Newcastle sporting organisations welcomed the NSW government announcement on Wednesday that all community sport competition can resume from July 1.
Junior sport was last week given the green light to resume competition on July 1 but senior sport remained in limbo.
Newcastle Rugby League, Newcastle and Hunter Rugby Union and Newcastle Baseball cancelled their senior premiership seasons last week.
Acting Minister for Sport Geoff Lee made the announcement on Wednesday as more COVID-19 restrictions were lifted.
"Sport is the lifeblood of our community and it gives me great pleasure to say adult sports can return to their competitions at the same time as 18 years and under," Lee said.
Newcastle Basketball Stadium will reopen their doors on Saturday with local senior and junior competition to resume from July 1.
The Newcastle Hunters men's and women's championship and youth representative teams are eyeing a July 18-19 start to a modified Waratah Basketball League, which will now comprise one round with finals.
Newcastle Basketball general manager Neil Goffet described it as "great news" from a business and community perspective."
"Obviously, there's a lot of sporting organisations around town who have lost 100 per cent of their revenue, but it's more important for the community," Goffet said.
"Sport is a huge part of the community and we need people playing sport for their physical and mental health, friendships and all of the rest of it that come from sport. It's a very, very positive step for the whole community. Sure, it's great news for the sporting organisations like us, but that's secondary. It's far more important to the community than it is for us."
Northern NSW Football chief David Eland said it was positive to have a resumption date to work with.
"It's great news and I think it's an acknowledgement of all of the work that's been going on behind the scenes, just making sure that government were aware of just how important senior sport was," Eland said.
"All of our zones have been really active talking to councils and talking to summer sports and most of the competitions are going to go through until the middle of October now, the grassroots ones.
"It's not ideal. It's a compressed season but we're going to end up with a 14-round season in most cases and it certainly wasn't looking like that a couple of months ago."
"I sincerely hope that a lot of the people who were just sitting back waiting to see what would happen really respond and get on board and register because now the clubs and zones need to know who's playing, so they can get draws together."
Eland expected start dates to be finalised for the region's premier competitions on Wednesday. The Herald Women's Premier League has been reduced to 14 rounds, including two already played, plus finals. National Premier League NNSW will comprise 13 rounds plus finals and Northern League One 15 rounds, including a bye.
Training is restricted to groups of 10, including a coach who cannot move between groups, and to no contact. That is set to remain until July 1.
Interdistrict football has also been working towards an early-July competition start.
Guidelines for the resumption of sporting competition from July 1 are yet to be released but Eland said volunteers would not be asked to do "anything that's unreasonable".
Newcastle Netball Association president Cheryl Hernando was waiting for further information regarding competition guidelines. They have been planning towards a July 18 restart.
Hunter Central Coast Australian Rules are working towards playing a modified competition.
Hunter Coast Premier men's hockey and Newcastle District women's hockey also intend to play out a season.
