London Welsh To Play At Oxford United's Kassam Stadium

It has been announced that London Welsh will play the 'home' leg of the play-off final, against the Cornish Pirates, at the Kassam Stadium. The stadium is the home of footballs League 2, Oxford United. United fans refer to it as The KasStad. The home leg will be played on the 30th May, with the goal of playing in the Aviva Premiership, as the prize. London Welsh have already passed the minimum requirements to allow them to gain promotion, should they win the play-off. The first leg will be played on the 23rd May with both kick offs at 7.45. Both games will be shown live on Sky Sports. London Welsh will lay on special travel arrangements for their own supporters for this final game of the 2012/12 season. If London Welsh do get promotion, it is looking increasingly likely that the Kassam Stadium could become their new home. This is likely to upset many of their existing fans but, on the flip side it will open themselves to a whole new set of supporters. Currently the nearest two clubs to Oxfordshire are London Irish and London Wasps. The Kassam Stadium holds in excess of 12,000 supporters and has potential to expand, as it currently only has 3 stands. Rugby has already been played at the Kassam before, as it hosted the Amlin Challenge cup finals back in 2002 and 2005. Firoz Kassam, who owns the stadium, has tried unsuccessfully, to lure London Wasps to have their base at the Kassam and would love to increase his revenue by having Welsh in Oxford.