Newcastle Basketball Association general manager Neil Goffet said any coronavirus-related restrictions still in place for this season's Waratah League would have little impact on crowds for Hunters' home games.
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Based on the NSW government's current "four square metre rule", determining how many people can be on a premises at one time, Goffet said the Broadmeadow facility would accomdate approximately 1000.
We'll be fine [in terms of crowds], based on the four square metre rule we should be able to fit around 1000."
- Neil Goffet
"We'll be fine [in terms of crowds], based on the four square metre rule we should be able to fit around 1000," he said.
"We've worked out it's roughly 865 people just with the court size alone and then you've got to add in the grandstand on top of that.
"It [crowd of 1000] is about what we normally get anyway so we might have to do some policing of numbers but we'll just wait and see."
The Hunters welcome visiting squads in three consecutive weeks with Manly on July 25, Bankstown on August 1 and Canberra on August 8 before a last-round encounter against Central Coast on September 12. The Newcastle men's side are away to neighbouring rivals Maitland on August 25.
Goffet said COVID-19 regulations were subject to change, either further eased or tightened again, between now and housing matches.
"We haven't got a home game for another three weeks yet so they could shift again in that time," he said.
"If there's no cases between now and then there might be no restrictions at all."
The global pandemic has seen many Hunters representatives return to Newcastle and could mean the women field an all-WNBL starting five with of Cassidy McLean (Bendigo Spirit), Lara McSpadden (Sydney Uni Flames), Hannah Young, Alison Ebzery (Townsville Fire) set to line-up alongside former national league player Mikaela Dombkins.
"We've got some fair players around this year. The women's team is amazing and the men's side has a few guys back from college. It's good people can come and have a look," Goffet said.
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