Basketball is Back with Finals Friday

Basketballers have waited patiently to get back to the sport they love, and we're so proud to announce that we'll be going through with Finals Friday.

Finals Friday will consist of both the Girls Division and Boys Division playing out their Summer Series 20 Finals matches at Tawa Recreation Centre on 5th June 2020. We're taking advice from Sport New Zealand, as well as Basketball New Zealand as to how we can do this safely and securely.

Advice from Sport New Zealand

We are taking advice from Sport New Zealand as to how we can safely go about playing both Finals matches. As of May 18th, we can't have more than 10 people inside the venue, including players, officials and spectators. This will be reviewed on May 25th and if this limit increases, we will be going ahead as planned. The recommended date for contact sports to continue properly is June 5th.

We will not be having any spectators at these games. This means nobody will be allowed to enter the venue unless they are playing, or they have an assigned role in The Summer Series Staff. If spectators are permitted to watch, we will only be allowing immediate family with a capped restriction to enter. This will be strictly monitored and will be strictly enforced too. This will mean pre-registering entry for family members will be required by teams. Social distancing will always apply to spectators.

Advice from Basketball New Zealand

We are taking advice from Basketball New Zealand about how we can safely play basketball on 5th June. They have created a document discussing their expectations and we will be following most of these protocols. We will of course have our own protocols in place to adhere to our regulations.

Health and Safety

The Summer Series will be following strict Health and Safety guidelines outlined by the Government. This includes social distancing, disinfecting hands on entry, having disinfectant on site for staff, players, coaches to use, contact tracing and restrictions on numbers. We want to make students re-entry to sport a positive one, and we also want to make it as safe as possible.

Between games, there will be requirements to wipe equipment down, including the basketball, the floor and the scorebenches and team benches. Teams from the 2nd game won't be allowed to enter the main gym until the teams from the 1st game have finished, warmed down, and we have disinfected the gym. They will have to remain in their cars or in a separate part of the gym.

Watching the game

We know there will be people wanting to come to the games and support their teams. In this current climate, we can't do that. We don't want to ruin your Finals Friday experience, so we're celebrating with almost non-stop coverage over the entire evening, with the Dare Pre-Game Show for both games, and a special appearance from the team at The Raw 04 to finish off and recap the day.

As an added bonus, we will also be announcing and talking to the Skinny Fizz MVP's for 2020 as voted by the fans of The Summer Series a few months ago. We will also be giving away two prizes to two people who voted through our online voting platform.

You'll be able to watch coverage of both games LIVE and FREE at SUMMERSERIES.NZ from 5:10pm NZST. The link will be posted in the afternoon. Otherwise, you can head to twitch.tv/thesummerseries and cast the game to your TV. A week or so before the game, we will be giving you some tips about how to get yourself Game Ready through our Instagram.

Safety of EVERYONE

The Summer Series understands that not everyone may feel safe returning to basketball. We have been in touch with all teams and they have all indicated that they are willing to play, and we have made sure that all of our Health and Safety guidelines are written down and able to be presented to teams. This ensures they understand that we are minimising any risk involved with playing basketball. It also makes sure teams and staff understand that if they do not feel comfortable playing on June 5th, they do not have to. We won't penalise any team or staff member for chosing not to be part on June 5th.

We are also clearly stating that we will only go ahead if Sport New Zealand's rules permit us to. If we are unable to resume due to these rules, the date will be pushed back another week to June 12th. If we cannot resume play before the start of College Sport Wellington, we will play these games during their competition.

More Information

All information surrounding Finals Friday will be available on our website, as well as through posts on social media. If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch by emailing us contact@liamc4.sg-host.com