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THE Bendigo Football-Netball League is still to reach a position on whether a season could proceed this year without crowds.
The league is hopeful of a shortened nine round home and away season plus some form of finals starting in potentially late June or early July, with one of the key topics being discussed among clubs at the moment being around the implications if no crowds are allowed under coronavirus pandemic mass gatherings restrictions.
Without crowds at games clubs would forego crucial match-day revenue such as gate takings and bar and canteen sales.
"There has certainly been a lot of discussion around it (playing a season without crowds), but there hasn't been a call made on it yet," BFNL manager Cameron Tomlins said.
"Obviously, when you look at it from a revenue point of view there are clubs that highly rely on match-day revenue to keep cash flow coming through.
"There's a bit of a split between the clubs and differing opinions among our clubs and clubs in other leagues about how they could weather the storm and whether they could operate without crowds.
"But there are a fair few drums beating that without any crowds we just couldn't go ahead.
"Country footy relies on crowds, so at the moment we're not saying yes or no, but it's definitely a discussion point and it's going to come back to the clubs."
Tomlins says one of the crowd-related issues the league is seeking clarity on is whether players and match-day volunteers would be included as part of mass gathering numbers.
"We expect that the mass gathering restrictions and social distancing is going to remain for quite some time, so are players counted in mass gatherings, which we assume they would be," Tomlins said.
But there are a fair few drums beating that without any crowds we just couldn't go ahead.
- Cameron Tomlins - BFNL manager
"If you consider any given match day with five football and three netball grades and the volunteers required, you're probably looking at 200 to 300 at any given time. If mass gathering restrictions were to go back out to 500 people and 300 are already accounted for, it makes it very difficult to have a crowd.
"What we've also spoken about is when we consider the high risk group being the over-60s, when you look at club volunteers in terms of trainers, bar and canteen staff, gate staff, they tend to be in this high risk category, so what sort of an impact on clubs does it have if the government says leagues can start, but no-one over 60 can attend.
"So there's a lot of moving pieces associated with this. At the base level we're looking at a season and how we can fit our rounds in, but even if we get the OK there's still going to be a lot of difficulties to put something together."
The Loddon Valley league has stated it won't play this year if crowds aren't allowed.
The Heathcote District league has a survey out to its clubs, with one of the questions asking if clubs would be prepared to play football and netball without any crowds, while it's also considering a pay per view livestream option if supporters can't attend.
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