Territory gears up for jam-packed super Saturday with Supercars, AFL match and election day

UP to 80,000 Territorians are expected to be out and about on next week’s super Saturday

• Darwin SuperSprint to go ahead as historic second weekend of Supercars action
• Darwin’s TIO Stadium will host the 16th Essendon-Richmond annual Dreamtime Game

UP to 80,000 Territorians are expected to be out and about either trackside at the Darwin Supercars, watching the AFL Dreamtime match or casting a vote during next week’s jam-packed super Saturday.

Capped crowds of about 5500 are expected to file into TIO Stadium for the Essendon versus Richmond game, which kicks off at 7.10pm Saturday.

Tickets for the highly anticipated Round 13 clash go on sale to the general public on Friday at 1pm.

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The Dreamtime match will come the day after the Gold Coast Suns versus Carlton game next ­Friday.

An AFLNT spokeswoman said crowd numbers in TIO Stadium would be capped at 5461 for each game — well under half the stadium’s normal capacity — in compliance with their COVID Safety Plan.

All tickets must be pre-purchased and patrons are being asked to pay for food, beverages and merchandise by card.

“Also try to avoid touching stair rails, door handles and other touch points — sanitise your hands after this and use hand sanitiser before eating,” the spokeswoman said.

Huge crowds are also expected to flock to Hidden Valley next Saturday for the first day of the CoreStaff Darwin SuperSprint, taking place on August 22-23.

A Supercars spokesman said they were expecting to almost meet the day’s crowd capacity, which is capped at 4500 this year due to COVID-19.

“We’re still expecting quite a few people flying in from interstate,” he said.

“We won’t know just how many until tickets for the SuperSprint go on sale on ­Friday.”

About 71,000 people across the Territory are also expected to head off to their closest community voting centres to cast a vote on election day next Saturday.

The NT Electoral Commission (NTEC) estimates about 70,000 of the 141,000 people on the electoral roll will cast their vote before August 22 by way of either early, remote or postal voting.

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That leaves about 71,000 Territorians who are expected to head to the polls on election day next Saturday across about 40 voting centres that will open across the NT.

Due to COVID-19, voting centres will be supplying all voters with their own pencil this election and booths will be cleaned after each person has voted.

“Social distancing is also enforced in the voting centre and hand sanitiser is available for all electors and NTEC staff,” an NTEC spokesman said.