Late today the League made the decision to postpone Week 3 of the 2021 Sal’s NBL season due to the ongoing lockdown across New Zealand. The dates impacted are Thursday August 26 to Sunday August 29.
We will assess our next steps early next week when further announcements are made by the government.
The League’s priority is to complete the full 2021 season in a safe environment. Ideally we want our athletes, the six teams, our commercial and broadcast partners, and the fans to enjoy a full season, but understandably this is subject to government regulations.
We are fully supportive of the current lockdown and everyone in the Sal’s NBL family is firmly focused right now on doing our bit to support Aotearoa and our team of 5 million.
Following our opening week of competition in Auckland, which was played between last Thursday August 12 and Sunday August 15, a number of League staff and players have since had Covid tests, all of which have returned a negative result.
While we do have alternatives available to us to complete a shorter season if needed, we will require four uninterrupted weeks to complete the full season, and this remains our priority.
We will continue to follow all requirements issued by the government and hope that the current measures steer us in a direction that will allow a return to an environment where we can re-commence our season.
