Canberra Stadium squeaky clean ahead of monster footy weekend

The 6000 fans attending Saturday's Super Rugby AU final between the ACT Brumbies and Queensland Reds can be assured they will be entering the cleanest stadium they've ever been to.

As will the 6000 allowed at Sunday's clash between the Canberra Raiders and New Zealand Warriors.

Tireless venue staff will wage a round-the-clock war of cleanliness this weekend, and it all starts deep in the heart of the stadium with the players' change rooms.

Quayclean staff, employed to ensure COVID-19 can never thrive in the stadium, have been tasked with ensuring every surface, seat, door handle, tap, locker, basin and everything in between is virus and bacteria free.

Enter the Fogger.

A device worth thousands of dollars resembling a hand-held surface-to-air missile launcher, which covers everything in its path in a microscopic mist.

The chemical being used is Oxivir, World Health Organization and Therapeutic Goods of Australia approved, perfectly harmless to humans and blasted out of the Fogger in microscopic droplets measuring just five microns in width. Those drops settle on each surface and dry in less than two minutes, killing any lingering viral trace.

"In simple terms, all viruses have got DNA, bacteria have got DNA, this actually breaks the DNA and the ability of the virus to multiply," Quayclean chief executive officer Mark Piwkowski said.

"The idea of the Fogger is putting a fine layer of mist over everything one more time. Just say we've missed a spot wiping, that Fogger gives us that extra level of guarantee that we've hit everything in that room.

"Once an area has been used, in the players' rooms in particular or out here in the public areas or even the handrails, the team need to keep going back over those surfaces, keep re-wiping them to make sure they form that layer of antimicrobial type solution. If anything falls on it, the chance of anything falling on it and then being killed is very high."

This deep cleaning of the stadium is an ongoing process. Piwkowski's team have cleaned the changerooms ahead of the Brumbies' captain's run on Friday morning, and will clean them again as soon as the players leave.

It's one of just several measures Canberra Stadium is employing to allow spectators in.

The venue is divided into clean zones - used only by players, officials and certain broadcast media - and dirty zones used by the general public.

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Barricades separate each zone in the stadium, and a beefed-up security brigade patrols the venue to make sure no member of the public cross into the wrong area.

Visiting teams use a different entry to Brumbies or Raiders players. They're bussed inside on the east side of the ground, and use the east lounge before the same bus drives them around to the Mal Meninga stand.

Then they enter between the Meninga and Laurie Daley statues to access the changerooms. But remember, it's only two people in a lift at any one time.

And each changeroom has a maximum capacity meaning players and a skeletal staff are sometimes spread over several rooms.

Members of the public aren't allowed to bring anything into the venue, so that means no backpacks or handbags.

Upon purchasing a ticket to either game, residential details are entered. Should someone from Victoria attempt to buy a ticket, they are contacted by staff and told they will not be allowed entry.

Some 800 yellow stickers are scattered on the ground around the stadium to ensure people maintain a 1.5m distance from each other.

And black mesh has been erected in the inner bowls and terraces to block out the view of the field from the regular standing areas.

Patrons who are loitering will be immediately told by security to return to their seats.

Food can be purchased from a limited number of outlets, which have been designed to ensure safety and efficiency.

The menu is streamlined, the beer is only mid strength and all food is served in a recyclable container.

Once you make it to your seat? It'll be just like the Canberra Stadium of old.