AB Knight

So many good performances....Marsh as consistent as always, Edwards played well (can’t believe he dropped it!), I loved watching Brown/Glover they really combined well and looked so assured. AJ had a great game. O’Hagan looked at his best marshalling the players round, doubt any Newcastle player touched him, typical Aussie halfback performance. Harris nippy and kept Newcastle guessing. I thought Matongo looked most improved player from the start of the season, early on he looked a bit halfhearted now he’s using his size. Pauli did well in his stints. Dixon/Teanby added plenty energy when they came on. Kirmond and Thompson showed why if ex SL players have the right attitude and intensity they are excellent at this level. Have I missed anyone? Oh yes Jubb, great game, here’s to another 100 matches. Any ideas on the attendance? I reckon 1700/1800.

Again not the clearest of renders but if you look at ‘pitchside view 1’ and ‘pitchside view 2’ they both show the main stand as it’s intended to be. The terraced stand behind the sticks with the corporate boxes at the back is the railway end with a roof on. Now if you zoom in on ‘Wheldon Road - View 1) to what is the princess street stand (opposite the main stand), just under the roof you can see the princess street stand is still terracing.

That is what they are proposing. A seated main stand, 3 standing sides. From the pictures the currently open railway end will have a roof and the other 2 terraced stands would have new roofs.

We’ve been chomping at the bit. Controlled the ruck. Setasix

I’ve heard this from quite a few people. There’s a huge season ticket culture in rugby league which I don’t think you see in many sports - it’s a reason why come the challenge cup or super league playoffs crowds are so poor. Miss 3 matches and it works out the same to have just paid on the gate. There’s a few things clubs at this level can do: 1. Ignore it and hope it goes away. A dangerous thing to do, this issue will keep returning especially if premier sports (or another broadcaster) shows live games. 2. Sunday only season tickets. If a club estimates 75% of matches will be on a Sunday, sell a season ticket for 75% of the full price. 3. Flexible season tickets. Again charge 75% of the full price and you can pick and choose which games you go to. 4. Good egg/charitable season tickets I think we are quite a generous/charitable bunch at the Knights, why not have the ability to donate your seat for a match you can’t make to someone who’s struggling or on a low income or to a charity. They get your seat for the match, you get your smiley face all over the clubs social media eg this weeks Knights hero is Joe Bloggs for donating his seat to menfulness (the charity O’Hagan works with). 5. Make season tickets more exclusive. In SL most clubs make season tickets more than just a card to get into the match - discounts in the club shop year round, discounts with local businesses (surely city cruises would be willing to give 10% off to season ticket holders), money off bus travel on match days (ticks the green box), exclusive events like new shirt unveiling for ST holders only before everyone else gets to see it. At the minute it’s just a card you swipe to get into the ground, it could and should be a lot more.

1835 at Newcastle last night.

It’s similar with the radio, countless times I’ve been listening to Radio Leeds and you can hear the crowd announcement in the background but the commentator is waffling over the top....just stop, breathe for 5 seconds and let us statfans get our fix!

Look like we are in a decent place plus some ‘winnable’ games coming up too. Allegedly only 14 York fans at the game. The Town fans up there always have a problem counting our support, I remember after our last game up there in 2018 they said we only took 50 when we actually took 2 buses and plenty who went in cars (my estimate that day was 150-200). Today I personally know of 9 who’ve gone, there’s a photo on Facebook of another 8 York fans shaking hands with the players and Gary Hall took a car full. The statto inside me says that’s already more than 50% more than 14 before even taking into account other York fans who went. Nothing to shout about but these are difficult times so well done to anyone who did spend their hard earned money to attend.

7067 at Castleford tonight.

This is a great marker of where we are this season. Ultimately only a win is good enough - ok Cumbria is never an easy place to go (just look at our record up there!) and Workington will win soon but they are bottom, shipping points for fun (40 points a game) and we won on our last visit to Workington. Win and we can really start to consolidate our position in the playoffs. Lose and just like last season it will seem like we are in for an inconsistent year. I hope we setup right, don’t play players out of position if we don’t need to and hopefully come away with the 2 points.

Good question. I know the club can’t do much about the cost of diesel, I bet they don’t make much profit as it is on coach travel. Anyhow here’s a few small ideas: 1. A travel loyalty points scheme, similar to when you fill up your car. 1 point for every pound spent on coach travel. Then when you’ve saved enough you can redeem it against merchandise (minimum purchase price obviously!). 2. Easier booking system. At the moment you have to ring a number, some people just never get round to doing it or find it’s engaged so decide they’ll ring later then forget or are about to ring again then see the weather is going to be ###### so they give it a miss. An online booking system, maybe even one where you can pick your own seats (no more having to sit next to the bogs!) would work well. 3. Pickup points - This is one of the main reasons we don’t get the coach much (that and finances). It’s frustrating spending £15 on a taxi into town (no buses on a Sunday where we live) plus another £15 to get home when the coach passes 10 mins walk from our house. That almost doubles the cost for us. Not suggesting the club plan a route so everyone gets picked up from home because it would have to set off at midnight! But perhaps a pickup more central in York (near the Minster?) then one just before it hits the A64 (askham bar Tesco?). 4. Entertainment on the coach. When I’ve travelled with other clubs they’ve had the previous (winning) game or a classic match playing on DVD on the TV. It’s been a nice touch as well when the players have met with the fans en route or on the way back. It makes it more of an experience instead of a 3 hour slog to Cumbria.

