SA Rugby lobby hard to have fans

JOHANNESBURG. — South Africa’s economy is set to lose R6.6 billion ( US$ 453 million) if this year’s British & Irish Lions tour goes ahead without fans.

That is, according to a study, commissioned by South Africa Rugby, which admits it will “do anything” to get some supporters into stadia.

The Lions are set to tour South Africa for eight matches, including three tests against the world champion Springboks, between July 3 - August 7.

But, at this stage games will go ahead behind closed doors due to the Covid19 pandemic.

The pace of vaccination in Africa’s most industrialised nation has been slow, with health experts, trade unions and businesses urging the government to speed up once more supplies become available.

SA Rugby are counting the cost too. “We have pulled out all stops and we are lobbying government,” SA Rugby president Mark Alexander told the Sport24 website yesterday.

“I’ll do anything we need to do to get (supporters into stadiums). It’s a process and you don’t know how long that process will take, that’s the problem.

“We need to have this tournament (the Lions tour with fans) in South Africa and if we don’t, there could be 10 000 jobs lost through retrenchments.”

Alexander says they have presented various ideas to government on a way forward, including crowd-funding to pay for the wide-spread distribution of vaccines in the coming months.

“We looked at a number of things to assist government in raising funds to pay for the vaccine. We like the crowd funding thing and we wanted to start a campaign to raise money. We all have to chip in, in some kind of way,” Alexander said.

“We also proposed stringent controls around stadiums. We have testing before the game and people coming with their vaccine or health passports. —