Huddersfield Giants

[Griff]

20 hours ago, Agbrigg said:

What about the Huddersfield Sheffield merger, that was lucrative and beneficial as far as Huddersfield were concerned

In what way ?

They ended up with a squad of about fifty and used the RFL money to pay off half the contracts.

Sure - they strengthened their squad but in financial terms I doubt if they did as well as break even.

[Eddie]

3 hours ago, Blind side johnny said:

Well, I did say RL, and you clearly don't know the current situation at ICT - pretty well a basket case.

Fair enough, though I’d argue they have been successful considering it was highland league clubs and they made the top flight for a number of years. 

[Morris Wanchuk]

11 hours ago, daz39 said:

The profile in Huddersfield is already pretty non-existant, as i've said no-one knows who will go and who won't, it's a gamble but one the club feel they need to take.

Best post I’ve read so far. 

[gingerjon]

16 hours ago, Eddie said:

Fair enough, though I’d argue they have been successful considering it was highland league clubs and they made the top flight for a number of years. 

The basketcaseness doesn't really have anything to do with the merger that happened 30 years ago. It's just standard soccer madness.

And the unmerged Dumbarton, in the same division, are in a worse spot.

[The Blues Ox]

A few more details coming out now with Davy saying that he will pay for the initial improvements if he buys the stadium but it will mean a rent increase for the 2 clubs and then when the Giants move out the clubs will be offered the chance to buy the stadium back but the price will have to reflect the improvements that have been made.

Im really not sure what is in it for Fax or Town, neither club can afford this. Its hard to see this going ahead.

[M j M]

26 minutes ago, The Blues Ox said:

A few more details coming out now with Davy saying that he will pay for the initial improvements if he buys the stadium but it will mean a rent increase for the 2 clubs and then when the Giants move out the clubs will be offered the chance to buy the stadium back but the price will have to reflect the improvements that have been made.

Im really not sure what is in it for Fax or Town, neither club can afford this. Its hard to see this going ahead.

That makes it a pretty hard and unpleasant pill to swallow for the Halifax clubs.

The whole thing continues to make zero sense to me and I really hope it doesn't happen.

[Martyn Sadler]

9 minutes ago, M j M said:

That makes it a pretty hard and unpleasant pill to swallow for the Halifax clubs.

The whole thing continues to make zero sense to me and I really hope it doesn't happen.

The RFL should slap it down and the Giants should be told to spend the money they would spend on The Shay on marketing their club to the people of Huddersfield and the surrounding district.

The club's marketing and promotional effort appears to be largely non-existent.

[Dave T]

1 hour ago, The Blues Ox said:

A few more details coming out now with Davy saying that he will pay for the initial improvements if he buys the stadium but it will mean a rent increase for the 2 clubs and then when the Giants move out the clubs will be offered the chance to buy the stadium back but the price will have to reflect the improvements that have been made.

Im really not sure what is in it for Fax or Town, neither club can afford this. Its hard to see this going ahead.

So really, the Halifax clubs will ultimately pay for the improvements and the 'benefit' of a cuckoo in their nest?

[dboy]

1 hour ago, Martyn Sadler said:

The RFL should slap it down and the Giants should be told to spend the money they would spend on The Shay on marketing their club to the people of Huddersfield and the surrounding district.

The club's marketing and promotional effort appears to be largely non-existent.

Cheapest seats in SL and an annoying bloke with a cowbell.

What more do you want?!

[SUPERSTUD]

2 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

A few more details coming out now with Davy saying that he will pay for the initial improvements if he buys the stadium but it will mean a rent increase for the 2 clubs and then when the Giants move out the clubs will be offered the chance to buy the stadium back but the price will have to reflect the improvements that have been made.

Im really not sure what is in it for Fax or Town, neither club can afford this. Its hard to see this going ahead.

Kenneth is a business man. Nothing else to be said. 

[The Blues Ox]

1 hour ago, Dave T said:

So really, the Halifax clubs will ultimately pay for the improvements and the 'benefit' of a cuckoo in their nest?

It certainly looks that way unless some more details emerge. I can only hope there is more to this as we know the council want to offload the stadium so they will be easily persuaded but both clubs also seem to be in favor of this which is obviously a worry given how much rent arrears Fax have already run up. 

[gazza77]

3 hours ago, Dave T said:

So really, the Halifax clubs will ultimately pay for the improvements and the 'benefit' of a cuckoo in their nest?

That feels to be the logic. The reality however is that Fax have fallen behind with their rent in the recent past and I don't get the impression that HTFC have much money either. Davy may be lucky to get them both to reliably pay rent at current levels, nevermind inflating it and then selling them the stadium further down the line.

[daz39]

3 hours ago, Martyn Sadler said:

The RFL should slap it down and the Giants should be told to spend the money they would spend on The Shay on marketing their club to the people of Huddersfield and the surrounding district.

The club's marketing and promotional effort appears to be largely non-existent.

Marketing staff don't work for free Martyn, they cost money to pay them and we don't have money to do this hence we have to make do.

Also, the Giants aren't paying anything on the Shay, Mr Davy is.

He may own the Giants but that doesn't mean any money spent by him is Giants money, it isn't, he's a rich, successful businessman who has taken on another business opportunity.

 

[M j M]

Do the RFL have rules on clubs moving towns?

