Sigh of relief for sport: Ramaphosa says stadiums can be half-full

President Cyril Ramaphosa says stadiums will be opened for professional sports events at 50% capacity from Wednesday.

Almost exactly two years after Covid-19 dealt a blow to global professional sports and shut down live viewing of sports events in SA, major codes will breathe a sigh of relief. Professional sports will finally be able to approach a situation far closer to a pre-pandemic reality after Ramaphosa's announcement in his national address on Tuesday night.

Ramaphosa said the government intends to lift the National State of Disaster as soon as public comment on the health regulations replacing it has been completed.

In the meantime, many restrictions of Level 1 are being lifted. These include the restriction of 1,000 people at indoor gatherings and 2,000 outdoors. This will be replaced by a 50% of capacity restriction, where provisions have been made for attendees to prove they are vaccinated or have been tested for Covid-19.

Ramaphosa said a meeting of the Presidential Co-ordinating Council was held on Tuesday.

“Based on those consultations and the recommendations of the National Coronavirus Command Council the cabinet has decided to ease several restrictions as part of Adjusted Level 1,” Ramaphosa said.

“ ... The restrictions on gatherings are being significantly changed. In previous regulations the emphasis was on placing an upper limit on the number of people who could attend a gathering.

“The approach now is that both indoor and outdoor venues can take up to 50% of their capacity, provided that the criteria for entrance to those venues is proof of vaccination or a Covid-19 test not older than 72 hours.”

“Where there is no provision for proof of vaccination or a Covid-19 test then the current upper limit will remain of 1,000 people indoors and 2,000 outdoors.

“This change to the restriction on gatherings will be of great benefit to the sporting, cultural and events industries in particular. This means if we are vaccinated or have recently tested negative we'll be able to return to watching sports in our stadiums and attending music concerts, theatre performances, conferences and other events.”

The lifting of the restriction of 2,000 supporters in outdoor stadiums and venues for sports events will come as a huge relief to professional sports in SA.

Last week SA Rugby, in a submission to parliament's sports portfolio committee, said it would go broke by the end of the year if stadiums did not begin to open for bigger crowds.

In football, the Premier Soccer League (PSL) never opened stadiums for the 2,000 restricted capacity because clubs complained it was not financially feasible to host crowds of that size without making a loss on the costs.

Professional sport was initially shut down completely by the outbreak of Covid-19 in SA. Slowly major codes put forward their plans for returns to play within strict measures and the confines of carefully formulated biosecure environments.

The 2,000 restriction on crowds was a first step back towards getting spectators back into sports stadiums. Now the 50%  capacity restriction will allow sport to operate live events with some form of profitability enabled.