Profile: Meet the stadium boss who is cranking up the volume in Huddersfield

Next year marks 25 years since American rock legends REM descended on Huddersfield and sold out two nights as part of its Monster Tour.

It was the gig that kicked off a decade of high profile concerts, which saw John Smith’s Stadium play host to some of the biggest names in music, including The Eagles, Bon Jovi and Elton John.

Now, after a 12-year hiatus, the stadium is cranking up the volume once more.

Four years ago, Gareth Davies, managing director of Kirklees Stadium Development Ltd (KSDL), decided to bring concerts back to the stadium, organising them as joint ventures with the big promoters.

Having already hosted Little Mix and Take That gigs in the last two years, he is now preparing for one of the stadium’s biggest ever concerts when Green Day, Fall Out Boy and Weezer bring their Hella Mega Tour to the UK in June 2020.

The Huddersfield gig is one of only two dates in England, the other is in London. Tickets sold out in 20 minutes when they went on sale last Friday.

The concerts make the company a “significant” amount of money through ticket prices, retail catering, hospitality packages and car parking, but that’s not the only reason for hosting them. “Its absolutely worth doing commercially,” says Davies. “But genuinely, that’s not my principal reason. The best thing is that it waves the flag for Huddersfield.”

KSDL was created as a joint home for Huddersfield Town Football Club and rugby league club Huddersfield Giants 25 years ago.

Since then there have been six mini phases of new development at the site, including a nine-screen Odeon cinema, a gym, and a number of pubs and restaurants.

Now the company is behind plans for a £100m snow sports and leisure scheme, known as HD One on the site.

Construction of the ambitious development, to include a hotel, restaurants and an artificial snow slope, was due to start last year. However, plans were put on hold due to difficulties with the economy and investors, as well as Huddersfield Town’s promotion to the Premier League.

KSDL spent about £2m on Premier League-related infrastructure in 2017 and the same again the following year. Work included rebuilding its 11-metre TV gantry to 28 metres.

“One of the things that indirectly slowed down our progress was the absolute necessary focus on the Premier League,” says Davies. “The big thing was media connectivity because the Premier League is transmitted to 100 countries.”

When the club was relegated back to the Championship two years later, Davies says there wasn’t any negative impact on the business and they sold 18,000 season tickets, a similar number to the previous year.

Now the focus is once again on ramping up the speed of progress on the HD One development. Detailed planning permission for the hotel was granted earlier this year and Hilton signed a franchise agreement.

The plan is to start work early next year. “We’re building the hotel first but we’ve also picked up very significant momentum again on the rest of the HD One development,” Davies says.

The rest of the scheme will be delivered through a joint venture partnership with developer Marshalls CDP, based in Elland.

The first task is to secure a new lease structure for the site - exchanging one 150-year lease for the whole stadium site for three separate leases: one for the current stadium site; one for the hotel, and the third for the new leisure scheme to kickstart development.

Next, the joint venture will resume legal negotiations with the operators for the proposed leisure site. According to Davies, none of the tenants have pulled out from the scheme despite the uncertain market.

The snow sports centre, to be built by Briton Engineering, is still planned as the centrepiece of the scheme. Davies, a lifelong skiing fanatic, is vague about the funding but says: “There is local investment for that, which is secured.”

Kirklees Council has promised about £13m in cheap loans to the HD One scheme in a bid to get it off the ground but Davies admits that the scheme needs recosting. “We’ll need to sense check that number and we’ve not completed that work yet but it won’t be dissimilar,” he says.

He adds: “In the next three or four months I’m confident we’ll have a much clearer vision of dates and timescales.”

KSDL, which has a £3.5m turnover and employs 34 permanent staff, is co-owned by Huddersfield Town, Huddersfield Giants and Kirklees Council. The turnover doesn’t include revenue from the two clubs which operate independently.

According to Davies, KSDL operates like a not-for-profit organisation. “Nirvana is breaking even because we’re also trying to limit the rental contribution that the clubs have to contribute,” he says.

Looking to the year ahead, the company also plans to invest in boosting security, making the stadium more accessible for people with disabilities and enhancing its hospitality suite.

Born and brought up in Harlow, Essex, to Welsh parents, Davies, a keen rugby union player, dreamed of a career in sports. However, after completing a degree in French and Business Studies at Swansea University, he couldn’t see a way in, so he entered the brewing industry on a graduate training scheme instead.

Six years into his career, he realised his dream when he saw a magazine advert for a rugby brand manager at Reebok and got the job.

He went on to become chief executive for Bradford Bulls before moving to become managing director of Llanelli Scarlets in Wales where he oversaw the building and subsequent relocation from Stradey Parc into the Parc y Scarlets stadium.

When pressed on which football and rugby team he supports, he remains faithful to Huddersfield Town and the Giants. “I like to study all sports,” he adds.

Davies, who is married with two sons and lives across the Pennines near Bolton, describes himself as lucky. “First and foremost I’ve got a great family but I’m really lucky to be able to do what is essentially my hobby as my job,” he says.

Curriculum Vitae

Title: Managing director of Kirklees Stadium Development Ltd

Date of birth: April 5, 1967

Education: The Campion School, Hornchurch; Business Studies and French degree from Swansea University

First job: Graduate commercial scheme at Electrocomponents PLC

Favourite holiday destination: Selva val Gardena in the Italian Dolomites

Favourite song: Anything from the Stereophonics album Just Enough Education to Perform

Favourite film: Probably still Top Gun

Last book read: Team Spirit, by Brendan Hall

Car driven: Nissan Qashqai (I’m not a petrol head)

Most proud of: My two sons