Chris Nay doesn’t believe in asking for charity. As CEO of Wheelchair Rugby Australia (WRA), he’s out to prove that para-sport isn’t just deserving of a seat at the table, it’s commercially viable, media-ready, and offers a brand opportunity like no other.
Speaking at the Cairns Crocodiles session Moving the Needle, Nay laid out a blueprint for how WRA has set its sights on using innovation, media and purpose-driven partnerships to do what no para-sport in Australia has done before: go mainstream.
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The Cost of Para-Sport and the Brand Opportunity Hiding in It
There’s no sugar-coating the financial disparity. Putting on para-sport isn’t just expensive, it’s often structurally penalised by systems built for able-bodied sport.
“For the upcoming Wheelchair Rugby World Challenge, we’ve got 158 people in wheelchairs coming to Adelaide,” Nay explained. “Because of a lack of accessible hotel rooms, we’re spread across eight different hotel properties. That means eight food bills, eight logistics plans, eight sets of costs. We don’t get the economies of scale other sports take for granted”.
Transport was even more stark. “For 158 people in a wheelchair, the only solution for that in Australia right now is minivan, and you can only get four people in the back of the minivan. So you’re talking $108,000 quote for eight days to load four people into 16 minivans at any one time and drive them around. You also have to find 16 drivers”.
Unwilling to accept that as the only option, Nay went straight to the South Australian Premier. “I said: We need you to strip three city buses of all their seats. As an able-bodied person, I can stand on a bus and hold onto a pole, and it’s deemed roadworthy. So you can take the roadworthy excuse and throw it in the bin because it’s not valid,” Nay explained. “Ir got accepted, and they are funding the whole thing”.
“That was a major shift for us. It saved us”.
“Our players deserve a choice. This way, they can just get on a shuttle, go to the venue and come back. They’re not being told you have to be in at this time, mechanically loaded in, when they’re being transported, and it got accepted, and they’re funding the whole thing.
“It’s a world first, and a win for humanity”.
With a, perhaps not so gentle, push from Nay, the SA Government say the barriers in hosting a sporting event of this nature are not a liability but an opportunity, and Nay invites brands to think the same way. “Imagine being the brand that helps solve that kind of problem, and changes the game for good”.
Not Asking for Help – Building a Case for Commercialisation
From the outset, Nay made it clear that WRA isn’t looking for handouts. “One of the biggest mistakes disability sport makes is walking into a room and saying, ‘These companies have money. Help us.’ The more you push that rhetoric, the more people devalue what you do as a high-performance sport,” he said.
Instead, WRA’s approach is different: identify what the brand needs, and show how WRA can deliver. “We’re trying to be as direct as we can around our pitching to say, ‘I noticed that this is what you’re trying to do from a messaging standpoint. Here’s how I think we can help you,” Nay explained.
“Let’s utilise what we do have and solve problems for people out there that need a problem to be solved effectively”.
And that direct approach is working. WRA now counts Foxtel, Lite n’ Easy and Officeworks among its major sponsors, all attracted by the sport’s mix of authenticity, storytelling, and untapped potential.
From No to Know-How: What Rejection Taught Him
Nay’s journey hasn’t been easy, reporting that he has heard “no” more times than you could ever imagine.
“No happens to us all the time. It makes me sharper. I can see in a conversation where things are not going well, where otherwise I wouldn’t have picked up every no”.
“One of the challenges I faced early on was that brands often stick strictly to their established sponsorship pillars. Even if they appreciated my passion and ideas, they would still say no because it didn’t fit within their set framework. Over time, I’ve learned to accept those rejections without taking them personally. But I’ve also started to ask, what if their rigid structure is actually missing something valuable? How can we encourage them to shift even just 25% of their thinking to consider opportunities they may have overlooked? I’m working on being more at peace with those conversations, while still challenging the status quo in a constructive way.”
He now sees rejection as insight. “I ask why. Why wasn’t it a fit? Was it their sponsorship pillars? Their timeline? Each answer helps refine the next pitch,” he said. “And one person’s no is another person’s hell yes”.
