With Australian sport finally catching up to the rest of the world and abandoning or postponing major events and fixtures, the first job losses are starting to hit the industry.
The AFL, which shut down its season on Sunday, has moved quickly to contact clubs and ensure a tight rein on spending, while the NRL also closed its head office and reduced staff as it prepares for a possible shutdown.
The Australian Rugby League Commission was holding an emergency meeting on Monday night to see if it could continue to keep the competition alive having just completed Round 2.
Reports from the league’s broadcaster Fox League suggested a decision has been taken to suspend the season.
It comes as Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the state’s borders will be closed, most likely from midnight on Wednesday.
That move threw into doubt the NRL’s alternative plans to take all 16 teams to a central location in Queensland, or to continue to charter flights for travelling clubs all over Australia’s eastern states.
The chief executive of AFL’s Brisbane Lions, Greg Swann, says much work will be needed to ensure his club can survive and that would include layoffs.
“We have a lot of work ahead of us to ensure the club’s financial stability and there will need to be some really tough decisions made, but we’re committed to ensuring that your club still exists in six months’ time, in a year’s time and in 50 years’ time,” Swann said.
“In order to do that, we will be implementing a series of significant measures that will shore up our finances and we will aim to be as transparent as possible as we move through the process.
“There are many people who are impacted by the AFL’s decision, not least of which are our loyal and hard-working staff and players.
“Their wellbeing as we work through this is paramount and we will support them through whatever lies ahead.”
It is expected most clubs will lay off up to 75 per cent of staff, with a mixture of accrued leave and leave without pay.
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Rugby union on Monday became the latest Australian sport to postpone a competition, abandoning its plan for a domestic competition featuring the four Australian Super Rugby teams plus Western Force.
It will now be put off until May 1 at the earliest.
Soccer’s Football Federation Australia abandoned Monday night’s Perth Glory v Western United fixture as the governing body met to consider how to finish the last few weeks of the 2019-2020 campaign.
“Our club is committed to remaining agile in our response to the crisis as we work with the FFA to help contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus,” Western United chief executive Chris Pehlivanis said .
While it’s not ideal to postpone a game at such late notice, these are unprecedented times. The situation remains very fluid.’’
Super Netball is also kicking the can down the road, with the 2020 season that was due to start on May 2 being deferred until at least June 30.
Separately, Netball Australia has determined that the Australian Netball League season will also be delayed and will also not start before June 30.
Netball Australia is also working with the nations involved in the 2020 Quad Series and Constellation Cup to determine what happens in relation to those matches due to take place in September and October respectively.
-with AAP
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