Hoops chief reveals closure

ANOTHER Gold Coast sporting competition has pulled the plug on their season amid coronavirus concerns.

Gold Coast Basketball has suspended their junior and senior competitions to fall into line with a growing list of local, national and international events.

“We are in a very difficult position to understand what is the right or wrong thing to do at the moment,” general manager Joel McInnes wrote in a release.

“The simple thing is to take advice from local, state and federal government for what should be happening, as well as our state and national sporting bodies.

“As it stands ... the Carrara facility is available for basketball activities with under 500 people.

“BQJBC games are suspended, and there’s a meeting (today) to see what we are doing with the junior state championships and NBL1 and QSL competitions.

“The association will make decisions on their local competitions, as long as they are adhering to safety precautions per government.

“Based on the above, we suspended our junior competition last Friday.

“As things are likely to get worse before they get better, one of the things we are looking at doing is restarting the season where we have currently left off. Junior rep and trainings have been cancelled due to the competition being suspended by Basketball Queensland.”

McInnes also addressed the senior competition. “We’ve had a lot of people saying they still want to play and others saying they won’t,” he wrote.

“This provides a lot of issues. I have no doubt some of you will not want to increase your chances of infection, even though right now it is low-risk, per government advice.

“We have decided to suspend all senior competitions effectively immediately, at both Gold Coast Sport & Leisure and Tallebudgera Recreation Centre.

“Hopefully the suspension is not extensive.

“We plan to continue the current seasons as they stand once we return from this break.

“Be smart, be safe and be considerate of others.”