Premier League ground ‘considered’ for Rugby League Ashes

Ahead of the rugby league Ashes in 2025, one Premier League ground is being reported as a possible venue to host a game.

Initially pencilled into the schedule as a three-match series that would be held Down Under with England being the travelling nation, recent reports have indicated that England will instead host.

That led to plenty of questions about which venues would be best suited with the eternal debate of whether to host games in the rugby league heartlands, or whether to look further afield.

This Ashes series was initially planned for 2020 but had to be cancelled due to COVID, however, those three games were scheduled for the Tottenham Hotspur Ground, Elland Road and the University of Bolton Stadium.

This time around, a London game is looking likely with one game on either side of the Pennines, however, recent reports have suggested that one of those games will not be played in true rugby league heartlands.

Could Rugby League Ashes head to a Premier League ground?

That’s because Everton’s new stadium is ‘under serious consideration’ to host a game per The Daily Mail.

That report echoes the fact that a game could be slated for London with the other two on either side of the great dividing wall in rugby league that are the Pennines.

The game to the West of those could be held at Everton’s new stadium at Bramley-Moore Dock with the Daily Mail reporting that ‘league bosses are looking into the possibility’.

It would highlight true ambition given that the stadium, which is expected to be finished by the end of the current calendar year, will have a capacity of 52,888.

That is over double that of any current Super League ground but with the Ashes not contested since 2003 and Australia not even playing England on English soil since the Four Nations tournament in 2016, there will certainly be an appetite to watch games.

Rugby League has previously ventured into Liverpool with Magic Weekend being held at Anfield in 2019 where 56,869 fans turned up over the two days.

Recently, England head coach Shaun Wane joked that all three games could be held at Wigan.

He had previously stated that leading a team into an Ashes series would be the ‘pinnacle of my career’.