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One Million Spectators

The one millionth rugby league spectator will today pass through the turnstiles at The Halliwell Jones Stadium.  Today’s match is the 118^th rugby league match day to be held at The Halliwell Jones Stadium.  The total is made up of 82 Super League matches, 7 Challenge Cup and Play-off matches, 11 friendlies, 6 RFL Finals and Cup semi-finals, 3 Internationals, 3 RFL Academy and 6 Warrington Academy matches.  Giving an overall average attendance of 7,500, this rises to just over 10,000 for Super League matches.

The first match at The Halliwell Jones Stadium was six years ago on 21^st February 2004, when 14,206 spectators crammed into the ground for the visit of Wakefield Trinity Wildcats.  Warrington won 34 – 20, with Nat Wood scoring the first try.  Paul Wood (2), Dean Gaskell and Lee Briers also scored tries and Briers kicked 7 goals.  Lee Briers, Paul Wood, Jon Clarke and Ben Westwood are the only Warrington players from that team still with the club, on the Wakefield side that day was David Solomana, who is likely to make his Warrington debut today.  After the match the Safety Committee met and made the club carry out some safety improvements and reduce the capacity to 13,024, which it remains today. (Top pictue crowd at 1st game v Wakefield))

There have been 45 attendances over 10,000 at The Halliwell Jones Stadium, of which 10 have been capacity crowds.  39 matches have been in Super League, of which the first was the highest.  The 2005 play-off match with Hull drew a crowd of 12,243.  Two of the three Championship Finals days have had crowds over 10,000.  A capacity 13,024 crowd at the 2006 National League Finals day saw Hull Kingston Rovers beat Widnes to gain promotion to Super League.  All three Challenge Cup ties have had crowds of over 10,000, the highest being 11,761 for the 2004 St Helens v Huddersfield Giants tie. (Middle  picture crowd for 2004 semi final)

Super League X, the 2005 season was the most popular with 12 of Warrington Wolves’ 14 home Super League matches topping 10,000.  The average was a tremendous 11,003 for the season.  There was just the one full house, for Andrew Johns’ debut against Leeds Rhinos.  The two games below 10,000 were 9,014 against Huddersfield Giants and 9,619 for the second visit of Salford that season.

There was talk after the 2005 season of extending the capacity of the stadium.  The club looked at filling-in the corners, extending the south stand further back and adding a fourth floor to the North Stand to increase hospitality capacity.  However, the lack of consistency on the field, the recession and the cost of these developments has put thoughts of extensions on hold … for now.

All the matches featuring St Helens at The Halliwell Jones Stadium have been over 10,000.  As well as both Challenge Cup semi-finals against Huddersfield Giants all 10 Super League matches have been witnessed by crowds of over 10,000.  In fact the lowest was 11,328 for Saints first ever visit in 2004 and there have been 5 full houses.  St Helens and their fans obviously love the stadium as they have won on all 12 visits and so do the Sky cameras that have shown all but two of the matches.

Last season there were 3 matches with crowds over 10,000, the usual games against St Helens and Wigan and the final match against Harlequins.  This was of course part of the club’s post Wembley celebrations with the players parading the Challenge Cup to their supporters.

Which have been your favourite matches, the first match against Wakefield, Andrew Johns' debut against Leeds, any of the defeats of Wigan including Catalans win in the Challenge Cup.  Visit wire2wolves.com to record your memories of watching matches at The Halliwell Jones Stadium. (Bottom picture Wolfie & Friends)

As well as the rugby league, 21 soccer matches have been played at the stadium, 4 in the European Women’s Championship of 2005 and 17 of Liverpool FC reserve team’s home matches.   UEFA presented the club with an award for the best stadium of the 2005 tournament.   Liverpool played their reserve team matches at The Halliwell Jones Stadium for two seasons, winning the competition in the first.  The attendances were the highest in the league and included a remarkable 10,456 for the fixture against Manchester United.

So who will be the one millionth rugby league spectator through the turnstiles at The Halliwell Jones Stadium and who if anyone, has attended all 118 rugby league matches (this writer for one).   

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email: Wire2Wolves@warringtonwolves.com