"We want the whole community to come together for the benefit of Calderdale," says consortium bidding to take over running of The Shay

The Calderdale Community Stadium Consortium is seeking a long-term lease, supported by a staged transition process and says their vision is to ensure The Shay meets the needs of the professional clubs whilst expanding opportunities for community sport, education, health and wellbeing initiatives, business activity, leisure uses and broader regeneration benefits for the area.

It is one of three bids submitted to take over the running of the stadium, with others from property consultants Stewart and Beverly Charnock-Bates and Halifax FC Women.

It is being spearheaded by Jas Chatha and John Coulter, both from Halifax, and Ben Walker, who is from Kirklees but has family in the town.

Ben and John are both directors of Halifax Panthers, while all three are shareholders of the club.

"We came together when the Panthers went bust," says Jas.

"I played for Halifax many years ago, and I played rugby union, I played at Thrum Hall and Ovenden Park.

"I've been involved in a lot of community sport in Calderdale and Kirklees, we built a football club about 15 years ago, investing a million pounds into Warrenside, which used to be Bradley Rangers.

"We got a grant from the FA and one from Kirklees Council, and we put money in ourselves.

"It's a successful club with 330 children playing there with some great facilities.

"I'm vice chairman of another community project that's been awarded a King's Award last year, the Sikh Soldier statue.

"We do a lot in communities and schools, we've been part of many rugby clubs, such as Elland and Siddal.

"We've been retailers in the community since 1978, we've worked in more or less every area in Halifax so we know a lot about the town.

"There's a lot of passion about the area.

"John was a player for Elland and is passionate about rugby and about Calderdale.

"Ben is also a former rugby player, so it's not a case of 'these are just directors and they have no idea how the sport works', we understand how stadiums work, we understand how sports clubs work.

"We're not just businessmen or money men. We're not."

Jas says that when Halifax Panthers was liquidated in February, a request was made for investors and the three of them came forward independently to help.

"Anyone suggesting it might be an old boys' club or something like that, we just came in for the love of the sport and had to put some money up in a really short space of time," he said.

"There was talk of leaving it for this season, let's miss a season, but I just thought 'hang on a minute, there's a 153-year-old club there, it's part of the community, built around the community'.

"Calderdale is a rugby town and a football town. Many years ago, there were many more football and rugby teams.

"What's happened is, since 1921 when Halifax Town started playing at The Shay, they had a crowd of ten thousand, but over those 100 years, it's dwindled now to a thousand.

"So you're losing a thousand people every ten years and if it continues like that, what's going to happen in ten years' time?

"And that's for the rugby as well. If we don't do anything about it today, the statistics tell you there won't be any clubs playing.

"Do we do nothing and wait for that to happen, or do we create a community hub?

"Football and rugby alone will not sustain the stadium, it has to be a viable, sustainable, community, seven-day operation that encorporates more sports, such as wheelchair rugby, padel."

Jas says the consortium has lined-up outside investors who are waiting to invest in The Shay.

"There's obviously other factors like hospitality, junior and grassroots football, staging finals there and getting the community involved in sports," he said.

"Over the last 15, 20 years, for young kids, it's all been about sitting indoors on computers and they're isolated and their social skills are disappearing.

"It's not about Panthers directors taking over and kicking the football club out.

"This project is the total, 100 per cent opposite of that, it's about developing a community hub where even elderly people can come to exercise, or come to have a chat.

"There could be a well-being centre there, maybe a hotel, padel courts. There's grants available for disability sport - we could make Halifax a centre of excellence for disability sport.

"The stadium isn't an asset at the moment, it's a liability.

"It's not worth millions of pounds, it's worth nothing. It might be worth millions of pounds in 25, 30 years if we're allowed to develop the site.

"We can have all these plans to make it a community hub, the council and the planners have to play ball.

"We're not going to attract any outside investors to put money into the stadium without some kind of guarantee they'll be able to make their money back.

"The councillors have to give planning permission, and back it, and the community has to back it.

"So it's not a case of the Panthers directors are going to take over and make millions of pounds. If that were the case, why hasn't that been done already? Why has the council been losing hundreds of thousands of pounds every year over it?

"We're willing to take that debt on and change things around.

"This is a headache, believe it or not, but it's to protect the football and the rugby for the future of this town.

"If nothing is done, that will disappear."

Jas insists the consortium would be an entirely separate entity to the Panthers, and that if it took over the running of The Shay, there would be no conflict of interest between them and the two clubs who play there.

"This set-up is separate," he said. "We're not Panthers directors when it comes to the stadium, we're a consortium. A community stadium consortium.