I’m not a coach just a fan with very limited experience of playing the game but it almost seems like we’ve headed to Whitehaven in recent years and not shown enough respect - 2018 playing Horne at halfback (!), 2021 did we not play Cuthbertson or someone in the halves? And then today Marsh at hooker etc. I know we’ll point to injuries and niggles but it seems we go to Batley, Leigh, Dewsbury, Barrow etc and play players in usual places, but go to Whitehaven and we try to be clever. One of the best York away performances I’ve ever seen was in 2018 at Workington in the driving rain. We didn’t try and outthink them by making surprising selections, we didn’t even do anything fancy we just ran the ball up time after time, matched them with intensity and hung in there then took our very few chances. Defence sounded poor and something is wrong with the kicking this season (I can’t blame Ellis this time!)....we kick to touch from a penalty and most matches at least once it doesn’t get there. We kick to touch on last play and it goes out on the full. Very fine margins, but we are so much better than this......aren’t we?! Oh well, onwards and upwards, focus on the league etc. Credit to Whitehaven who I hope get a big team in the next round and also well done to anyone who made the trip.

1 score in it in my opinion.

It’s nothing amazing but it shows an upward trend. If York can average 2500 this season which I don’t think is impossible then the good work continues although on and off the pitch the club are a long way from being ready for SL, in my opinion. I just think 80% of the clubs usual home support turning up for a full price all pay cup game is good, I don’t know of any figures but I’m guessing a lot of SL clubs have a lower percentage turning up. 2021 Average - Unknown, very few crowds given. 2019 Average 2025 2018 Average 1692 2017 Average 1088 2016 Average 592 2015 Average 428 2014 Average 628 2013 Average 735

1221 at York vs Newcastle today. With the game live on YouTube, tickets at full price (albeit with a free cinema ticket), a small (but loyal) away support and York probably putting in their worst half of rugby last week for many a year I thought today would’ve been 600-700 so a very good attendance all round.

Halifax is usually a good crowd at York too. Do however think York will struggle to get a 4 figure crowd this Sunday in the cup.

Disappointed with the second half, I know I know full time, weather, sin bin etc etc but we have to be better than that. Some positives though, we competed in the first half, an ok crowd, and some players stood up well. Did the stadium contractors bring the PA from Bootham Crescent? It was really poor (I know City fans have said the same at their games).

2411 average so far, pre Covid our last full season was 2025. With warmer weather eventually on its way and the visit of your good selves (usually biggest gate of the season) I’d be disappointed if by the end of the season the average doesn’t break 2500.

A good 450-500 approx Leigh fans here at York, good effort given the conditions (and lack of train station in Leigh!).

Clare is a solid player, not the fastest but usually safe in defence and takes his chances, he won’t let us down. Seems slightly strange his first game back from suspension is likely to be this Sunday alongside Harris after the handbags between them, still can’t believe they had such lengthy bans for that!

Sorry sweaty, I’m not privy to the financial side of York City Knights although I imagine regularly selling out a 500 capacity hospitality suite at £60 a head compares favourably with a 50 person capacity buffet inside a cramped hospitality room which faced the car park at the last stadium! Regardless of what does and doesn’t have an effect, your words were ‘York were drawing more fans in 2019’ and that ‘facts get in the way of a good chat.’ I’ve explained the attendance facts to you, it doesn’t matter how York are getting people through the gates.

Oooh stats, (one of) my favourite topics! Here’s a few facts, stats and factual stats for you: In 2019 York’s lowest attendance was 1338, against Dewsbury. In 2022 so far it’s 1562, also against Dewsbury. +17% Increase Yorks 2019 average was 2125. 2022 so far is 2582. +22% Increase York 2019 vs Featherstone league fixture 3115. 2022 vs Featherstone league fixture 3602. +16% Increase And yes I am fun at parties These increases are nothing to write home about but things are slowly heading in the right direction. 2016 York’s core home support was 300-400. Now it’s 1500. Plenty work to still be done as I’m sure those behind the scenes at York are no doubt aware. Looking forward to Sunday, Leigh brought a half decent following back in 2019 (approx 500) when the crowd was 2020. Hopefully Sunday’s crowd will break the 2500 mark.

Oops. Makes it even better then. Only time Batley have scored less at home was against Fev when they were nilled in 2019.

Sounds like a great team effort, you have to go back to 2019 for when Batley scored fewer home points than the 6 they got today. Hopefully we can put in a similar committed performance against Leigh.

I think Castleford will sell out. Even though there’s a ticket offer on, to sell out against (no disrespect) Salford on is impressive. 9000 tickets sold already and the capacity for the game is 10000, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a few walk ups disappointed. York vs Dewsbury - I was disappointed with the crowd of 1562, on the positive side it’s a 15% increase on our last crowd against Dewsbury which was played in the middle of summer compared to last Sunday’s game in the freezing cold. With York I don’t want to keep saying ‘only 5 years ago we were getting 500 a match.’ I don’t think there’s any one major thing that’s the reason, just lots of little things which all individually knock a few off the attendance and when added together have an impact - things like stadium location, ease of parking, ticket situation, style of play, success. To a York fan those things don’t matter but it’s no longer the committed York fan we are trying to attract, it’s the floating fans, newbies and people who used to watch the club.