Failing to achieve average Huddersfield Giants crowds of over 10,000 continues to be Ken Davy’s major source of disappointment.
But that hasn’t lessened his desire to reach that target at some stage in the future.
Even though the Giants have become one of Super League’s most consistent top performers, with their crowning glory being the collection of the Super League Leaders Shield in 2013, average attendances at the John Smith’s Stadium are still bumping along at around the 6-7,000 mark.
That’s in stark contrast to their major Super League rivals, with the likes of Leeds and Wigan regularly recording 15,000-plus crowds, and Warrington, St Helens and Hull FC averaging over 10,000.
And that’s a target Davy is still hopeful of reaching.
“In my role of chairman, I’ve now been funding Huddersfield Giants for 20 years,” he added.
“To be honest, it’s been a much longer and harder journey than I anticipated. I certainly would have hoped to have seen the club reach 10,000 by now, particularly when you consider how much success we’ve had over the past decade.
“In that time, we’ve finished top for the first time in 81 years and lifted the Super League Leaders Shield, had two Men of Steel (Danny Brough and Brett Hodgson), had two Coaches of the Year (Paul Anderson and Nathan Brown), been named Super League Club of the Year, reached two Challenge Cup finals (2006 and 2009) and consistently been in the top four for several years.
“We are, therefore, a rugby league club of which everyone in the area should be proud, and I’d love more and more fans to come down and support us.
“The reality of the situation is that to continue to compete consistently in Super League we really do need to get over the 10,000 mark on a regular basis.
“I don’t want to sound too negative, because we are still increasing our supporter base and our hard-core of fans are absolutely magnificent – I can’t praise them enough for the way they get behind the club – but it really is important to reach that 10,000 target to run a viable Super League club.”
