PORT Macquarie Indoor Stadium manager Clayton Coad is looking forward to some sort of normality returning in July - three months ahead of schedule.
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The venue is set to reopen their doors on July 1, but things will look different to how players left them when the COVID-19 pandemic forced them to close the doors in late March.
"We're going to be three months ahead of where we thought we'd be; we budgeted until October, so this is probably a good outcome," Mr Coad said.
It hasn't been without a significant hit to the bottom line with many events including school carnivals originally planned for August cancelled, along with martial arts competitions.
But Mr Coad admitted the silver lining could come in the form of minimising the amount of potentially infected visitors using the facilities.
"The last thing I want is to have local sport starting and then hold inter-school events (involving schools from around the state) which sends us broke," he said.
"We're treading carefully because my main objective is to get local sport started."
"We're treading carefully because my main objective is to get local sport started."
- Port Macquarie Indoor Stadium manager Clayton Coad
Having high-quality cleaning practices prior to the pandemic means the facility will be ahead of other indoor venues.
However, they will continue to modify things.
"Our place is spotless every night," Mr Coad said.
"We have four hours of cleaning every evening once we close and then another three of a morning where we tidy, clean and machine our courts.
"Then we have a fogger machine that goes through to kill anything left over."
Futsal and multisport competitions are set to resume on July 20 with basketball and volleyball set to resume a week later on July 27.
Spectators may not be permitted until at least mid-August.
"It's like 50 per cent of the population still have no idea (about social distancing)," Mr Coad said.
"It's going to be like a school drop off; come in dressed for your game and as soon as you're done you leave."
- Clayton Coad
"It's going to be like a school drop off; come in dressed for your game and as soon as you're done you leave.
"There will be no seating around the place until the end of July, so the televisions won't be on and people will have to clean their hands as soon as they walk in.
"We will have sanitising stations set up around the place and everyone will have to report to the desk first so we know who is in the building.
"But don't even enter if you've got a sniffle."
The venue is set to host their first all-schools competition at the beginning of September with a five-day futsal tournament to be held.
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