HUDDERSFIELD Town chairman Dean Hoyle has today broken his silence over the failed deal which would have seen the club reclaim their shares in the Galpharm Stadium.
The deal, which was to see the football club return to owning 40% of the stadium, floundered at the end of 2011 when negotiations between Town, Huddersfield Giants chairman Ken Davy and Kirklees Council, which were chaired by Kirklees Stadium Development Ltd (KSDL) chairman John Harman, ended.
KSDL is the management company which runs the stadium.
When Town were bought out of administration by Ken Davy in 2003, all of the non-council shares were transferred to a new company, Huddersfield Sporting Pride (HSP), as agreed by the shareholders.
This mean HSP held a total of 60% of the shares in the stadium - previously the Giants had 20% and Huddersfield Town had 40%.
Kirklees Council hold the other 40%.
Following Ken Davys later sale of Town to Mr Hoyle, the two came to an agreement, in February 2010, by which Huddersfield Town's portion of the shares would be transferred from HSP to HTAFC, thus returning the share distribution to its original form.
In his statement on the club's website Mr Hoyle said: "It has been uncomfortable not responding to the supporters to date but the time is right for me to break my own personal silence on the share issue.
"A deal for the transfer of the shares was announced in December 2009 and terms agreed in February 2010 - it was great news.
"Since then, the deal moved slowly towards being completed. After February 2010 when the terms had already been agreed and the deal announced Ken Davy then proposed a further change.
"He wished that the formula for calculating the rent payable by Huddersfield Town and Giants be changed from what he had put in place, and had been the accepted practice by all parties for the previous seven years.
"The proposal in itself was not an unreasonable request and in financial terms immaterial. Rent is one of the many stadium arrangements which could be considered in need of revision.
"Critically to single out just that one issue and then seek to change it after a deal had been agreed was unacceptable to me. It was something extra on top of all the other terms and conditions I had already agreed to.
"By December 2011 this rent change was still unresolved. In the interests of trying to complete the deal, I then backed the "final attempt" by KSDL, using arbitration, to break the deadlock over the rent formula. Sir John Harman imposed a deadline of close of business December 16 2011 to agree.
"As Sir John Harman said in the KSDL statement:
"Last month a final attempt to have the rental formula determined by a process of arbitration was unsuccessful."
"This arbitration process was agreed to by Huddersfield Town and supported by Kirklees Council, but was rejected by Ken Davy. Then inevitably with the passing of the KSDL deadline, after the "final attempt" had failed, the agreement of February 2010 immediately fell away.
"All the parties knew the consequences and implications of a failure to reach agreement at the "final attempt".
