New Halifax Panthers chairman sets sights on Super League

Dave Grayson, who is the new Halifax chairman, believes that after two decades away from rugby league’s top tier, it’s time to restore the club’s position in the sport.

Grayson told the Courier: “Halifax Panthers have been a strong club for a long number of years within the RFL structure, but they’ve spent the last 20 years out in the wilderness of the Super League.

“What we want to do it to build a structure around the club that enables us to get back into Super League at some point.

“There’s quite a lot of things going on in the game in terms of restructure – we’re excited by that and want to make sure we either go through on promotion and relegation, and if not, through a potential IMG restructure which is around categories A, B and C and that is about how you do things off the field as well as on it.

“That’s not finalised yet but when it does, we want to be ready for that. The idea then is to get back to Super League and put this brand back where it needs to be which is in the top echelons of this game.”

It’s been 19 years since Halifax last competed in Super League, though over the last two years the club have come close to a return though the Championship play-offs.

Under head coach Simon Grix, the Panthers secured back-to-back third place finishes in the second tier. What’s more, they also progressed to the play-off semi-final back in 2021.

However, while the situation may be promising on the field, things off it have not always followed. Attendances, for instance, have been on the decline for a number of years, with the club struggling to break the 2,000 barrier at most home games.

“There’s no quick fix on this,” said Grayson. “It’s a one, three, five year strategy that we’re looking at doing. I think there’s a real reason for matchday experience to be much better than what it is. And I don’t just mean coming to watch a rugby match, it needs to be an event.

“If you look at some of the most successful sports, some of them are whole day events. We want to get back into that world. The Bulls really did that well when they first went into Super League.

“There’s thing around connecting with our community, the community clubs, those type of things that we need to really embrace and work on.”

Halifax have strengthened ahead of the new season with a number of recent signings. But even though Leigh Centurions may be out of the way, Halifax are still facing a major challenge when it comes to battling for promotion.

Other clubs in the competition, such as Featherstone, Barrow and even newly promoted Keighley have not been afraid to splash the cash.