Where Goole Vikings will play in 2025 as former Hull FC duo prepare for new roles
Goole Vikings will compete in League One for the 2025 season and beyond. They will be coached by Hull FC legend Scott Taylor, with another legend, Jamie Shaul, coming out of retirement to play for rugby league's newest professional club.
The club, 30 or so miles to the west of Hull, will play out of the town's Victoria Pleasure Ground, which is at the centre of a multi-million pound regeneration project. The facility will undergo redevelopment next year, as first reported by Hull Live in 2023, with around £7 million worth of work to be done.
That will see rugby league continue in a town that entered the Challenge Cup competition as far back as 1936-37 season. The sport, meanwhile, has been played around the area since the 19th century.
The Victoria Pleasure Ground is also shared with Northern Counties East League Premier Division Goole AFC, who are in the ninth tier of English football. The Vikings, meanwhile, have been playing on the facility as an amateur outfit, which opened in 1888.
The proposed upgrade of the ground will include a new pavilion, 3G pitch, and athletics track. The existing stand and other structures would be knocked down. A new pavilion would be built in their place, featuring a café, bar, changing rooms, toilets, and a seated stand on the ground floor.
Funding has been secured from the Football Foundation and backing from the Premier League. The East Riding Council owns the facility and leases it to Goole Town Council, who will retain the floodlights, which were installed in 2021, with the redevelopment hoped to be completed by July 2025.
There are also plans to redevelop Goole on the whole, including the town's vacant Market Hall, leisure centre, town centre, train station, and given its proximity to the Rive Ouse, flood defences.
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