AFTER a long, hard COVID-19 hiatus, Kerang Sports & Entertainment Venue is preparing to open its doors again on Monday.
Manager Mat Chamberlain said staff were looking forward to getting back to work.
“We’re very excited to get back into it,” he said.
“We just want to get back to business and welcome the community with open arms.”
The reopening comes after a relaxation of restrictions on October 18 allowed up to 70 people to be seated outdoors at hospitality premises in regional Victoria.
However, with current restrictions still limiting venues to 10 patrons per indoor space, operations will still be seriously constrained.
“We’re pretty fortunate because we can get 70 people in the beer garden,” Mr Chamberlain said.
“Fortunately summer’s nearly upon us so hopefully people will be happy to sit out there.
“For the bistro and dining room we can re-seat people and do multiple sittings but we’re hoping for a further easing of restrictions before we reopen on November 9.”
The club, also known as Sporties, closed on March 23 when the first public health lockdown was introduced and days after a case of COVID-19 had been recorded in Gannawarra Shire.
Mr Chamberlain said the club had received good support from the building’s owners, who waived rent for a period.
Sporties had been able to use several business grants as well as JobKeeper payments for staff, who had been helping with cleaning, gardening, and maintenance jobs during the lockdown.
However, the pandemic caused a massive financial strain on the business, with revenue ceasing on March 23 while expenses continued to come in.
Mr Chamberlain said Sporties had been ready to reopen in July, when restrictions allowed for 20 patrons per room, before the second wave of the pandemic hit the state.
Since then it had not been economically viable to run the club.
“It was just purely a financial decision.
“If we open the door with low numbers, we potentially operate at a loss.”
With coronavirus case numbers now very low around the state, and a gradual reopening occurring, Mr Chamberlain said he hoped patron numbers would continue to build at the venue while safety was maintained.
Safety measures in place from Monday will include cleaning and sanitising between meals, the setup of sanitiser stations, a patrolling COVID officer to help with social distancing and area limits and the collection of customers’ names and phone numbers for potential contact tracing.
“We would like to ask all our patrons to be patient and respect our staff during the initial opening phase,” Mr Chamberlain said.
