The Western Australian Government has announced a massive rollback of coronavirus restrictions that will, among other things, pave the way for over 30,000 people to attend AFL games at Optus Stadium from this weekend on.
WA Premier Mark McGowan today announced that the state would be moving to Phase 4 of eased restrictions from this coming Saturday, June 27th, following a run of 59 days without a single community transmission case of coronavirus recorded.
Under the Phase 4 guidelines, all gathering capacity limits will be removed, with both indoor and outdoor gatherings only restricted to a one person per two square metres social distancing guideline.
That means pubs and clubs will no longer have venue capacity limits enforced on them. Gone too will be requirements for venues to gather contact details of patrons, who will also be allowed to stand and have a beer if they wish.
The move also heralds the return of live entertainment in WA, with all events except for large-scale multi-stage outdoor festivals permitted to resume. That includes unseated gigs at pubs, bars, and concert venues.
Crucially for sports fans, the Phase also permits major sporting stadiums to operate at 50% capacity moving forward. Meaning Perth’s Optus Stadium will be allowed to welcome 30,633 people back into its stands. It’s hoped that that number will increase to the stadium’s full 100% capacity of 60,000 by July 18th.
Where that gets rather curious is that today’s announcement was not accompanied by any new information regarding Western Australia’s hard border closure. Premier McGowan stated he had previously intended to confirm that the border restrictions would be lifted from August 8th, however the recent spike in cases in Victoria has meant that that is off the table for now.
“I had planned to announce a tentative date for the removal of WA’s hard border as part of our roadmap today. However, with the situation evolving and Victoria, based on our health advice, we have decided to put that on hold,” the Premier stated.
Both Western Australian-based AFL teams, West Coast and Fremantle, are currently conducting business from a mini-hub on the Gold Coast, which is due to end on July 5.
Teams travelling into Western Australia would still be subject to a 14-day quarantine period before they’d be able to play either West Coast or Fremantle at Optus Stadium in front of a likely capacity crowd for the first time this season.
How that all goes down obviously remains to be seen. But for now, that’s one more step in the slow march back t’wards normalcy in Australia.
