AB Knight

Whilst on the subject of the match day experience at York, I’m a musician myself and wish whoever handles the music gave it a bit of thought. The last match I attended (a double header) they played songs like this, by the end of the match they’d played them 4 times each: Flo Rida - Good Feeling Miley Cyrus - Wrecking Ball Mabel - Boyfriend Compare that to a Knights/Night themed playlist of these timeless classics just off the top of my head, these songs would be known by people of all ages and feel less like you’re at a kids party: (K)nights In White Satin (Moody Blues) All Day and All Of The Night (Kinks) Crazy Nights (Kiss) Because The Night (Patti Smith/Springsteen) A Hard Days Night (Beatles) All Night Long (Lionel Ritchie) Strangers In The Night (Sinatra)

I could imagine quite a few teams bringing a few thousand each - it’s not a generic trip to your Huddersfield or Salfords, its a new stadium for most of the clubs so it’s almost like a new stadium factor. Also last season there’s only a handful of York City’s opponents who brought more than a coachload - Oldham, Hartlepool, probably Rochdale and Southend. Maybe Halifax. So York Knights could easily achieve 5000 with the expected away support.

Apparently the stadium management company (who run the stadium on behalf of the council) charge the football club and York Knights to release the figures so they don’t bother. Not sure how true that is. You’ll have to wait until the end of the season when match day figures are given in the Rothmans year books (or whatever it’s called these days). Id estimate the club are averaging around 2300, with a core home support of about 1800/1900. I know hospitality consistently sells out. If SL were to happen I’d expect home support of 3000, and then with visits of FC, KR, Wakefield, Leeds, even Castleford and Wigan, average could be 5000. My main issue is the match day experience needs a lot of work. Nothing wrong with the on field product but it needs something other than the occasional kids games and a 10 song playlist of modern pop songs (I sound like my grandad now!).

Spot on, he’s been the best forward I’ve seen for York since I started watching them in 2016. The only thing I’ll never understand is why no one backs him up - most games he makes a break or two but there’s rarely anyone with him.

On the subject of goading I hope we aren’t going the way of football whereby players get abuse all match and then criticised when they react. I remember Ginola back in the day getting all kinds of insults then he scored, did a shush motion and fans reported him to the police for incitement or something ridiculous. In my opinion, you either accept there’s going to be a bit of back and forwards - Squirrel Nutkins (George Flanagan) got a lot of stick from York fans a few years ago and then was gesturing at full time when Bradford won. You have to accept you’ll get that. Or the alternative is you have a ‘quiet please’ Wimbledon policy with no booing, no trying to put players off during conversion attempts or when catching a high ball. One of my favourite ‘banter’ memories is Barrie McDermott getting a lot of insults from Castleford fans, Leeds then scored and as he lined up for the kick off he stuck two fingers behind his back and turned around with a huge grin. A nice bit of back and forth.

According to a few comments on social media the stadium management company charge the club a fee to release that information to them. I believe the crowds will be released at the end of the year as they have been done in previous seasons.

I hope not. York Wasps only existed for 6 years, average finishing position was 10th before going out of business. Even the name - wasps - isn’t ideal, a wasp is often labelled as a pest. It’s not exactly great from a marketing perspective (which IMO needs an overhaul). Now, if the rumoured academy was to be called York Wasps that wouldn’t be too bad I guess.

He’s one of those fans where you might not know their name but you see them a lot, either at matches or when the game is televised live. I encountered him a few times when I handled tickets for York Knights in League 1, a lot of fans can be abrupt and rude (after all they just want to get in the ground) but he was always friendly. RIP Kev.

Obviously a lot of this would need fact checking but someone posted this last week on the general forum: The RFL bought the lease in 2012 for about £1.2m. They were spending about 190k on maintenance annually. Bradford bought it back for £260,000 in 2024. In entirely unrelated trivia in 2012 Nigel Wood was chief executive of the rfl, leaving in 2018. In 2019 he became an owner of Bradford and in 2021 their chairman. He's now returned as rfl senior executive director (definitely not chief executive) but remains a part owner of the Bradford.

Re: Odsal pitch, apparently measures 55 metres wide and 88 metres long which is the absolute minimum sizes allowed by the RFL. Previously after leaving Dewsbury they were given a dispensation. LNER has no such problems, 68 x 100 metres.

Ah I see. York don’t actually play Oldham for some time: Widnes (a) Featherstone (h) Sheffield (a) Bradford (h) Barrow (h) Halifax (a) Oldham (h) - 3rd August

I followed most of it but I don’t understand the Oldham part: a lot of time and think it could be with York the hangover is the game after that’s a well rested Oldham that you owe for the opening game battering but it will also most likely be your trophy on the pitch game to the fans to lift the team one more time makings for a good game.

Apparently he started midweek as assistant coach. Can’t say I’ve seen an official announcement.

Now up to 14

It’s a witch-hunt!

They have a gingerbread house? I’ve been a few times but never seen it. Is it to get more IMG points….

And we won’t mention Bradford’s average home crowd this season is only approximately 500 more than York’s Anyway, all home wins: Barrow Raiders by 24 Batley Bulldogs by 8 Bradford Bulls by 12 Featherstone Rovers by 42 Toulouse Olympique by 24 Widnes Vikings by 10

‘While taking a pleasant stroll along the promenade of Rooley Avenue, I slipped on a discarded 2003 Bullmania flag. In a matter of panic, and unable to stop my forward motion, I somehow tumbled into the boardroom at Odsal stadium. In the apparent confusion, I put my hand out to grab anything to stop my fall, this happened to be a pen and I accidentally signed a contract buying back the lease for £940,000 less than it was sold for. As far as I am concerned that is the end of the matter, thank you.’

Just looking at the IMG crowd criteria, it looks like they’ll get 2 points: 7501 or more average attendance: 2.5 points. 3,001 to 7,500 average attendance: 2 points. 1,501 to 3,000 average attendance: 1.5 points. Less than 1,500 average attendance: 0.75 points. League average Bradford 2023: 3497 Bradford 2024: 3137 Bradford 2025 so far: 3075 3 year average: 3236 Attendances taken from rugby league project, while it’s a good site I’m not sure how accurate the figures are.

They have an average attendance this season of 2808 across all reported attendances in the 3 competitions (Championship, Challenge Cup, 1895 Cup). There’s only one attendance they haven’t given - Doncaster in the 1895 cup.

Keighley have announced his signing

Yes, he is a ref who lets quite a bit go (for both sides)…….personally I prefer that rather than a penalty every few minutes. Do we know if anything came of the Fev player put on report? I’ve watched it back a few times and can’t see anything in it myself.

That’s just an average Tuesday afternoon in Castleford (certainly when I lived there anyway!).

I love this pic from Craig Hawkhead, the expression on the faces of both the players and the Featherstone fans behind the sticks as they watch Harris pot the drop goal. York Knights are blessed with a great commentator (Andy) plus the likes of Craig and Lewis getting some great action shots.

I thought Ben Cockayne was something else for York.