HUDDERSFIELD GIANTS owner and chairman Ken Davy believes buying The Shay in Halifax would be of significant benefit for three clubs.
But he has firmly knocked back claims the neighbouring towns’ Rugby League teams could merge, telling League Express such a move would be “nonsensical”.
The 83-year-old businessman says the Super League Giants’ long-term future should be away from their current home the John Smith’s Stadium, which with its 24,000 capacity, he reckons is too large for a club whose average attendance last season was around 4,500.
Financial services stalwart Davy, recently awarded an OBE for services to community Rugby League, wants to build a new multi-use stadium, holding around 8,000 with the potential for expansion, elsewhere in Huddersfield.
He says such a move is key to his plan to “reinvigorate” the club, where he first became involved in 1996.
Talks with Kirklees Council are ongoing, but a definitive site is yet to be confirmed and such a project inevitably takes time.
And in the interim, he is considering buying The Shay, eight miles away and which current owners Calderdale Council want to offload, and from 2026 installing the Giants at the 10,400-capacity venue alongside current tenants, Championship Rugby League club Halifax Panthers and National League (fifth tier) football club FC Halifax Town.
Davy’s blueprint is to invest in the ground, which dates back to 1921 and was redeveloped during the 1990s and where the Giants played three times in 2011 during pitch renovation work at the existing Huddersfield stadium, in order to bring it up to Super League standard and make it a community asset.
The work would include the replacement of a current pitch prone to waterlogging with a hybrid version robust enough to support use by three teams as well as for community events.
When the Giants have their own stadium back in Huddersfield, Davy says The Shay would be made available for purchase, including to the Panthers and FC Halifax, either individually or collectively.
His proposal will go before a Calderdale Council cabinet meeting in March alongside another from a group of Halifax-based individuals who want to develop the venue for use by the community as well as the two tenant clubs.
The Shay has been registered as an Asset of Community Value, which gives community-interest parties the chance to express an interest in purchase.
Huddersfield Town Football Club, who have played alongside the Giants at the John Smith’s Stadium since it opened in 1994, are in the process of acquiring control of the operation of that venue.
Davy said: “If, and presently it is a big if, we do acquire The Shay, it would be as an interim home for the Giants until our hoped-for new stadium in Huddersfield can be built.
“Our relationship with Huddersfield Town remains very good and we are able to stay at the John Smith’s Stadium, but we think a temporary relocation to The Shay, if it is possible, would be in our best interests.
“In addition, the root-and-branch improvement work which would take place at that stadium would benefit not only the local community but both clubs, supporting FC Halifax’s attempts to win promotion to the Football League and furthering Halifax Panthers’ hopes of at some stage gaining Super League status.”
Davy says the Giants would provide transport options from Huddersfield to The Shay and back for their supporters.
Halifax Panthers’ recent financial issues have fuelled the theory that a switch to The Shay by the Giants could be the precursor to a merger.
But Davy responded: “It’s a nonsensical suggestion and it’s never been on the table.”
