{"id":525604,"date":"2026-04-11T18:37:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T18:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/525604\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T18:37:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T18:37:14","slug":"widnes-vikings-home-venue-in-doubt-with-council-to-assess-whether-ground-is-fit-for-purpose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/525604\/","title":{"rendered":"Widnes Vikings home venue in doubt with council to assess whether ground is “fit for purpose”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Widnes\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

The future of the DCBL Stadium is currently in doubt, leaving Championship side Widnes Vikings sweating over the future of their home ground.<\/p>\n

The Vikings, who are currently seventh in the second tier,\u00a0have played out of the stadium since 1895, making it one of the longest-serving sports grounds in the country.<\/p>\n

In 1997, a renovation of the ground was undertaken and the stadium became what we know it to be today. Two years later, the club went through a period of financial difficulty and sold their remaining shares to the council.<\/p>\n

Since then the local body has held ownership of the ground, however they now face a key decision regarding it\u2019s future use.<\/p>\n

The 13,200-capacity ground is currently being assessed to see whether it could be put to better use going forward, in a move that puts the future of the Championship club in doubt.<\/p>\n

Documents released by the Halton Council have said that: \u201cThe council\u2019s financial position requires the council to review its land and property assets, and the stadium is no exception.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the right time to consider whether the current role of the stadium is fit for purpose and there is a need to set out a long-term vision for the stadium.\u201d<\/p>\n

One possibility for the venue is the disposal of it, and doing so would bring money into the local body, who recently needed to bring in a \u00a335 million loan in order to balance the books, per a local news outlet<\/a><\/p>\n

Another option could be that a third-party firm come in and run the stadium or a three-way company is set-up between the council, the Vikings and Widnes Town FC which would then have ownership of the venue.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The future of the DCBL Stadium is currently in doubt, leaving Championship side Widnes Vikings sweating over the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-525604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}