Knights lobbying NRL to have round 9 clash with Parramatta switched to McDonald Jones Stadium

In what would be a huge win for Knights fans, CEO Phil Gardner has told the Newcastle Herald he is aiming to have the game against the Eels on Sunday, July 12, currently set down for Central Coast Stadium, played in Newcastle in front of a crowd of up to 7000 people.

The news comes as the Knights prepare to host around 170 people, including some members, in corporate areas at Gosford on Saturday for the clash against Melbourne Storm.

"We are hoping to have fans back at McDonald Jones Stadium for the Parramatta game," Gardner revealed.

"Mr V'landys [ARL Commission chairman] is setting high goals and now we are setting a few of our own.

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"We'll be going down to have the fight and have the chat and that is what we are aiming for - we want to get that game back to McDonald Jones [Stadium] for our fans.

"The ball is rolling. We have been speaking to the NRL and we have been speaking to Venues NSW about the possibility of making the switch. That would be a great outcome for us.

"No-one has said no at this stage and it's going to come back to where everything is positioned health-wise and certainly Fox and Nine will have some say in it as well because part of the deal was around the costs of it all.

"But we are going to fight as hard for our fans as we possibly can to hopefully make it happen."

When the NRL released the revised draw following the COVID-19 shutdown, they only locked in venues for the first nine rounds with McDonald Jones Stadium not among the grounds used.

It was hoped that health restrictions may be relaxed enough by round 10 to have all home grounds back in play for the second half of the season. The Knights are looking to accelerate that.

"The quality of the football is great and the team is going well but obviously, the disappointing thing is no fans. If we can get back home for Parramatta and make it a real blockbuster, it would be fantastic if we could pull that off."

Gardner admitted crowd numbers would be dependent on what will be acceptable to the State government.

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"We are hoping to get somewhere between 5000 to 7000 fans in for the Eels game which would allow us to go back to McDonald Jones Stadium," he said.

"A lot could depend on if there is another spike [in infections] after the rallies at the weekend.

"Hopefully that won't be the case. If we had 7000 fans - 3,500 each side - that would still give enough room there to have the appropriate social distancing and I believed we can manage that.

"Depending on the size of the corporate areas, we could have 10 people per box or something like that and it would be fantastic.

"Then hopefully, a couple of months down the track, we are back to normal with capacity crowds.

"Venues are very supportive but it's going to come down to what the government is going to accept around health protocols.

"We'll need to come up with all the answers around how we get fans in, how we social distance them - all those sorts of questions which we are already having a look at.

"But we obviously need NRL approval first to have the game switched from Gosford to home."