Harlequins have pushed back making a decision on whether to move their Big Game 14 against Bristol Bears from Twickenham Stadium to the club's regular home across the road The Stoop to see how talks develop between the RMT and rail bosses.
Planned rail strikes are expected to significantly impact the services to and from Twickenham Station on December 27, the day of the game, and could force the club to scale back their plans according to speculation online.
An alleged email posted into a Harlequins fan forum suggests the game is set to be moved, with the club's home game against Exeter Chiefs becoming the new Big Game event on March 4. The problem is more than 70,000 tickets for the showpiece event in December have already been sold with The Stoop only able to seat 14,816 fans.
The official updated statement released by Harlequins on Thursday afternoon, at 3pm, reads:
"Harlequins remain extremely grateful for our supporters' patience as we seek to ensure we can guarantee the safety of all our supporters during the delivery of our Big Game 14 event, linked to the current RMT industrial action. The Club remains in constant communication with key partners regarding the delivery of this event on 27th December.
"As our understanding is that dialogue remains active between the principal rail stakeholders, the club will delay our planned update to supporters to Friday 16th December.
"We’d like to thank everyone for their ongoing support, as we continue to understand the frequently changing landscape related to these strikes and their impact."
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