Just days away from getting the NRL back up and running prior to any rival Australian sporting code, Peter V'landys has identified his next goal: getting crowds back.
Despite crowds being a virtual afterthought for both the NRL and AFL this season, V'landys, ever the optimist, is aiming to have spectators filling the stands by July 1.
"We're on the moon," V'landys told the Sydney Morning Herald. "We're looking for Mars now."
NRL games are set to get back underway this week starting May 28, a date that was widely criticised as being ambitious in various rival sporting circles, and will initially take place behind closed doors.
Unlike the AFL, who played the opening round of its season behind closed doors, the NRL was able to get fans in the stands for Round 1, before rising infection rates forced fans to watch on TV in Round 2.
The NSW Government has permitted up to 50 people to be allowed in pubs from June 1, and that date looms as a key factor in whether the NRL is able to re-introduce crowds this season.
V'landys is confident that with international borders closed, crowds will be safe at the football this season.
"We based our return on analysis and information on infection rates and how the coronavirus really caused the damage it did," he said.
"When you look at it, 60 per cent came from offshore and even today the four positives all came from overseas.
"You take the Ruby Princess out and that's less risk again. So in real terms, if the infection rate stays as low as it does and nothing new is coming in from overseas, the risk is going to be pretty low.
"So why wouldn't be have crowds? We'll do that in the same fashion we did with the return of the game.
"The next test for us is once they relax the measures, we want to see in the next three weeks if the infection rate is altered in any fashion. If it hasn't, we'll be pushing very hard for crowds .... capped crowds."
The ARL Commission chairman has even stated that he regretted ever shutting down the NRL after two rounds, a claim that was branded as "absurd" by Peter FitzSimons.
"When you say Peter V'landys is in overdrive, is he ever not in overdrive?" FitzSimons said on Sports Sunday.
"The idea that they were wrong to shut it down, absolutely absurd. At the time, it was stunning that they were able to keep it going for two weeks. If they'd gone on for three weeks, there would have been an uprising. They had to stop.
"I hope [it's] proven right, that it's a wise decision [to restart]. I still have my fears that it's coming back way too early and that what's happened is, from the moment the government let them through the traffic lights, everybody else stop, you go through ... of course everybody else has to go through."
from WWOS http://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/peter-v-landys-aiming-for-return-of-crowds-by-july/8ab5c5aa-c647-4d7c-97dd-cebfd7861274
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