Covid-19: Exeter boss Rob Baxter wants guidance on crowd returns
- Published
Exeter's game with Gloucester on Boxing Day was the last of three Premiership matches to have 2,000 fans attend this season when restrictions were temporarily lifted in December
Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter says clubs must get some definitive guidance on when they can have full crowds back in grounds.
Just over 3,000 people will be at Exeter's game with Newcastle on Sunday as Covid-19 rules are relaxed.
Baxter says the pandemic has cost Exeter "millions" of pounds with almost all their games behind closed doors.
"We need some real guidance on when we're going to be allowed to be thinking about full crowds," he said.
"Most sports will tell you it's only the last few percentage of seats that get sold that are the profit seats, everything else you're about covering costs.
"Most rugby clubs are going to want to know if they're back to capacity next season, because we've got to start planning for it," he added to BBC Sport.
Premiership clubs agreed to cut their salary cap to £5m for next season - a drop of £1.4m - in the wake of the pandemic-related losses, with many players taking pay cuts.
The UK is currently in stage three of lockdown rules, with gatherings in sporting venues capped at the lower amount of either 10,000 people or 25% of a venue's capacity.
Under the roadmap, restrictions could be lifted by 21 June if the government is satisfied it is safe to do so - but there has been no confirmation yet of that plan.
"We can't go on forever like this," added Baxter.
"We've been very lucky to be able to push through as we have done for a year, but we need to have a pathway out of it now because professional sport won't survive.
"Maybe Premier league football can survive on TV deals, but I don't think there's any other professional sport, certainly in this country, that can survive on its TV deal.
"Most of us need to survive on the revenue we can earn and we can produce, and we need to get those streams online as soon as possible."