THE Member for Northern Victoria, Wendy Lovell, has urged the State Government to scrap the 1,000-person crowd limit at local outdoor sporting venues, saying the limit will restrict revenue and place pressure on club volunteers.
Ms Lovell has said the number of COVID cases in regional Victoria is extremely low compared to metropolitan Melbourne, with some areas not recording a single positive case throughout the entire pandemic.
“Rural communities that have had little or no cases of COVID-19 should not be lumped in with metro Melbourne and the State Government needs to remove these capacity limits to support grass-roots sporting clubs throughout regional Victoria,” she said.
Goulburn Valley League operations manager, Jo Spencer, said under current restrictions, some clubs were having to register blockbuster matches as public events weeks out from the scheduled date in order to plan for more than 1,000 spectators.
“It’s an incredible administrative strain on clubs, but they are willing to do it because they know how much we’ve all missed football and netball in the community,” she said.
GVL round 1 kicks off on the evening of Good Friday (April 2). There will be a blockbuster 6pm clash between the Shepparton Bears and Shepparton United at Deakin Reserve, which is expected to draw a large crowd.
Shepparton, Echuca, and Mansfield Football Netball Clubs are all in the process of registering matches with the State Government to allow more than 1,000 spectators to the venue.
However, Ms Spencer remained optimistic: “If it means we have to jump through 100 hoops to play, then we will.”
