Hull City owner Acun Ilıcalı has commented on Hull FC’s future at the MKM Stadium.
08:00, 03 May 2026Updated 08:23, 03 May 2026
Hull FC in action against Hull KR at the MKM Stadium.(Image: SW Pix)
Hull City owner Acun Ilıcalı has stated that Hull FC’s future at the MKM Stadium is in ‘trouble’ with an ‘important signal’ given by the club’s fans.
The Black and Whites’ current lease runs out at the end of the 2027 season with the club, as confirmed by co-owner Andrew Thirkill in January, currently in talks with the SMC, run by Hull City, about their future beyond the end of next year..
And Ilıcalı, speaking at a City Fans Forum event on Friday night, has now stated that he doesn’t think Hull will accept the SMC’s new lease offer. with the Tigers chief believing the current deal isn’t ‘equal or fair’.
The Turkish owner, in charge of City since 2022, also asked the fans in attendance to show whether they want ‘the rugby club’ to continue to play in the stadium or not, with the majority raising their hands for the latter.
He also suggested that Hull City has lost money through the stadium share and pinpointed the state of the pitch as a big issue, referencing a time in January when it was in a sorry state – five months after Hull FC last played on it.
The Black and Whites have played at the MKM Stadium since the 2003 season, with the stadium, ‘built for the people of Hull,’ owned by Hull City Council and both Hull FC and Hull City tenants to play at the venue.
Speaking at the forum, Ilıcalı 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. (Around a quarter of the room raised their hands). Okay. How many would prefer them to leave? (The majority of the room raised their hands).
“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. 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. 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.
“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 showed me today that you (do too).”
Ilıcalı also stated that a meeting will take place soon with Hull FC regarding their new lease conditions.
“For example, in television, they watch all the ratings from 2,000 people in 70 million country,” Ilıcalı continued. “From 70 million country, they just make a poll of 3,000 people, and they know how many people watch it.
“Because if you give a certain amount from Hull City fans like we are here now, today the percentage is 80 to 20. That means that tomorrow we make the same polling stance. It’s going to be maybe 81 to 19; it’s not going to change more.
“So I understand that you don’t like these rugby games and this is an important signal from your side. So we will have a meeting as soon as possible, of course. Because one more year they have. One more year.”
