Huddersfield’s John Smith’s Stadium will soon have a ski slope

It’s not just English Premier League promotion that’s going on in the West Yorkshire town of Huddersfield this year. The town’s John Smith’s Stadium is expected to be encircled by a massive leisure complex by 2020, including a modern ski slope.

While Huddersfield Town FC have risen to their long-desired EPL level recently, the club have more exciting news around them, quite literally. A plan is in place to increase number of visitors from the current 1.5 million (largely on matchdays) to 4 million per year.

Named HD1, the plan would see south, west and north sides of John Smith’s Stadium surrounded by a number of buildings and utilities, including two pavilions with 23,000 square meters of retail and leisure outlets (including bowling and trampoline park).

HD1 will be built almost solely on current parking sites around the Huddersfield stadium while new parking will be centered around one multi-level complex with a total of 1,800-vehicle capacity.

Beside the parking site a 150-bed hotel is expected. The 4-star hotel already has Radisson selected as its operator and it’s likely to be one of the first elements of HD1 to be delivered.

However, the most anticipated one is surely the ski slope. This modern facility will actually span from a natural hill onto the roof of one of the pavilions. It should put more life into the area during less attractive winter season, possibly as soon as 2020. With works expected to start soon the entire complex should be ready by the end of this decade.

Altogether the project is expected to cost £70 million (€80m), with the hotel itself estimated at £13 million. Funding is coming from multiple private sources, though local authorities have signed a loan to aid HD1.

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