Super League club face uncertain future due to stadium situation

The likes of Leeds Rhinos, Warrington Wolves, St Helens and others have fantastic stadiums in Super League whilst the likes of Hull FC and Wigan Warriors share fantastic football stadiums.

Huddersfield Giants are another team who share a football stadium but according to the owner of Huddersfield Town it will be likely that the council cease ownership of the stadium.

He said on BBC Radio Leeds:

“I think that we’ve had some very constructive meetings with the council on if we make a transition, what would that look like etc.

“As you may know right now, there are three parties that have an interest in the stadium and the council wants to step back, and we want to be able to step in and really modernize the stadium. We want to update the stadium. We want to make it a better place on the pitch and in the changing rooms.

“But the reality of it is overall, I think that just the surroundings where we’ve got acreage, there’s land potentially to be developed, whether that comes in something related to really our club or also maybe some other form of entertainment. There’s just a lot of opportunities on the table that we would discuss regarding the stadium.”

He also suggested that the Giants want their own stadium:

“Well we work with the Giants. I think the Giants, as you may know, they have their vision for the future as well. I think they would like to have their own stadium.

“We’ll work Ken Davy and others to try to figure out what they may want to do. I’ve had a chance to meet Ken a couple of times. I think he’s a delightful guy and he was once the owner, as you know, of our club. But I think that we can figure out a path where we all can create a win-win-win.

“I don’t have a time frame. Would I like it by the end of the year? I would. I mean, again, it does a lot of planning because we want to update the facilities and as you look around the league you just need to modernize things.

“I really see really our stadiums a community asset. It’s something really for our region, for Huddersfield. And it can really be the epicentre right now because there’s so much activity that goes on here.

“But I really believe, you know, Johnny, that the facilities need to be improved, whether I do it or whether three parties do it.

“The council has indicated that they want to step back. That means there are two parties left. We would have controlling interest. We would have to work out with the Giants what it is that they need, whether they want to be a tenant or whether they want to be an owner long term. That’s something that we would have to negotiate collectively.”