Hibs chairman Ron Gordon is hopeful that fans will be able to pack out Easter Road by autumn this year.
An Edinburgh Derby defeat to Hearts in early March last year was the last time the punters streamed through turnstiles in Leith.
10 days later all of Scottish football was stopped and wouldn't return until August, with every home Hibs game being held behind closed doors.
But with the UK vaccine campaign now progressing well and currently inoculating the over 50s, there's hope supporters can return in numbers soon with the Scottish Government approving plans for 12,000 to descend on Hampden for Euro 2020 and the SPFL backing a cross-sport push for vaccine passports in order to allow bigger crowds.
American businessman Gordon isn't convinced full houses will return in time for the Hibees' potential Europa League or Europa Conference qualifying ties, for example, but he's hopeful that it should only take a few months from the start of next season to see grounds bouncing.
He said: "I don’t anticipate it will happen for the start of the season but hopefully the vaccination programme keeps moving at a good clip and restricts the spread of the virus.
"If that happens then maybe we could be looking at getting back to normality by September or October, although that may be on the optimistic side."
Gordon purchased his majority shareholding in the club back in the summer of 2019 and couldn't have envisaged the events that would unfold in his first season.
But he has no regrets about taking charge of a football club shortly before the Covid pandemic ripped through the sport.
He said: "It’s funny. I was forwarded something many, many moons ago, at the beginning of the pandemic.
"A fan had written, ‘of all the times to make an investment in football, this was the worst. Ron Gordon invested in Hibs at the worst possible time’.
"It almost brought me to tears because he added, ‘stick with it Ron, if you can take us through this, you are going to be a very good chairman for the club’.
“I was very emotional about that Tweet or Instagram post.
"But, honestly, there has not been one nanosecond when I said, ‘oh geez, what bad luck, why did I get into this?’ Not at all.
"I’m very determined to do everything I can to take the club to the next level. It’s a fantastic club, waiting for the opportunity to do more."
