basketball is the second most popular participation team sport among young people in the country, and the Essex Rebels offer a complete pathway from school engagement, junior club and academy, university scholarship programme, through to senior professional teams.  We have always committed to parity of opportunity and investment for our women’s programme.  The Women’s Elite Sport Partnership is a very exciting opportunity to amplify our commitment to women’s basketball, with the aim of increasing the strength of our overall programme and the competitiveness of our team.”

The collaboration will also help to develop efficiencies around key ticketing information and enhancing match day experiences for women’s sports fans. There will also be a specific intention to work together and grow the commercial engagement and revenue within women’s sport, to support the clubs’ shared vision of sustainability.