Northern NSW Football boss David Eland says it would be disappointing for everyone if the region's best male players did not get on the field this year because of financial reasons but he has been encouraged by feedback from NPL clubs.
NNSWF and NPL club representatives met online last week to discuss the potential return in July of the top men's division, which was suspended just before the season kick-off in March because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It followed a meeting and subsequent survey of clubs this month.
While a likely relaxing of government restrictions in coming weeks could allow community sport to resume, the NPL faces the potential challenge of operating without spectators, gate takings and canteen profits.
Like in the Newcastle Rugby League, most, if not all, first-grade players in the NNSW NPL are paid and clubs rely heavily on game-day revenue and sponsors to fund payments.
Eland said NNSWF had presented a worst-case scenario of no crowds this year to NPL clubs, who had been asked for more information this week on their financial situation and potential losses in 2020.
He said NNSWF was also "very prepared to look at the participation fees and do whatever we can to lighten the burden on clubs". NPL clubs pay a participation fee of $38,475.20, which includes collected senior and youth registrations totalling $15,565.20. Other costs in the total include FFA entry ($825) and match official fees ($11,580).
Regardless of a concession, most clubs will need to cut player wages this year, especially given the financial blow to many sponsors in the pandemic. Eland, though, said he had been encouraged by the spirit of cooperation.
"The feedback we have is a number of clubs have already had those discussions with their players, that sport at every level is going to be different and the NPL isn't immune," Eland said.
"It's going to be different if it resumes in 2020 and all stakeholders are going to have to work together for the benefit of the game. I think it would be disappointing for everyone if the best players in Northern NSW didn't get to play this year.
"The feedback we got was that, of course players make a big commitment and they would like to be paid, but overwhelmingly it was we want to play. We don't want to be sitting the season out."
Eland said NPL clubs wanted NNSWF to work towards having crowds of up to 500 people, which was an initial government COVID-19 restriction on outdoor gatherings, but they also "just want to see football".
NPL standing committee chairperson Andrew Bozinovski said last week's meeting was positive and "clubs want to get the comp going" but he believed many will not support playing senior football without crowds.
"There's a fair bit of concern among the clubs about social distancing and financial viability if a large proportion of the season is played behind closed doors," Bozinovski said.
"It would be more manageable for clubs if we went back to the 500 rule on crowds, but if it's participants only, I think a lot of clubs will have financial questions to resolve.
"A lot of the clubs' major sponsors are pubs and clubs, which are shut, so that puts even more pressure on canteen and gate takings. If you can't have that, that puts pressure on the first-grade comp. If the games are not open, that's concerning for some clubs."
Eland said seven of the 10 NPL clubs were prepared to play into late November to complete a season and it was possible given most have access to their ground all year. Clubs also said a home-and-away regular season was a priority over a shortened competition to allow for finals. He said most clubs wanted three weeks of training to prepare for the season.
He also said clubs accepted that first-grade matches would have priority in washout situations and lower-grade games lost to rain could be deemed 0-0 draws and not played.
Competition models, with variations in the number of midweek games, a season finish and the inclusion of a finals series, were presented to clubs for consideration.
