HUDDERSFIELD GIANTS executive chairman Ralph Rimmer is determined to ensure their new home ground at Dewsbury delivers a “fantastic experience for everyone who visits”.
The first phase of a £10 million-plus redevelopment of the FLAIR Stadium, which Huddersfield have acquired and will share with Championship team Dewsbury Rams, is ongoing ahead of the 2027 season.
The stadium has now been renamed the Autex Acoustics Arena after an acoustic manufacturer and supplier that has been a club sponsor for several years.
Huddersfield have confirmed local firm Majestic Construction are supporting the project by overseeing the relationship between the club and principal contractor Marshall Construction, whose headquarters are in Elland, helping to co-ordinate the partnership and ensure the venue meets Super League requirements.
“The current site is stripped bare of everything it had internally,” Rimmer told the League Express Podcast.
“By February 2, around when we think we will start playing Super League, we’ll have broadened and lengthened the pitch and completely refurbished the main stand. That includes the seating outside as well as everything internally.
“We will have spruced up everything that can be seen visually. We’ve put new media gantries in what is currently the Mike Stephenson MBE Stand, and a turret on top, and we’ve also put in new floodlights, which was required.”
The second phase will mean the stadium’s capacity will be increased from around 5,000 to approximately 8,000 with the building of a new stand at the currently unused end of the venue.
“The club has yet to apply for planning permission, and instead we are focusing efforts towards the improvements that can be made for the February deadline,” explained Rimmer.
“The build will take place next year, because everything else we can get to the right place for that February 2 deadline.
“The planning permission for the new stand won’t happen before February 2, but we have a dispensation from the RFL for the next twelve months on that.”
The move out of Huddersfield after a 34-year stint at the Accu Stadium has caused concern in some quarters.
While Rimmer underlined the long-term goal of a return to the town, he still wants the club to put their all into the Dewsbury move.
He added: “Ken Davy (owner and former chairman) has always been resolute that the club needs to come back to Huddersfield. That’s absolutely where he’s been on it.
“My position to Ken is that that’s all well and good, and I can absolutely see that and it’s a part of our future ambition.
“But nobody knows when a piece of land will become available in Huddersfield, and while we have people coming to see us in Dewsbury, we have to make that experience is as exceptional as it can possibly be because we want to be a proper Super League club.
“It needs to look permanent, and it needs to be of high quality.
“I am, and I know Ken is, speaking to councillors still about the possibility of land in Huddersfield becoming available, but my focus is on making this club, this stadium and this site a fantastic experience for everyone who visits it.”
