Auckland base for premiership
THE ANZ Premiership will resume on June 19 and all the games will be played in Auckland.
The decision to stage the 10weeklong tournament in one location was made to meet the Ministry of Health guidelines and to provide a consistent and controlled venue.
But Netball New Zealand is still working through the final phases of the tournament’s return following the Government’s decision to move to Covid19 Alert Level 2 .
The revised competition schedule will be announced at a later date.
The next hurdle is for the six teams to set up a safe training environment.
Once that has been achieved, teams will be able to resume training.
Netball New
Zealand chief executive Jennie Wyllie said the organisation had been working hard to ensure it could get New Zealand’s elite domestic netball competition up and running in a safe way.
“We are really excited to be so close to getting the ANZ Premiership back on court and live on Sky Sport,” she said.
“We are mindful of playing our role in helping to contribute to New Zealand’s economy in this environment and a start date for this competition means another part of the economy up and running with more people returning to work
“I know there is a lot of interest in seeing our teams back in action but we also need to make sure that we have a robust set of guidelines to ensure the safety of everyone.”
The games will be played in a closed stadium and social distancing rules will applied off the court, while a process for contact tracing will be in place.
The players have be given four weeks to prepare for a return to play, which is in line with the allowance made for Super Rugby players.
Super Rugby will not be played in the one venue, however.