Bid for the Shay Stadium accepted

Huddersfield Giants owner Ken Davy's proposed purchase of Halifax Panthers and FC Halifax Town's The Shay home has been approved by Calderdale Council.

Davy expressed an interest in the ground in order to move the Giants there temporarily from 2026 while a new stadium is built in Huddersfield.

He previously said the stadium, which is an asset of community value, would see "major investment" in order to bring the ground up to Super League standard.

A hybrid pitch is scheduled to go into construction in summer 2025 with Davy providing interest-free loans in order to facilitate its installation.

In a statement, FC Halifax Town said there were "a raft of questions that will require detailed answers in conjunction with the two parties involved in the sale and those tenants within the stadium".

The club added: "This will also require the agreement of third party associations of which all of these discussions are in progress."

The council put the ground up for sale a year ago as part of savings plans, but Halifax Town supporters had previously asked them not to sell the stadium.

The football club's fans also proposed that an independent, not-for-profit trust took over ownership of the stadium instead, prior to Davy's purchase being approved.

Huddersfield Giants' average home attendance for the 2024 Super League season at their current 24,121-capacity John Smith's Stadium home - which they have shared with football club Huddersfield Town since it opened in 1994 - was just over 4,600.