Kirklees Council has said it has reached an agreement to transfer its interest in John Smith’s Stadium to Huddersfield Town, giving the League One football club an 80% holding in the company which owns and operates the venue.
The move is poised to end long-running uncertainty over the stadium and Kirklees Stadium Development Limited (KSDL), whose shares have been held by the Council (40%), Town (40%) and Super League club Huddersfield Giants (20%) since the venue opened in 1994.
However, the Council has been seeking to exit this arrangement in recent years. In December 2022, it announced it had agreed to sell its shares in KSDL to the two clubs amid concerns the company could fall into administration.
This deal was not concluded, but it now appears a revised agreement is in the offing. The Local Democracy Reporting Service, citing a new Council report, said the local authority’s 40% stake will now go to Town while it will retain the freehold to the stadium site.
The report states that debt write off is required to facilitate the new arrangement, with the Council’s most recent budget referencing a £3.8m (€4.54m/$4.95m) loan to KSDL that could be written off.
The decision will also see the Council take possession and freehold ownership of a plot of land which was acquired by KSDL to form part of the stalled £100m HDOne Scheme. This will now be part of the local authority’s regeneration plans for the West Yorkshire town.
Deputy Leader of Kirklees Council, Moses Crook, said: “The Council has been working with its partners over the past couple of years to secure the future of the stadium as a top-class venue for sport, entertainment, and wider community benefit.
“The stadium needs a long-term plan for its investment and management. We’ve agreed with partners that the best model for that is to transfer the Council’s interest to the football club who can take the venue forward and give it the investment it needs.
“Over the years, the Council has provided investment into the stadium in the form of loans which will now be written off as part of the agreement. But this decision also means that the Gasworks Street site will be transferred to the Council, bringing with it major regeneration potential for the Huddersfield economy.
“With our ambitious plans for the station to stadium corridor in Huddersfield, which is already benefiting from investment by the university and its designation as an Investment Zone, this is another bonus for the local economy.”
The latest news comes after the Giants last month announced they plan to develop a new stadium. Crook added: “We’ve been working closely and constructively with our partners at both sports clubs on this issue and we plan to complete this process as soon as the necessary legal procedures have been completed.”
