'We can do it quite easily': V'landys' plan to get fans in the stands
by Sarah KeoghanARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys is confident his pitch to the government for crowds to return on July 1 will succeed and is hoping to convince the NSW Premier to allow sponsors and corporate guests into NRL venues ‘‘within weeks’’.
V’landys is set to hand over a detailed submission to the government in the coming weeks, which will outline a gradual return to crowds for NRL venues. The ARLC boss is aiming for sponsors and corporate types to return to venues in the next few weeks, with fans allowed from July 1.
According to the proposal, the ARLC plans for spectators to be scanned by a thermal camera before heading into venues. They will be turned away if they show signs of a fever.
Spectators will also be temperature-checked during the games and will need to have downloaded the government’s COVIDSafe app in order to attend.
On Monday morning, NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant offered the help of the government to the NRL in its bid for crowds to return. However, Premier Gladys Berejiklian was not convinced.
‘‘We are not in that space yet,’’ Berejiklian said. ‘‘That’s up to organisations to consider their options, but certainly we are not in the space yet. We are working our way through the list and that’s not on the list as yet.’’
V’landys, though, remained optimistic. ‘‘Even though the Premier said all that, we are much less risk being an open-air venue then the venues being allowed to operate in the near future,’’ he said in regards to pubs and clubs being allowed 50 people from June 1.
‘‘I am very confident once they see our submission and our protocols that they will be satisfied.’’
The return-to-stadiums submission will be given the green light by the NRL’s biosecurity and pandemic experts, so long as infections rates continue to stay low amid the relaxing of coronavirus restrictions.
‘‘People thought our date for 28th of May was ambitious, I think the 1st of July is less ambitious. I think we can do it quite easily,’’ V’landys said.
Each venue across the NRL is currently preparing contingency plans, with one-way stickers being placed on floors, a bay-by-bay exit at the end of games and fans being sat household by household.
‘‘We are working on all that now, we need to discuss it with the stadiums, we need to discuss it with clubs, but in saying that we are very confident,’’ V’landys said.
When asked whether the July 1 date set by V’landys was possible in a press conference yesterday morning, Chant said the government was considering the needs of all organisations. ‘‘We’re happy to work with them on looking at how to create that COVID-safer environment,’’ she said.
Chant said there were a number of factors that would need to be considered before the green light would be given.
‘‘We do not want mingling of groups that generally don’t mingle,’’ she said. ‘‘That’s the reason there are all the considerations of limiting the bookings for a group of 10, so you don’t actually have larger-scale interactions.’’
The NRL will be one of the first major competitions in the world to restart. On May 28, it will become Australia’s first football code to return. Bankwest Stadium, Campbelltown Stadium, Central Coast Stadium, Suncorp Stadium, QCB Stadium and AAMI Park were announced last week as the venues for the first nine weeks of the returned competition.