Huddersfield Giants looking for alternative venue after Wigan Warriors fixture snag

Huddersfield Giants plan to host Wigan Warriors at an alternative venue in June due to the John Smith’s Stadium’s unavailability. Stereophonics are due to play at the Giants’ home ground on June 14, and that obviously means the club cannot face Wigan there on the same day, as has been scheduled.

Rather than postpone the game, though, the Giants have confirmed they are looking for an alternative venue to take on the reigning Super League champions. Where that stadium could be remains to be seen, but with The Shay, Odsal and Headingley relatively close by in West Yorkshire, they could be seen as options.

Alternatively, Huddersfield could look further afield and host the contest in a stadium that isn’t necessarily a regular port of call on the rugby league circuit. It means that Huddersfield will play five successive rounds away from the John Smith’s Stadium in summer, with the Giants due to spend the following month on the road as their pitch is re-seeded.

Speaking on the club’s fixtures, CEO Richard Thewlis told the Huddersfield Giants website: “We have, as requested, a more balanced fixture list this year for which we thank the relevant authorities.

“Given that every game is televised again and the strategy is to have far fewer clashes of kick off times every club will have their fair share of Thursday, Friday, Saturdays and Sundays with varying KO times.

“Given our stadium re-seeding issues and those teams who share facilities like we do alongside more and more clubs entering the concert market, the fixtures are now incredibly difficult to put together and our trade-off if you like for the fixtures being more balanced is that we will be looking to move the Wigan home game in June away from the John Smith’s to an alternative venue as we have in the past when we had the huge pitch renovation project. We will firm up detail for that in the New Year.

“Our first competitive game will be an away tie in the Betfred Challenge Cup with the draw being in January and then we hit the opening round of Betfred Super league versus the Wolves on a Sunday afternoon which for many remains a traditional rugby league day.”