Huddersfield Town stadium saga expected to drag out until spring despite council withdrawing funding now

Controlling the stadium they have played in since 1994 was a stated aim of chairman Kevin Nagle when he bought Huddersfield Town last summer but untying the deal which saw it shared between the council, the Terriers and rugby league Super League side Huddersfield Giants on a 40 per cent-40 per cent-20 per cent basis will not be straight-forward.

The reason for that arrangement was to keep a community asset out of the control of either club, but three decades later the council is looking to limit its involvement to freeholders of the site whilst others take on the responsibility and cost of investment and refurbishment.

Nagle wants Town to have full control and a free hand to improve the spectator experience. An agreement was struck in December 2022 to negotiate for the Terriers – then still owned by Dean Hoyle – to do so.

A report due to be presented to the council cabinet on October 17 will suggest the door be re-opened for the Giants to have individual or part control if they wish.

The negotiations had been a big part of Dave Baldwin's role as strategic advisor to Nagle, but it was announced on Friday the former Football League chief executive has left the Championship club.

It is two-and-a-half years since the council warned Kirklees Stadium Development Ltd, who run the stadium, was on the brink of going out of business, and yet its future is still to be resolved, complicated by the football club's ownership twice changing hands.

Terriers chief executive Jake Edwards said recently it might take until the end of this football season for a deal to be completed and the council appear relaxed about that.

"It is possible that for various reasons, the other parties will choose not to complete any arrangements for some months, probably not until spring 2024 at the earliest," reads the report. "This is considered adequate, as long as the clubs continue to ensure the company has sufficient cashflows to enable it to solvently trade."

Perhaps with that in mind, it adds the council will not pursue “debts outstanding at the present time.”

The site includes a gym and swimming pool which are under threat after Kirklees Active Leisure announced it is handing back the lease and moving its head office out of the stadium. Unless someone else steps in to fund them, they will close.

"We will be doing what we can in the coming days to try and find a solution that all are happy with," Nagle posted on X at the weekend.

He used the social media platform to complain about "a lack of adequate capital investment into the Huddersfield pool and its related structures, a refusal to invest capital into the stadium as a 40 per cent owner, inadequate maintenance of the infrastructure and surrounding stadium and quickly abandoning a constituency that has been served for many years."

He added: "Still, I am optimistic there is a win win win solution if we use our common sense and think about our community."