Halifax Town fans do a good line in stoic West Yorkshire self-deprecation, quipping they have one of the best young teams in the National League playing on the worst pitch in the country.
They have got a point. Search YouTube for footage of the latest game at their Shay Stadium – a hard-fought 1-0 win over Yeovil Town – and the thing that stands out isn’t the smart first-half Angelo Cappello goal that helped lift them to sixth in the table.
It is the huge patches of boggy turf near the stadium’s South Stand and a goalmouth that wouldn’t look out of place in park football.
A generous interpretation of the pitch – with streaks of it appearing not to have a single blade of grass on it – is that it doesn’t look like an ideal surface for a team seeking to play a brand of high tempo football that might take them back into the Football League for the first time since 2002.
And that is a view that manager Chris Millington, one of the sharpest coaches in non-league football, shares.
“Very difficult,” was his diplomatic response at the turn of the year to questions from the local media about a surface he admits saps the energy of his players and put them more at risk of injury.
These are not new problems. The Shay was built on a reclaimed refuse tip and the drainage problems have long bedevilled the pitch. Locals refer to its unique “micro climate”, with part of one of the stands obscuring the sun and leading to patches of it freezing or becoming water logged during the winter.
To cap it all off, they share the ground with rugby league club Halifax Panthers, ensuring it gets even more of a battering as winter turns into spring. In short, it is a bit of a mess.
Next week, finally, the process of putting it right begins as Calderdale Council – who own the Shay but are selling it off amid stinging budget cuts – convene on Monday to make a decision with far-reaching consequences for the club.
The council are considering two options for the future of the stadium. One is a consortium of fans who want to run it on a not-for-profit basis, ploughing any money back into Halifax Town.
The other – backed by council officers this week – is a proposal from Ken Davy, the multi-millionaire owner of nearby rugby league club Huddersfield Giants who wants to buy it and move his team there while he builds a new stadium.
The 84-year-old has pledged to loan money to help start work on a new “hybrid” pitch this summer as well as plunging millions into the stadium to upgrade facilities – but his proposal has split fans.
Keith Butterick, a spokesman for the fan-led group, says their proposal – which would require the council to continue paying a small subsidy to run the stadium – is based on “realistic” costings. Crucially, it would keep the ground in the hands of supporters.
They have met Davy several times – “He’s an amicable, likeable guy with a good track record in sport,” Butterick says – but there are “plenty of questions” about his proposal. Future rent levels and what happens to the stadium after the Giants move out are the biggest bones of contention.
Whether the Football League would allow them to be promoted with the new arrangement is another worry.
“We believe we’ve got a strong and realistic offer in the sense that we’re being realistic on the costs and benefits,” Butterick says.
“The Shay is a huge site that has never really been tapped into.”
In a lengthy chat with The i Paper, Davy is enthusiastic about his vision.
His plan is to rename The Shay to the Calderdale Community Stadium, reflecting his desire to turn it into a “community hub” that is used by businesses and charities every day of the week.
He is clear about his motivation – adding new digital perimeter advertising, floodlights and a video scoreboard is to keep the Giants aligned with requirements to play in the Super League – but argues his bid is best for all three clubs who would play there.
“It would be a significant improvement for Halifax Town and the Panthers and for the supporters because I’m afraid the facilities for supporters [at the moment] leave a lot to be desired,” he says.
“I would hope that the benefits for the two clubs – and the people of Halifax and wider Calderdale community – would be substantial.”
Davy tells The i Paper the work he is proposing will cost “several millions” and insists there is no “sting in the tail” for fans of the football club.
“There’s no Machiavellian reason for owning the freehold over the leasehold, I’m an open book,” he says.
“I’m sure many people will be familiar with the kind of things I’ve done for sport and the community in Huddersfield and hopefully that will give them some confidence.
“We don’t want to go anywhere we’re not wanted but, while there have been some understandable questions from fans of all three clubs, the reality is that most people seem to think it’s a good idea.”
When the Giants get a new ground he will sell the stadium back to the two clubs, envisaging the price as being “affordable” – “It will reflect the cost we’ve put into it,” he admits – but benefiting them in the meantime.
“One of the important benefits that the fans and the clubs themselves will see is that the enhanced facilities like a large TV screen, the floodlights, modern facilities throughout will enable Halifax Town and the Panthers to attract significantly more support,” he says.
“I see the clubs benefiting financially from that and they will also benefit substantially from the profit on the TV screen advertising on their match days and also LED perimeter lighting.”
Investment is a touchy subject for some at The Shay, where owner David Bosomworth gets plenty of credit for “paying the bills on time” but some supporters bemoan a lack of ambition.
Is Bosomworth really doing a lot wrong?
In some ways they are a model non-league club, admittedly occupying a different world from the budget-busting glamour of Wrexham’s Hollywood millionaires and the money-no-object approach of current promotion rivals York City but also living within their modest means and putting out a decent product on the pitch.
Having reformed as Halifax Town in 2008 after the previous incarnation of the club was unable to pay a hefty tax bill, the new iteration quickly rose through the non-league ranks and made the National League play-offs last year.
They are run on a sustainable basis, giving young players a chance and using profits from player sales to keep the coffers topped up.
A good example of that is Millenic Alli, a 25-year-old striker sold to Exeter City a year ago who banked a hefty sell-on fee for Halifax when he subsequently moved to Luton Town for £1.5m last month.
And despite the sales – talented winger Andrew Oluwabori followed Alli to Exeter last month – they do look set for a place in the top seven again. But it has been stubbornly difficult to build up buzz around the club with attendances anchored near the 1,500 mark.
“It’s a tale as old as time,” Dave Foy, a Halifax fan who runs the Shaymen Stats nostalgia site, says.
“Whichever way you exit Calderdale you’ve got cheap season tickets at Bradford, who have been in the Premier League in the last 25 years, you’ve got Huddersfield, who have been in the Premier League recently, Leeds United are massive, Burnley are the other side of Calderdale. We’re under an hour away from Manchester.
“We have competitors all around us who are in better shape. Every way you leave Calderdale you can watch a higher level of football for cheap prices which is an issue.”
It doesn’t help that Bosomworth seems steadfast in his desire to stay in the shadows.
The i Paper asked to speak to him – or anyone at the club – on four separate occasions but each time the request was knocked back.
Fair enough, I suppose, but if you are competing with bigger clubs for space and attention it feels a bit counterintuitive not to take the chance to talk about what you are doing so well.
“The club could be doing more,” Foy admits.
Among the items on his wish-list is more communication and lowering ticket prices.
He bemoans “missed opportunities” to push the club before big games and their wretched FA Cup record, which prevents further exposure.
“We’ll never compete with the multi-millions of Wrexham but it’s a big enough club to get back into the Football League,” Butterick says.
Whichever path they end up treading, it feels like next week is an important fork in the road.
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