SA Rugby CEO Jurie Roux believes severals unions will shut down if fans aren’t allowed to return to stadiums in the near future.
Since the restart after the lockdown, all rugby matches has been played behind proverbial ‘closed doors’ as no fans were allowed inside the stadiums under the coronavirus guidelines given through by government.
But according to Rapport, Roux said SA Rugby is desperate to get fans back and are currently working on a proposal to be submitted to the government for approval.
‘We hope there will be spectators for the Currie Cup final with healthy social distances maintained,’ he said.
‘The fact is that rugby lives from hand to mouth. Every rand that comes in goes out to support the provinces or to keep our most important rugby programmes – such as the Springboks and local competitions – going.
‘In total, we had to cut R1.2 billion [from the SA rugby industry’s budget] to survive. There was damage: the creditworthiness of entities in the game was affected, some people lost their jobs and if it were not for Covid, the Southern Kings would still exist.’
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