The Auckland Tuatara likely will be back in next year’s ABL. The club has to deal with a fine though for pulling out of the current season.
The New Zealand team came close to losing its ABL licence after it withdrawing from the current season at the 11th hour, because of coronavirus and quarantine issues, much to the disliking of the league and the clubs. ABL CEO Cam Vale said the Tuatara needed to prove they should be allowed back next season.
According to the Tuatara CEO Regan Wood, the club has accepted to pay a fine and made some changes and put some procedures in place which would allow the club to pull out again next season, if there isn’t a two-way trans Tasman bubble.
The club agrees that it may have taken too much time to make the decision to pull back and to make the announcement. But looking to the current situation in Australia, where borders between states are closed rather frequently because of local COVID cases, the team clearly made the right decision to opt out of the 2020/2021 season.
According to Wood, the league said they had to give the Tuatara a fine and made them do a couple of things to keep the licence.
One can only wonder if the Geelong-Korea team will also be fined for withdrawing from this season. If not (which likely will be the case), it is clear that Cam Vale is having some double standards.
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