While the New South Wales Government's announcement that gyms, yoga studios and dance studios can open next week has been welcome news to many, some Hunter businesses have expressed disappointment that it has taken this long.
From the 13th of June, gym, yoga and dance studios can open their doors but there will be a limit of 10 participants per class.
Matt MacCabe runs group sessions in a small gym in Mayfield and said while it was welcome news, it was frustrating that they still had to wait until the end of next week.
"We saw the lady at the front of the shop at Target at Kotara with a clicker and it was at 170 people in the shop," he said.
"So for a lot of us in these small kinds of gyms they are quite big square metreages and even just having 10 people in these classes would have been huge to have a few weeks ago."
Online yoga options
Lisa Stokx runs her own yoga studio, but her classes had to go online when the government enforced restrictions to stop the spread of coronavirus.
Ms Stokx said she will have to modify her former set-up to fit within the 10 person rule.
"My classes tend to be bigger than that, but we have been doing a lot of online stuff since we had to go into lockdown," she said.
"We may still be able to offer pre-recorded classes and I'm doing the Zoom classes with quite a lot of students as well."
Football season already over
But for the New Lambton Football Club, the State Government's decision to allow the return of junior community sport on the 1st of July has come too late.
The club said it has been forced to cancel its inter-district football or face insolvency at the end of the season.
It is the largest club in Newcastle and yesterday announced that the season was over for most of its 1,200 district players.
The club's women's Premier League and men's League 1 teams will participate in a modified competition.
But club co-chair, Clayton Harrison, said it has already lost a considerable amount of money, and numerous revenue streams would remain cut off under COVID-19 restrictions.
"Financially we're in the order of $120,000 without additional revenue," he said.
"Struggling for sponsorship dollars, canteen revenue, alcohol sales.
"There's a whole range of measures that we put in place through the year and increase revenue outside of registrations."
