Huddersfield to play at Dewsbury from next season

Huddersfield Giants have announced they will play at Dewsbury Rams' Flair Stadium from next season.

The Giants made the announcement at half-time in the 42-20 Super League victory over Catalans Dragons at the Accu Stadium, their home for the last 32 years.

They let fans in for free to mark the occasion and hope the supporters will follow them the 10 miles to Dewsbury's 5,100-capacity stadium, despite the mixed reaction in the ground at the news.

Director Rebecca Jackson, who is the grand-daughter of owner Ken Davy, claimed the Giants will spend over £10m upgrading the Flair Stadium and said their ultimate aim is to return to a new purpose-built home in Huddersfield.

The move is subject to RFL approval and Huddersfield will also build a new stand to take the Flair's capacity to 8,000.

Jackson told Sky Sports: "The Huddersfield Giants will be moving to the Dewsbury Flair Stadium for the medium term.

"We're still the Huddersfield Giants, we're still based in Huddersfield and Huddersfield is still the home of the Huddersfield Giants.

"It's not quite Super League ready yet, so we definitely need to bring it up to standard, and we'll be spending around £10 million plus.

"So it's a huge investment going into that to ensure that it can actually be the place where the Huddersfield Giants can play and really have the atmosphere for both the fans and our partners.

"This is just a medium-term plan. We're still looking to build our own stadium within Huddersfield. That is definitely still our intention.

"A lot of discussion has been happening and we're hoping that this is going to be able to be a bit of a stopgap for us to have a medium-term solution to then get back to Huddersfield long-term."

The Giants have shared the Accu with League One football club Huddersfield Town since it opened in 1994.

They feel the 24,500 ground is too big for them and they have been looking for a new home for some time.

Davy pulled out of a bid to buy The Shay stadium in Halifax in June and subsequently resigned as chairman last month.

It has been described as 'One Giant Future' for Huddersfield but fans are certainly hoping their switch to Dewsbury for the foreseeable future is as temporary as possible.

There is no doubt their tenacy of the Accu Stadium with Huddersfield Giants has been an unsuitable fit for some time, with a large capacity venue far outnumbering the hardcore support and atmosphere has suffered as a result.

The vision of what might be came last year when Giants took a game to the Flair Stadium when Welsh rockers Stereophonics took over their home stadium. The game against Wigan was played in a vibrant atmosphere and a venue more fitting of the size of the fan base.

It is not ideal for a club who bill themselves as hailing from the birthplace of rugby league to be playing outside of the town boundaries, but then Davy has voraciously sought a new site to work and been foiled in his negotiations with the council.

Dewsbury will be much more appropriate, but it is no one's long-term ambition. Davy has invested heavily in Huddersfield but this will be his toughest ask yet.

Ticket prices have long been tremendously affordable and the incentives provided by the club to persuade fans to attend has been admirable; indeed this announcement was made to a crowd bolstered by a free ticket offer.

Persuading those floating, fringe supporters to travel away from the town, albeit still in Kirklees Council area with a Wakefield postcode, to follow a Giants side who have struggled could be a tough sell beyond the diehards.