National League Record Crowd for Widnes Vikings

21st June 2008

The Widnes Vikings broke a string of records this week when they beat League leaders and Northern Rail Cup Finalists Salford City Reds at the Stobart Stadium on Thursday.

In front of the Sky TV cameras, the record National League crowd reached a new high of 8,129 beating the 8,078 at The Jungle when Castleford played Hull KR in 2005.

The evening got underway at 6.15pm with a year-7 curtain-raiser between Wade Deacon and Sts Peter Paul girls. At 7:00 pm in what was probably the largest choir ever to perform at a Rugby League Match over 2,000 children formed part of the Vikings' choir based in the West Stand.

Prior to the game there were performances by the Stobart Dancers whilst at half-time the Liverpool Stagecoach Theatre School took centre stage.

The crowd were then thrilled by the the World’s Fastest Pizza delivery as the Red Devils Parachute Display team literally dropped-in with a Domino's Pizza for one fan and a £1000 cheque for the first monthly winner of the Vikings' Dream Ticket lottery.



A thrilling game in front of 8,189 spectators ended in a nail-biting 20-18 win for Vikings but for club Chairman Steve O'Connor the victory was just the icing on the cake on a spectacular evening's entertainment at Stobart Stadium Halton.

Steve said: "Of course we are delighted to take the points and it was important for the team to get back on track after some disappointing results in recent weeks. However, tonight was really about demonstrating to the RFL that Widnes Vikings can attract the sort of crowds demanded by Super League and that we can put on match-day experiences that are equal if not better than many Super League clubs."

Widnes Vikings sponsor, Domino's Pizza franchisee Peter Thompson, who arranged and sponsored the parachute jump said "We were delighted with the event, the Red Devils did a magnificent job, the record crowd was thrilled, and most importantly we showed the RFL that Widnes is every inch a Super League club both on and off the pitch."