Fans put Gabba's AFL Grand Final seating plan to the test

In a seating trial ahead of its upcoming hosting of the AFL Grand Final, a small group of 200 spectators at last night's Collingwood and Port Adelaide Premiership clash at the Gabba in Brisbane were placed in a section at 75% capacity.

With crowd capacity at stadiums in Queensland having been capped at 50% since the beginning of July, the trial has been approved by Queensland Deputy Premier and Health Minister Steven Miles.

Speaking to ABC Radio, Minister Miles said the trial would assess crowd density ahead of next month's trophy decider in Brisbane.

He advised "our stadiums are currently capped at 50%, but we have been planning for some time to go to the 75% level around the time of the AFL grand final.

"This is a trial to see how that works, see what the risks are and whether the additional measures the stadium wants to put in place, like masks, are effective.

"We will be measuring things like whether people move around, whether they keep their masks on, how often they sanitise their hands.

"It’s highly unlikely that we would see an infection - it’s been quite some time since we’ve had a COVID case in our community, so we'll be measuring things like whether people move around, whether they leave their masks on, how often they sanitise their hands."

A Queensland Health spokesperson said the trial aimed to ensure the Gabba was as safe as possible ahead of the AFL grand final on 24th October, explaining “as well as new seating arrangements, the trial may also include asking people to wear masks in certain areas when not seated.

"This will be in addition to the standard measures that are in place at the Gabba currently - for example, restriction of movement between specified sectors and provision of hand sanitiser."

Advising that said the seating trial to test increasing density was an important step, Queensland Chief Health Officer, Dr Jeannette Young noted “it will be very easy to contact trace.

"It's a really good thing, to test the processes rather than do it for the first time with a full stadium.”