Shay stadium sale: Council still awaiting key ruling before sale of Halifax stadium can go ahead

Senior councillors agreed in March the freehold and surrounding land of the stadium should be sold to Huddersfield Giants rugby league club owner Ken Davy in order to divest itself of the ground – a budget decision agreed by the cash-strapped council last year.

It is home to football’s FC Halifax Town and rugby league’s Halifax Panthers.

Mr Davy wants to develop the ground and place his rugby league Super League club Huddersfield Giants to play at The Shay while a new ground is built in Kirklees for that side.

The council cabinet’s decision contains provisos, including agreement from the ruling bodies of the sports played by the two professional sides that three teams could play at the stadium, which, if plans go-ahead, will have a state-of-the-art hybrid pitch by that point.

Councillors heard the Rugby Football League had responded with its approval – but the council is still waiting to hear from the English Football League (EFL).

FC Halifax Town are currently in the play-off places in the National League, whose clubs are required to apply annually to the EFL should they wish to be eligible for promotion, which Halifax did by the November 30 deadline last year.

But the EFL has rules over ground sharing and these say it will only be approved at the discretion of the board, who will “ordinarily withhold approval in circumstances where the proposed ground share arrangement would result in the club sharing occupation of the playing surface with more than one other individual team from another sport”.

The rules also state “a club sharing with one rugby league team will be acceptable but a club seeking to share with a rugby union team and a rugby league team, or two rugby union teams, will not”.

A spokesperson for the council said this week: “We’re still waiting for a response from the EFL.

“We continue to work with the football club to pursue contact with the league and once we have a decision from the EFL, we will consider next steps and Cabinet will review the position with the advice of officers, should it prove necessary to do so.”