Huddersfield Giants legend sheds light on new stadium plans

After the announcement by Huddersfield Giants owner Ken Davy that he intends to build a new stadium, one club legend has offered more details.

That man is Eorl Crabtree who featured for the Giants a whopping 417 times throughout his career before ascending to an off-field role. He currently serves as a club ambassador for Huddersfield as well as a Commercial Sales Executive.

Following Ken Davy’s revelation at the club’s Awards dinner earlier this week that he intends to fund a purpose-built stadium for the club, Crabtree has now shed light on some of the finer details about the prospective stadium.

Posting on his LinkedIn profile, the 41-year-old stated: “Nobody expected this announcement from our chairman Ken Davy.

“The Huddersfield Giants RLFC are to build their own stadium with an expected capacity of 9000 within the next 3 years.

“This is a statement of intent and brilliant news for Huddersfield and Rugby league in general.

“On a personal level, I can’t wait for the commercial opportunities it will create.”

What has Ken Davy said about Huddersfield Giants’ proposed new stadium?

After the announcement on Monday evening by Ken Davy and the club that Huddersfield Giants intended to build a new stadium, Davy spoke exclusively with Serious About Rugby League about what the ground could look like and his motivations to build a new ground.

“Our objective is to move to a new purpose-built stadium and dedicated home of the Huddersfield Giants in the shortest possible timeframe,” Davy told Serious About Rugby League.

“That’s because as much as the John Smith’s Stadium is a wonderful arena, it is just not viable for the Huddersfield Giants.

“I say that because it has always been too big for the Giants and we are looking to develop a stadium with an initial capacity of 7,500 or 8,000.

“At the moment, the reality is that it’s a challenge to create a genuine atmosphere that reflects the enthusiasm for the Giants among our fiercely loyal fans.”

It had been suggested previously by Sky Sports pundit Jon Wilkin that the Giants should reclaim the Fartown brand and effectively make a new Fartown. Huddersfield had moved into the John Smiths Stadium in 1994 when their previous ground came into a state of disrepair.

Huddersfield Giants fans could even have an insight into what their stadium could look like as Davy told SARL which current Super League grounds he might intend to replicate.

He explained: “There are a number of excellent Super League stadiums and for me, the St Helens ground would be a really good example to follow and Salford’s isn’t bad either.”

More of what Davy said can be read here.