Coronavirus: Crowds get a shoe in the door at AFL
Crowds will be allowed at Saturday’s AFL grudge match between Port Adelaide and the Crows, but a second Black Lives Matter protest will not be allowed.
Crowds will be allowed at Saturday’s AFL grudge match between Port Adelaide and the Crows — but a second Black Lives Matter protest will not be allowed — as the state government grapples with a backlash over the decision to exempt last Saturday’s protest from social-distancing laws.
While Premier Steven Marshall was defending the decision by his police commissioner to allow Saturday’s protests, business owners were bewildered that the 6000-strong protest was given the green light while cafes and pubs were being visited by police to ensure they were complying with miserly patron limits.
The perceived double standard has prompted growing demands in South Australia for an easing of restrictions, with the Premier promising on Monday that greater freedoms were on the horizon.
The announcement that this Saturday’s AFL match will have 2000 regular fans and 240 corporate guests means Adelaide Oval will be the first Australian venue to host a crowd since the lockdown began in March. It came as Fremantle Dockers players left Perth to join the AFL Queensland “bubble” on the Gold Coast.
While the AFL will be allowed 2000 spectators in Adelaide, other codes remain restricted to significantly smaller numbers because of state health restrictions. Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’landys is lobbying the NSW government to allow larger stadiums to seat up to 15,000 spectators from July 1.
On Thursday, just 200 people seated in corporate boxes will watch the Manly Sea Eagles play the Brisbane Broncos, while the Parramatta Eels v Penrith Panthers match on Friday will have 500 spectators.
Sources familiar with negotiations between the NRL and the Berejiklian government said clubs preferred to wait for larger crowds to be allowed into stadiums rather than have to open the venues to smaller numbers and be left with significant losses.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk rejected any suggestion there would be crowds allowed at NRL or AFL matches in her state this weekend, saying Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young was still working through the proposed COVID-safe plans submitted by each code.
In SA, businesses are demanding the government do more in light of the precedent set by Saturday’s protest.
Publican David Basheer, who has just spent millions renovating his flagship city pub The Strathmore, said other publicans had told him council rangers had been inspecting venues and using tape measures to ensure stools were far enough apart.
Mr Basheer, who is also president of the Australian Hotels Association SA, said he had no problems with people protesting, but the timing was hard to explain.
“We have seen a lot of inconsistencies and hypocrisies during this process, such as cafes and restaurants being allowed to open but dining areas in pubs being forced to stay closed,” he said.
“What happened on Saturday though was the greatest hypocrisy of all. I don’t know anyone in business who thought it was OK for that to go ahead at the same time as venues are being forced to operate at 20 per cent capacity and policed for failing to do so.”
His comments came as the state government’s Transition Committee met to determine the next stage of the lifting of restrictions, with the decision taken to allow 2000 fans to attend this Saturday’s traditional Port-Crows “showdown” at the 55,000-capacity Adelaide Oval.
Police Commissioner Grant Stevens admitted that both he and SA Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier preferred that last Saturday’s protest did not go ahead on health grounds, but that as commissioner he believed it would have been too dangerous for his officers to try to stop it, given organisers said they intended to proceed anyway.
“The reality was, with the rally that happened on Saturday, there was no likelihood we were going to be able to control the number of people,” he said. “That rally was going to happen whether I gave an exemption for it to occur or not.”
However, Mr Stevens said police would not support the proposed staging of a second protest in Adelaide this weekend.
“We’ve given people an opportunity to participate. That can’t happen every weekend, otherwise the restrictions do become a mockery,” he said.
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