Huddersfield Giants to groundshare with Dewsbury next season

Huddersfield Giants will play at Dewsbury Rams’ Flair Stadium from next season.

The Giants made the announcement at half-time in their Super League fixture against Catalans Dragons at the Accu Stadium, which has been their home since 1994.

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 home in Huddersfield.

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.

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