Stands may not be empty

Hopes are rising for ‘crowds’ of several hundred to watch topline rugby’s return in just over a fortnight, with Eden Park’s chief executive confident of welcoming back an increasing number of fans within Covid-19 restrictions.

As the five New Zealand sides hit the training grounds to prepare for Super Rugby Aotearoa, stadium bosses and NZ Rugby are working through a range of crowd scenarios for opening weekend on June 13 in Dunedin and the following day in Auckland.

As it currently stands, the Highlanders and Chiefs will run onto Forsyth Barr Stadium with no one in the stands, and a smattering of team management, stadium staff, television crew and media.

The same applies to Eden Park on Sunday afternoon, June 14, and the much-awaited Blues v Hurricanes and battle of the Barretts, with June 22 the earliest the Government will entertain a move to alert level 1 and gatherings of 500-plus.

But the level 2 rules around gatherings of 100 are evolving, too, and could be further relaxed on June 8 if the run of zero new cases continues. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described them as a work in progress.

‘‘One of the things we’re still giving ourselves a bit of time to work through, is when you’ve got much larger event spaces, convention centres and so on, can we do a little bit of thinking about how we manage those environments,’’ Ardern told Sky Sport’s The Breakdown on Tuesday.

Nick Sautner, Eden Park’s CEO, entered the fray on Wednesday, telling Newsroom he wanted spectators back for the opening game, saying the country’s biggest stadium could safely accommodate 5000 patrons in 10 blocks of 500 using specific gates.

That would seemingly depend on a move to level 1, or further changes to level 2 guidelines.

Sautner declined to comment further to Stuff yesterday, saying he was working through MBIE’s latest advice which gives hope to stadia welcoming in more than 100 spectators under level 2.

The MBIE advice, dated May 27, states multiple groups of 100 are allowable in event facilities provided they are in separate ‘defined spaces’ with no ability to mingle between groups. Each spectator would require a ticket linked to an address for contact tracing.

Sautner told NewstalkZB of the 100 limit: ‘‘That’s being worked through and there are a number of people that would love to have that golden ticket.’’