Belconnen Soccer Club close Hawker venue due to coronavirus impacts

Club chief executive Geoff Long said it would close for the forseeable future on October 31, but no further decisions had been made about its future.

Mr Long said trade in Hawker had been slow for several years, and the issue of closing the site was raised repeatedly in the past 15 years.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic had been the final straw which pushed the club to closure after it re-opened in August with reduced trading hours.

"It was a lack of staff and depleted numbers and it just wasn't viable to try and service it for the members even on 25 hours," he said.

"We've given it two months now and it's losing money."

Mr Long said the club would retain the site and venue as it was, to potentially re-open next year.

"If things change late this year or early next year we want the oportunity to kick it off again as it was and see how it goes," he said.

Business has slowly returned to pre-pandemic levels at the club's second venue in McKellar. Mr Long expected the Hawker closure could allow them to extend trading hours.

The club has been heavily reliant on JobKeeper payments, due to end in March, to see them through the pandemic.

Mr Long said no staff would be lost amid the closure and Hawker's three employees would relocate to McKellar.

This is the second Canberra club to shut up shop in recent months.

Eastlake Football Club's Kaleen venue was permanently closed in July. Club president Lorin Joyce said at the time the decision was made due to high running costs of the building, increased costs of operating gaming machines in the ACT and "unresolved lengthy planning delays".

Clubs were among the first venues to be shutdown nationwide when the pandemic first hit Australia in March.