[The Masked Poster]

12 hours ago, daz39 said:

Marketing staff don't work for free Martyn, they cost money to pay them and we don't have money to do this hence we have to make do.

Also, the Giants aren't paying anything on the Shay, Mr Davy is.

He may own the Giants but that doesn't mean any money spent by him is Giants money, it isn't, he's a rich, successful businessman who has taken on another business opportunity.

 

If it's merely a business opportunity, why doesn't he just do it regardless of whether Huddersfield are involved? ie buy the stadium, renovate it and charge the clubs appropriately. 
Also, I can't believe Huddersfield have nobody working in their marketing department, there must be someone?

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

12 hours ago, M j M said:

Do the RFL have rules on clubs moving towns?

Yes- basically the move has to be approved.

[daz39]

1 hour ago, The Masked Poster said:

If it's merely a business opportunity, why doesn't he just do it regardless of whether Huddersfield are involved? ie buy the stadium, renovate it and charge the clubs appropriately. 
Also, I can't believe Huddersfield have nobody working in their marketing department, there must be someone?

I would imagine it's a business opportunity that benefits the rugby club, it's not the rugby club doing the deal and yes we have people working in marketing, but they also do other jobs around the place too as we realise we cannot afford many staff like other clubs, as small as it is our backroom team work extremeley hard on limited resources.

[The Blues Ox]

1 hour ago, The Masked Poster said:

If it's merely a business opportunity, why doesn't he just do it regardless of whether Huddersfield are involved? ie buy the stadium, renovate it and charge the clubs appropriately. 

This misses the fact that Fax can't afford to pay the amount of rent that is currently being charged. 

[The Masked Poster]

3 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

This misses the fact that Fax can't afford to pay the amount of rent that is currently being charged. 

Yes but I wasn't speaking from a "doing the right thing" pov, just purely from a business angle. 

[Les Tonks Sidestep]

14 minutes ago, The Masked Poster said:

Yes but I wasn't speaking from a "doing the right thing" pov, just purely from a business angle. 

Hardly a good business move if you cut off one of the biggest income streams.

3 hours ago, The Blues Ox said:

This misses the fact that Fax can't afford to pay the amount of rent that is currently being charged. 

Maybe 'fax could move to Huddersfield?

[The Masked Poster]

3 hours ago, Les Tonks Sidestep said:

Hardly a good business move if you cut off one of the biggest income streams.

I wasn't suggesting it was a good business plan. Just that if it was purely business then it doesn't necessarily need to involve Huddersfield RL. 

[Tommygilf]

I don't know what the imperative is at Hudds to put this move in before supposedly there is going to be a purpose built facility in Huddersfield itself - which if it was to happen soon you would hope that there would already be things out there in the open like location, planning permission applications etc.

From a business perspective this feels like an opportunity for Huddersfield Giants to own a stadium facility as an asset. 

[whatmichaelsays]

On 17/01/2025 at 18:00, Martyn Sadler said:

The RFL should slap it down and the Giants should be told to spend the money they would spend on The Shay on marketing their club to the people of Huddersfield and the surrounding district.

The club's marketing and promotional effort appears to be largely non-existent.

That is what the club is doing with this project Martyn.

The first, and most important, of the four P's of marketing is "product", and the Giants have a pretty lousy one for as long as they are playing at the John Smiths. A fairly middling team in a soulless bowl of a stadium that is barely ever one-fifth full and some ##### ringing a cow bell in your ear for 80 mins is not a particularly enticing product - the people of Huddersfield have shown that they're not interested in it, even with the bargain-basement prices.

That is the driver behind this project and whilst we can argue about whether an interim move to Halifax is the best way to deliver it, there is no amount of advertising (which I suspect is what you mean when you talk about "more marketing") that will change a fundamentally poor product. 

Edited January 19 by whatmichaelsays

[Martyn Sadler]

1 hour ago, whatmichaelsays said:

That is what the club is doing with this project Martyn.

The first, and most important, of the four P's of marketing is "product", and the Giants have a pretty lousy one for as long as they are playing at the John Smiths. A fairly middling team in a soulless bowl of a stadium that is barely ever one-fifth full and some ##### ringing a cow bell in your ear for 80 mins is not a particularly enticing product - the people of Huddersfield have shown that they're not interested in it, even with the bargain-basement prices.

That is the driver behind this project and whilst we can argue about whether an interim move to Halifax is the best way to deliver it, there is no amount of advertising (which I suspect is what you mean when you talk about "more marketing") that will change a fundamentally poor product. 

If only it were that simple!

Super League and the individual clubs within it all need to completely refresh their brands, with a view to filling stadia, no matter what their capacity.

That won't be achieved by cheap pricing.

Nor will it be achieved by advertising a poor product.

The product has to be carefully re-defined, re-presented and personalised.

Their current stadium offers more potential for doing that than does The Shay.

[Eddie]

7 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

I don't know what the imperative is at Hudds to put this move in before supposedly there is going to be a purpose built facility in Huddersfield itself - which if it was to happen soon you would hope that there would already be things out there in the open like location, planning permission applications etc.

From a business perspective this feels like an opportunity for Huddersfield Giants to own a stadium facility as an asset. 

It will be Kev Davy owning it I think, not the Giants. For the record I also think it’s nuts to leave Huddersfield with no plan to get back, that can kill any club, though I’m sure Davy knows a lot more than me about it.