As htafc.com announced on Friday evening last week, the Club was unavoidably forced to close its business including the Ticket Office and Stadium Superstore at 5pm on Friday due to unforeseen circumstances.
The original plan was to close both at the later time of 8pm to cater for last minute demand for Saturday's West Yorkshire derby against Leeds United, but the Galpharm Stadium suffered a power cut at around 3.30pm on the afternoon.
Smoke was reported coming from a chamber within the electrical switching compound on the afternoon and after KSDL Stadium Operations Manager Phil Armitage investigated the issue, the decision was taken by KSDL to shut down the power in order to fix the fault ahead of Saturday's 12.30pm kick-off. HTAFC accepted this was the only option.
Power was fully restored at 3am on Saturday morning after temporary generators were brought in by KSDL to supply the Stadium with power. These will stay in place whilst repairs are completed.
KSDL Chief Executive Ralph Rimmer commented:
"All the stadium Mechanical and Electrical systems runs to strict and regular service and maintenance schedules with all records being kept up to date. These schedules have been fully met and KSDL is in full compliance with all existing regulations. The next service for the switching compound in question was scheduled for March 2010; however, the engineer has since informed us that he still thinks it would have been unlikely that he would have picked up the fault even on service.
"We are now seeking to replace the burned-out item in the next few days and the generators will hopefully be returned by that time.
"Having been involved in sports stadia for nearly fifteen years as a Chief Executive Officer working within them and as a consultant for other facilities I have borne witness to all sorts of glitches of varying magnitude and all I can say is that every precautionary step that can be taken is. The staff we have here are better equipped than any other I have known and I have great confidence in their abilities."
Huddersfield Town Chief Executive Nigel Clibbens added:
"The timing of the electrical failure was unfortunate but was better than if had been 12 hours later. KSDL staff worked through the night with its contractors to an established recovery plan and everything was quickly back on track. Unfortunately this meant we had no alternative other than to close early on Friday evening. We did however open earlier on the matchday, which was more hectic than usual. Our staff behind the scenes put in a great effort to make the game and final ticket selling and parking arrangements go as smoothly as possible in the circumstances. We apologize to our supporters who were inconvenienced on Friday or faced any parking or ticketing difficulties on Saturday."
For information:
The Galpharm Stadium is owned by Kirklees Stadium Developments Limited (KSDL). KSDL has its own independent staff that operates and maintains the facilities. KSDL leases them to HTAFC and Huddersfield Giants who both share the stadium usage. KSDL is owned 40% by Kirklees Council and 60% by Huddersfield Sporting Pride Limited, a company controlled by Ken Davy who is Chairman of the Huddersfield Giants and former Chairman and recently appointed Life President of HTAFC.
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