Huddersfield Giants’ decision to downsize a ‘bad look’ for Super League as Jon Wilkin points to bigger issue

Jon Wilkin has suggested that Huddersfield Giants’ failure to engage with fans is their biggest issue and that the decision to downsize their stadium is instead a ‘bad look’ for Super League.

The Giants currently play at the Accu Stadium, which has a capacity of over 20,000, yet the Giants are averaging crowds of around 4,000 with their fan base diminishing in recent years.

Owner Ken Davy has led a campaign to move the Giants into a new stadium with Davy hoping to build a smaller ground in Huddersfield, though it’s expected that the club will play at Dewsbury’s ground for 2027 with an announcement imminent on that.

That announcement, sold as the biggest in the club’s history, will be made at Saturday’s game against Catalans, to which entry is free but Jon Wilkin isn’t buying the suggestion that downsizing is the solution. Instead, he’s pointed to the club’s inability to engage and even sustain, never mind grow, their fan base.

Speaking on Sky Sports’ coverage of Leigh Leopards versus Wigan Warriors, Wilkin pointed to the Giants’ 2013 League Leaders Shield win, a season when they averaged almost 7,000 in attendance.

“They currently have 3,500-4,000 fans. They’ve halved their fan base,” he stated.

“As a business, if you said to me that in 30 years, you’ve got to add 50 home fans to each of our attendances. 50 fans a year. You could do it, couldn’t you? 100 fans a year, you’d be ambitious enough to go out and find those fans in Huddersfield.

“They haven’t done that and not only that, I was in Huddersfield, and you’re walking around, there’s Leeds shirts. It’s only 14 miles from Wakefield, 12 miles from Leeds. That’s its big challenge, because there are eminently more supportable clubs who play in packed stadiums just down the road.”

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Huddersfield Giants hit out at for lacking ambition

Whilst Wilkin admitted understanding to the desire to move to a smaller ground given that the intention is that it will be full, he explained that it was a flawed decision and that the focus should instead be on adding fans as opposed to downsizing.

He said: “I like that they’re moving to a smaller stadium because they can fill it but what does it say about the ambition?

“Instead of really driving things and filling a stadium that we’ve got, they’re going to double down and get smaller stadiums. Is that what all the clubs are going to say?

“St Helens doesn’t sell out. Do they want a smaller stadium? I just think it’s a bad look for the competition.”

Doubling down, he said: “To go, ‘do you know what our issue is? The size of our venue’, and I think it’s probably not. It’s your inability to engage with fans. It’s been shoddy recruitment. It’s been a mismanagement of the financial situation of the club.

“Ken Davy has tipped in, personally, millions. Millions and millions of pounds, and what for?”

Davy has walked away from the day-to-day runnings of the club as chairman though he remains heavily engaged with the wealthy benefactor having supported the Giants since 1996.