AB Knight

That article has confused me, it seems very few journalists check what they’ve written these days: The 20-6 defeat saw Rhinos’ first four-figure attendance since 7,103 spectators saw them lose to Wigan Warriors in a Saturday afternoon tie in the sixth round of the Cup last May. In 2023 a crowd of just 5,112 watched as Leeds were beaten by Castleford Tigers at Headingley at the same stage of the competition.

I think you’d be surprised, from memory (during a boring match) the North Stand is just 7 rows and the South Stand more than double the size at 15 rows. I recall the East Stand capacity is 3500. Not sure of the other stands capacities but I’d say 1800 sounds right for South, 900 for North and 2300 for West. For the nerds amongst us, the capacity was meant to be 8005 but it’s 8500, they look to have put seats where stairs were meant to be, it’s quite bizarre coming out of the concourse, turning left and finding the stairs only go about 7 rows, so you then have to walk back down the stairs and up the other side, neither club is ever likely to challenge the capacity on a regular basis so it’s odd them doing this.

That explains it. He sounds a lovely chap

I was referring to Facebook followers which is 9.5k, you are correct 20.5 on Twitter which I personally don’t use much. I guess then apart from the match day experience and other areas the club might want to figure out why they only have half of the Twitter followers on Facebook. For Bradford it’s pretty much the same amount on both platforms. I’m not bored/sad enough to work out other clubs

I don’t think there’s any kind of conspiracy with Bradford. I’m not a fan of the club but if you compare them against York you can see why they are slightly ahead. Full grading criteria below: Fandom: I don’t think we’ve averaged more than Bulls in years. Online (digital engagement) if it’s because of likes, comments etc I’d estimate Bulls are way out in front. They have 38k followers against 9.5k for York. Performance: York have finished 3rd, 7th, 5th, 6th. Bulls 6th, 5th, 9th, 3rd. Not much in it. Finances: I don’t know enough about either clubs finances. If I had to guess, their income will be a lot higher. Revenue streams; I imagine Bulls are getting a lot more with that huge 2 storey hospitality stand behind the sticks. Stadium: I’d have to see the exact criteria for this. I don’t know if they look at how run down a facility is or capacity, number of seats etc. I feel our match day experience is something we fall behind on, but as some have said on here previously, they come to watch the rugby not all the razzmatazz around it. For me that mindset and culture is something we have to improve, it’s not enough to just play a couple of songs over the PA before a match. Having The Skylights was a good step forward. Utilisation - again tricky to know what they mean. Odsal has 3 stands open on match day, we often only have 1 or 2. Community: Unsure how our foundation compares with Bulls. Not an awful lot of competition here for supporters. Our local derby is Fev 30 ish miles away (does this mean we score higher or lower?). Bulls have/had Halifax, Keighley almost on their doorstep. Again I’m not a fan of Bradford but you can see why they still score relatively highly. —————— Fandom [5 points]: Taking in attendances, memberships and digital engagement with fans Performance [5 pts]: Teams rated 1-36 in terms of league position over three seasons, with bonuses for league/cup wins Finances [4.5 pts]: Income, financial stability, diversity of revenue streams and business performance Stadium [3 pts]: Quality of facility, match-day experience, capacity, utilisation Community [1 pt for foundation, 1.5pts for catchment area]: Success of foundations as charitable arms, and how much competition for supporters in local area.

1885 for York.

League attendances can’t have been up 7% - like I say I added up 2023 league attendances against 2022 ones. Obviously I might have miscounted along the way, it has been known

I noticed that too.

My year is complete Average for 2023 league games was 1885, slightly down on 2022 when it was 1984 average.

Marcus Walker is rumoured to be coming to York. Was at Newcastle Thunder last season, don’t really know much about him: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Walker_(rugby_league)

Can’t really fault any of that. AJ has had a great season, not really seen much of London so can only think Bill Leyland has been outstanding. Anyway good to see plenty Londoners win awards, now might be a good time for the RFL to consider reintroducing a development officer down there to continue the good work (at one point they had 10 doing the role down there, now it’s none). Fev must be kicking themselves for letting Parata go.

Results in full: Women’s Super League Young Player of the Year: Caitlin Casey (Leeds Rhinos) Wheelchair Super League Young Player of the Year: Josh Butler (Leeds Rhinos) League One Young Player of the Year: Ciaran Walker (Workington Town) Championship Young Player of the Year: Bill Leyland (London Broncos) League One Coach of the Year: Liam Finn (Dewsbury Rams) Women’s Super League Coach of the Year: Lindsay Anfield (York RLFC Valkyrie) Championship Coach of the Year: Mike Eccles (London Broncos) Wheelchair Super League Coach of the Year: Tom Coyd MBE (London Roosters) League One Player of the Year: Reiss Butterworth (Dewsbury Rams) Championship Player of the Year: Dean Parata (London Broncos) and Lachlan Walmsley (Halifax Panthers) *shared* Wheels of Steel: Lewis King (London Roosters) Woman of Steel: Sinead Peach (York RLFC Valkyrie)

The try at the end was like one of those what happened next moments. Very odd. I know it doesn’t mean a thing, it didn’t matter, the game was already won I just have never seen anything like that before and I’m sure once the celebrations are over Lindsay Anfield will hammer into them play to the whistle. What was even stranger for me was Leeds opting not to kick the conversation at the end. Again it didn’t really mean anything but surely as a team you want it to look even closer on the scoreboard? Could you imagine a football team 7-0 down winning a penalty and deciding not to kick it, or an F1 driver who knows he can’t beat Verstappen so decides to just drive at 50mph all race. Anyway I’m chuffed Valkyrie won, I remember when there was about 7 of us watching them lose by 80 or something points at Cas and when they lost to the army. It just shows with just about every club you’ll have highs and lows.

4547 at York Valkyrie vs Leeds. A record crowd.

4547 attendance