Hull FC in ‘trouble’ as club could be forced out of MKM Stadium
The MKM Stadium, home of Hull FC
Hull FC’s future at the MKM Stadium has been described as ‘in trouble’ by the owner of Hull City as discussions continue over a new lease for the Super League club.
Hull’s existing deal expires at the end of next season but the Black and Whites are already in talks with SMC – which is owned and operated by Hull City – about a new long-term arrangement.
But the owner of the Championship side has now cast some doubt over the situation, it seems, after speaking at a fan forum earlier this week which was streamed on YouTube and insisting he is unsure about what will happen next.
Acun Ilıcalı asked for Hull City supporters in attendance to raise their hands if they wanted the Black and Whites to leave – with a large number of the fans there subsequently doing exactly that. Ilıcalı would later say that the current deal isn’t ‘equal’.
He said: “This for me is the most important part of this meeting. The question is how many of you are okay for the rugby club to be here for the future? Can you raise hands? For the rugby club being here. How many would prefer them to leave?”
Ilıcalı then said the Black and Whites are ‘in trouble’, adding: “So they are in trouble. So they are in trouble now. This is something we have to discuss. But at the moment again, if something is shared between two clubs, it has to be fair.
“Here the agreement is far away from being equal and I don’t know about the past; I know nothing, so I don’t judge anybody at that time.”
Hull City via SMC are likely to be much stricter over the terms of a new deal, something Ilıcalı himself confirmed.
“If something happened, I don’t know but for the future, we lost so much money before for so many years; we lost sharing the same stadium,” he said. “We paid for so many things apart from being equal. So for the future, I’m not sure that they will be okay to accept our offer.”
Ilıcalı then admitted the state of the MKM Stadium pitch with it being dual-use is also something that confirms him, due to the impact it has on Hull City.
He added: “So at the end of today, if this year for example, the pitch you saw, if we’re going to suffer from this pitch like this in winter times, the most critical moments of the season, I really think that it’s effective in our football because our team is playing with more technical players, our identity, our idea is getting high-quality players with the talent and you cannot do anything in the middle of the mud.
“I walked 20 times this season on the pitch and the pitches; sometimes in January it was like this, trust me, like this. So for the future I have doubts about the rugby side and you (the supporters) showed me today that you (do).”
