3:40pm Wednesday 27th August 2008
By Sarah Butler
Harlequins are delighted to announce that they will be playing their Guinness Premiership Round 10 game, versus Leicester Tigers, at Twickenham Stadium on Saturday 27th December, ko 4pm.The game will be televised live on Sky Sports and the programme will be broadcast direct from the stadium.
The capacity for the day has been set at 50,000 by the local authority, as there is a reduced train service to Twickenham on the day, but there will be shuttle buses running from Richmond. In order to help ensure a capacity crowd, over 70% of the available seats in the stadium will be priced at £10 or less. This surely represents the best money for a high quality, live sport offering in London over the Christmas period. Large groups, made up of family and friends, will be able to attend a highly competitive game in a tremendous stadium, without having to break the bank.
Coincidentally, only three weeks before “The Big Game”, Harlequins will be playing at the Stade de France in front of 80,000 people in the Heineken Cup. Two such big occasions within a month is a source of real excitement for the Harlequins Director of rugby, Dean Richards. “I can think of no better preparation for some of our young players who are beginning to press for international honours. For them to play in front of two such huge crowds within a couple of weeks is excellent preparation for the even bigger stage that many of them aspire to. I briefed the squad this morning on the arrangements for the Leicester game, and immediately there was a feeling of great anticipation.”
The experience of Stade Francais in Paris over recent years has served as a partial model. However, for a club like Harlequins, whose average crowds at the beginning of this decade stood at less than 3.000, this project is extremely ambitious, but also very exciting. To help ensure “The Big Game” is successful, a number of high profile partners have been lined up. RFU, Sky Sports, Associated Newspapers, Guinness, Kooga and Etihad Airways (the main sponsor at Harlequins) have all pledged significant support. The charity partner will be Cancer Research UK (registered charity no. 1089464) who will benefit significantly from an innovative approach to merchandising on the day. The sports marketing specialists Goodform have been commissioned to co ordinate the project.
Current Harlequin season ticket holders (approx 6300 in total) and partner rugby clubs, with whom Harlequins work on a regular basis (numbering over eighty in the London and the South East region), will have a period of exclusivity during which they can order tickets for themselves and their family/friends. On September 15th tickets will go on general sale via Ticketmaster and all information will be posted on thebiggame.co.uk, which will go live this week.
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