"This consortium has no alliance to supporting the Panthers in any way, giving them less rent to pay or giving the football club more rent to pay. It cannot operate like that.

"It's about enhancing the place, bringing more sports in, bringing more people in, making it a seven-day operation.

"Not just a Saturday and Sunday venue and then nothing the rest of the week, it's about far more things than just a game of football and a game of rugby.

"Yes, we are directors of the Panthers, but only because we wanted to save a club.

"I did it because I was passionate about putting something back into the community.

"We've previously supported local rugby clubs, football clubs, cricket clubs.

"It's a Community Interest Company (CIC), for which I know all the compliance and all the governance and what we have to comply with for that.

"We may become a charity as time goes on but for now, it's about doing something for the community and both clubs.

"I believe this is one of the best bids that will ever be put into the community of Calderdale, and with money up-front to do repair work.

"We shouldn't be liable for that but we're trying to help the council and do some of that work.

"It also depends on the council and the planners, and the investors, and what we're allowed to give in return for an investment.

"If someone says they'll put a million pounds or five million pounds in for a new padel court, or whatever it is, they're not going to do it as a gift, it's a lease.

"We have to give a lease for x amount of pounds for that money to come back into the stadium, to improve the stadium and get more people to use the facilities, so they can then get their money back.

"But the community would benefit from all of that."

Jas says the running of the stadium and the governance would all fall under a Community Interest Company.

"No money would go anywhere else, it will be used for sport," he said.

"The money generated from the hospitality, at the moment, doesn't go to the clubs, but some of that should be going to both clubs, to reduce their rent or improve facilities.

"But private investors need to come on board. It's potentially a £50m project but how are we going to attract that much investment if we say 'we can't give you a lease, we can't give you a term but we'd like your £50m'. How is the community going to benefit from that?

"So there has to be a lot of things considered for private investment to come in. Nobody will come in on less than a 50 or 60 year lease, it's not viable otherwise.

"So we need a minimum of a 125-year lease.

"Any profit the CIC makes would be re-invested back into the ground.

"We have to make sure it's financially sustainable and done in a way that people in the community benefit from it.

"So, for example, establishing a well-being hub. Let's be honest, Calderdale's not really got a lot of great sporting or leisure facilities at the moment has it.

"It's under-provided at the moment in that respect.

"The council has a budget challenge at the moment, and that burden falls on everyone in the borough, not just Panthers and Town fans.

"There's a wider audience, which is why, as a group, we'd be putting our own money towards this, to ease that burden.

"We fundamentally believe our bid gives a lot of community benefit, it secures the playing surface for the Panthers and Town and we'd potentially bring other teams here as well, although that would have to be done in accordance with the pitch.

"More importantly, it's a bid that takes the burden off every tax payer in Calderdale."

Jas says both the Panthers and FC Halifax Town would run their own teams independently, but there would be a steering committee who will be making the decisions about the stadium.

"Within that we can have the council, both clubs, community leaders, schools, whoever we need to have their say on what the stadium should do and what it should offer," he said.

"The CIC would be a not-for-profit organisation. External investors would be encouraged to come on board.

"Their proposals would be put to the council, and the council would put them to the planners.

"It would be a long process and everybody needs to work together to make this happen.

"We've already put detailed plans together - where are all the other businessmen that can make money out of this, or the community leaders who could do a million and one things with it?

"Why have their bids not come in? Because it's a headache.

"If there was money to be made, there would be thousands of bids.

"So let's get rid of this talk about 'they're going to make millions out of it and the community's not going to have anything to do with it'."

Jas says the council needs to clarify the process that will be used to decide which bid is selected.

"There's been talk they may want other bidders to come in," he said.

"We don't know anything about the process that's being used.

"We had two-and-a-half weeks to submit a bid about a multi-million pound project.

"We've put a lot of hard work in on this for it to be so unclear about what's going on, how it's going to be decided. I'm more confused than anyone else."

When asked why he believes the consortium's bid should be selected instead of the other two on the table, Jas said: "I'm not too aware of the other two bids but I believe we're the only bid that says we'll put money in up-front, we're the only bid that is offering total transparency and that is answering any questions that are put to us.

"We're transparent, we're putting our money where our mouth is and we would save the taxpayers money.

"One of the other bids could be far better than ours because I don't know their bids, but if they are I would support their bid.

"Whoever does this needs to do it for the community, and if it works for the community, it works for us.

"We need to all work as one on this so we get a community hub to be used by the whole of Calderdale.

"We should have a facility that benefits children, the elderly, grassroots sport, everyone.

"We want the community and the business community to come together on this and be part of one big picture for the benefit of Calderdale.

"The consortium wants the whole community to come together for the benefit of Calderdale."