Those “hell yes” moments are stacking up. One particular moment Nay shared was a player recruitment win.
“I was on my way to a sponsorship meeting in Sydney, walking through Chinatown in a suit, when I saw a guy busking on the street. He was balancing on a basketball, and I was counting his limbs, and I thought, ‘This guy is perfect.’
“So I walked over to him. He was a strong, confident guy from New Zealand. We got chatting, and he told me he gets around on his skateboard and lives in public housing in Redfern. I started showing him some videos and asked where he lived. I said, ‘I’ll pick you up tomorrow, and we’ll go to training.’
“We did. I took him to training the next day, and now he’s playing in Adelaide for the national team. That was a real ‘hell yes’ moment”.
From a branding perspective, Nay never imagined when he started that big companies like Foxtel, Officeworks, and Lite n’ Easy would be partners. “I’ve always been good at looking ahead, but not so much at reflecting back. Recently, someone sat me down and said, ‘Chris, look at what you’ve built — 17 staff, three locations, hosting the biggest wheelchair rugby event in the world. The Steelers are ranked #2 globally. Those major brands don’t just sponsor you, they’re genuinely engaged. Would you have been happy with this when you started?’
And honestly, the answer is a big yes.”
Passion and Purpose: Why He Cares This Much
When asked what drives his relentless push, Nay didn’t talk about stats or strategy. He talked about people.
He told the story of a six-year-old who underwent a quadruple amputation in 2019. Nay saw the story on 60 Minutes, found the boy’s dad on Facebook, and called the next day.
“I said: I know this feels like the worst thing in the world right now. But your son could be the face of our sport at the 2032 Games,” he said. Riley is now a junior athlete and a local ambassador for the game.
Buried deep beneath that human first approach is a genuine belief, not that Wheelchair Rugby can be the next great sport, that it will be.
“I genuinely believe this is Australia’s favourite sport. They just don’t know it yet.”
The Wheelchair Rugby World Challenge: A Flagship Moment
This week’s Wheelchair Rugby World Challenge in Adelaide marks a new era.
- It’s the largest wheelchair rugby event ever held globally in 2025.
- For the first time, a juniors division is competing, with players aged 8–14.
- The event is fully broadcast by Foxtel and Kayo, with international rights into 10+ nations.
- Over 960 school kids will attend across the first two days.
- A world-first accessible bus fleet will shuttle athletes to and from the venue.
- An Indigenous-designed Steelers jersey will be worn for the first time.
These aren’t nice-to-haves. They’re strategic milestones, Nay explained. “I’m an Australian sports fan, and I have no idea why we can’t become Boomers, Matilda, Steelers. Whenever the Boomers and Matildas play, the country cares. I don’t care about basketball, I don’t care about soccer, but when those national teams play, and they represent me as an Australian, I like what they stand for, and I love what they bring”.
“No disability sport or para sport has ever even considered becoming mainstream. Our vision, essentially, is to become the first para sport to be mainstreamed into the Australian community. We want to become a household name. We don’t need people to care about our pathways or our little domestic competitions when the Steelers play; it’s crucial that people care, and we represent them well. And I think that’s a really strong message that we’re trying to send”.
What the Industry Can Do?
So what can brands, media, and marketers do?
“Vote with your feet,” Nay said. “Come to Adelaide. Tune in on Foxtel. Meet the athletes. Partner with us. If you saw what I see every day, you’d understand this is the best-kept secret in Australian sport.”
The message was clear: wheelchair rugby isn’t a niche. It’s a movement. And the brands that back it now will be the ones to say they saw it first.
“We don’t just want to be good for a para-sport. We want to be iconic. Boomers, Matildas… Steelers. That’s the vision. And we’re already on our way.”
“This is our Matildas moment. But we need people to turn up, support, and help us take the next step.”
The Wheelchair Rugby World Challenge runs this week in Adelaide and is broadcast live via Foxtel and Kayo. For more on partnership opportunities or to get involved, visit wheelchairrugby.com.au.
