KEN Davy revealed Huddersfield Giants so-far fruitless search for a new home has already cost the club six figures as a potential switch to Halifax looms.
Giants owner and chairman Davy has repeatedly stated his aim to secure a new, smaller ground in for the Betfred Super League club away from the cavernous John Smith’s Stadium, with the 84-year-old businessman given the go-ahead to acquire The Shay Stadium from Calderdale Council in March.
The home of Halifax Panthers and Halifax Town football club would serve as a temporary venue for Huddersfield while they build a new ground in their hometown, but those efforts have been frustrated despite the costs so far incurred and Davy admitted the Giants may not be playing at The Shay next year either.
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“The fact is, we don’t know,” Davy told Sky Sports’ The Bench podcast. “Our objective, beyond a shadow of a doubt, is to build a new, smaller stadium for the Giants in Huddersfield.
“We can actually stay here for the next hundred or so years, we’re not being forced out. But the reality is, if we want to get the atmosphere I want to get and our fans want to share in, we need a smaller stadium.
“We need that in Huddersfield, we’ve had four sites we’ve tried to get planning permission four and we’ve failed on all four occasions.
“We’ve spent into six figures on the analysis, the surveys, the applications and all of that, and it’s just been money down the drain.”
The Giants are once again focusing their attention on the site of the former St Andrew’s Road gasworks, which is barely a well-placed drop kick away from the John Smith’s Stadium, despite a proposal for a new ground there being rejected previously.
Kirkless Council have designs on creating an investment zone on that site, although Davy believes a new stadium for the town’s rugby league club would sit perfectly within that.
“Kirklees are reluctant for us to have a stadium there because they’re looking to have an investment zone and higher salaries,” Davy said.
“Frankly, I believe we could exist really well with the investment zone, I think we could support it because we’d have the sporting facilities people need.
“We’d also be very close to the University of Huddersfield…so there are so many pluses.
“It was turned down over two years ago, but we’re having another go.”
The other big issue Davy has been so far unable to solve since he became Huddersfield chairman in 1996 is how to significantly boost the numbers of spectators coming through the gates.
The Giants’ struggles so in 2025, which see them sitting 11th in Super League at present, have seen them averaging crowds of 4,289 in their seven league games so far.
By contrast, Huddersfield Town’s average home attendance in the 2024/25 Sky Bet League One season was 18,817, despite finishing mid-table in the third tier of English football.
“I wish I knew the answer to that, I really do,” Davy, who had a spell as the football club’s chairman as well, said. “I’d guess one quick answer would be it is more of a football town – and I wish the football club every success.
“But while we’re in this wonderful stadium, with our fans we’re rattling in a 24,000-seater stadium and that makes it very difficult to get the atmosphere you want.
“Even when you go back to the heady days of the League Leaders’ Shield, we were at 6-7,000 – we weren’t breaking the 10,000 which was the goal.
“This has been the most difficult problem to solve that I’ve ever had.”