In the longer term, club owner Ken Davy wants to build a new 8,000 capacity stadium in Huddersfield
The Huddersfield Giants will be staying at the Accu Stadium for the 2026 season, with this plan unchanged with the signing of a landmark deal.
Today (September 25) marks a historic moment as Huddersfield Town, Kirklees Council and the Huddersfield Giants have reached an agreement for the future of the stadium. With this, Huddersfield Town has taken full operational control of the venue and surrounding 53-acre site, as a 300-year leasehold agreement is signed. Kirklees Council has kept the freehold.
The football club has now become the sole, 100 per cent shareholder in the stadium which was jointly managed and owned through Kirklees Stadium Development Limited (KSDL). Shares in KSDL had been held by Huddersfield Town (40 per cent), Kirklees Council (40 per cent) and the Huddersfield Giants (20 per cent).
Speaking at the Giants’ Awards Evening on September 15, club owner, Ken Davy announced the club will continue to call the Accu home for the 2026 Betfred Super League season. This was confirmed once more in a statement published today.
In the longer-term, Mr Davy wants to build a new 8,000-capacity stadium for the club in Huddersfield, looking to purchase The Shay in Halifax to be the Giants’ temporary home in the meantime. It was hoped that the purchase would be complete in time for 2026 but this is no longer a possibility.
Speaking at last week’s event, Mr Davy said: “The upcoming 2026 season will be our last season at the Accu and in 2027 we will have a new home base for which there could be a number of options at this stage. The purchase of the Shay has not been completed and while I remain confident that it will be – the timeframe to get that stadium up to Super League standard for next season is quite simply impossible. Therefore we will remain at the ACCU stadium.
“We will of course have the usual period of absence for re-seeding and hopefully a concert, so subject to the way the fixture list falls we will play at least one game on the road as we did so successfully this season.”
Mr Davy’s preferred location for the Giants’ new stadium in Huddersfield is the vacant gasworks site which is situated off St Andrew’s Road. It was recently confirmed that the plot of land is owned by KSDL but with a deal secured, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) understands that Kirklees Council will take possession and freehold ownership.
Despite backing from thousands of fans as demonstrated in a petition, the council has made it clear that it has another use in mind for the gasworks site. It has been earmarked for economic development as part of the local authority’s Station to Stadium Enterprise Corridor, rather than for sports or leisure, and also makes up part of the West Yorkshire Healthtech and Digital Tech Investment Zone.
However, if the petition’s 4,000 plus signatures are verified, the full council will have to debate the matter.
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