Knights and Day: The remarkable progress of York

[Total Rugby League]

A brand new stadium, a cluster of Super League signings and over a million Twitter impressions during September – it’s hard not to be impressed...

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[cookey]

Becoming one of my favourite clubs,alongside Newcastle.

Shows what can be done,whilst clubs like Castleford,Wakefield and Bradford stagnate.

[Eddie]

30 minutes ago, cookey said:

Becoming one of my favourite clubs,alongside Newcastle.

Shows what can be done,whilst clubs like Castleford,Wakefield and Bradford stagnate.

I wouldn’t say Cas are stagnating, their ground is rubbish but other than that they’re a class outfit, especially given the size of the town. 

[Robin Evans]

9 minutes ago, Eddie said:

I wouldn’t say Cas are stagnating, their ground is rubbish but other than that they’re a class outfit, especially given the size of the town. 

I found this genuinely amusing

[binosh]

Pressure will be on York to deliver on the field after a good 2019 and they seem to be a well run club and have spent a few quid on some ageing SL players, it will be interesting to see how that goes for them.

The trouble with a new stadium at first is its like playing away for the home team until they get used to it, having a pitch that good raises the oppositions game.

They should be up there challenging again.

[Robin Evans]

Fordy tho..... posing 2@

[Eddie]

2 minutes ago, binosh said:

Pressure will be on York to deliver on the field after a good 2019 and they seem to be a well run club and have spent a few quid on some ageing SL players, it will be interesting to see how that goes for them.

The trouble with a new stadium at first is its like playing away for the home team until they get used to it, having a pitch that good raises the oppositions game.

They should be up there challenging again.

On the flip (non-negative) side new stadiums often boost crowds and give teams a lift. 

[GUBRATS]

Strangely I feel a sense of deja vu , as in I've read stuff like this before a couple of times about York in the last 20 years , let's hope this time it's the real deal and they can become a ' big ' club , in whatever sense that is ?

[Chris Taylor]

1 hour ago, ShropshireBull said:

The stadium will hold 8,000 which is the same but the new stadium is an absolute mile from the centre so not sure what kind of uptick in new crowds would be expected. I guess success would be reaching Widnes levels of support (4000 ish average in the Championship) and if they ever did make SL, potentially 5000-6000. 

That may not sound like the amazing figures people want but it is tangible expansion of the game and it's finances. Long term, being the closest to Newcastle will give them a chance to tap into academy players that aren't ready for the Newcastle team or on the edges.  Sadly, with only one team going up each year it means you need to spend stupid sums of money to compete (before Covid) but despite the negativity I think with the rise of York and Newcastle (who should be a shoe in for promotion in 2021 to join the incredible competitive Championship) there are more than enough teams with good core support to justify an expansion of SL places. 

Huntington is about 2 miles away from the town centre, right next to the cities busiest retail park and somewhere that they played for years.

They have crowds of over 3k before even at NL2 level (2003/04) at the old stadium.

They'll be more than good IMO and a lot of teams can look at them and learn.

[Eddie]

1 hour ago, ShropshireBull said:

despite the negativity I think with the rise of York and Newcastle (who should be a shoe in for promotion in 2021 to join the incredible competitive Championship) there are more than enough teams with good core support to justify an expansion of SL places. 

I think there already are enough well supported teams to justify it, it’s just that it would spread the tv money between more teams and the existing 11 won’t vote for that. If (big if) the inclusion of teams like Newcastle and York increased sky subscriptions then of course it might justify a bigger tv deal, but to be frank (sadly) I don’t think they would. 

[Chris Taylor]

1 hour ago, ShropshireBull said:

I don't want to hijack this post as it is about the great work of York. But I'd like to think that clubs near the bottom end of the SL will be more open when they see Newcastle are coming up and when they make it to SL, they will be much closer to the budget of Warrington than Salford. When that happens , teams worried they might get shuffled out will make room for a few more. 

On York, if they could get 3,000 at the new stadium regularly that would be great, they'd be a consistent play-off contender with a pipeline coming from Newcastle long term. 

I assuming you are trying to compare Salford to York?

If you are, transport logistics are different beasts between the two clubs.

[Chris Taylor]

2 minutes ago, ShropshireBull said:

No, that post you have quoted Chris is just talking about SL expansion and there is no comparison made between York and Salford. I was comparing the budget a SL Newcastle would have if they were to make it and stated their budget would be closer to Warrington's  than Salford's. 

Thanks, sir. Been a long week!

[Oldbear]

I used to love going to games at York, great fans and the last stadium was OK, save for the running track. Having both York & Newcastle in the Championship would give a local rivalry. I’m so glad their new stadium is ready and it would be great so see them kick on as a result.I just have an unhappy memory of that ring road though!

[DEANO]

7 minutes ago, Oldbear said:

I used to love going to games at York, great fans and the last stadium was OK, save for the running track. Having both York & Newcastle in the Championship would give a local rivalry. I’m so glad their new stadium is ready and it would be great so see them kick on as a result.I just have an unhappy memory of that ring road though!

It’s not ready!!!!!!!!

[Omott91]

13 hours ago, ShropshireBull said:

The stadium will hold 8,000 which is the same but the new stadium is an absolute mile from the centre so not sure what kind of uptick in new crowds would be expected. I guess success would be reaching Widnes levels of support (4000 ish average in the Championship) and if they ever did make SL, potentially 5000-6000. 

That may not sound like the amazing figures people want but it is tangible expansion of the game and it's finances. Long term, being the closest to Newcastle will give them a chance to tap into academy players that aren't ready for the Newcastle team or on the edges.  Sadly, with only one team going up each year it means you need to spend stupid sums of money to compete (before Covid) but despite the negativity I think with the rise of York and Newcastle (who should be a shoe in for promotion in 2021 to join the incredible competitive Championship) there are more than enough teams with good core support to justify an expansion of SL places. 

My money would be on Ottawa for promotion.

 Back to York, is the stadium multi tenanted or built for the rl team?  

[Hela Wigmen]

All this talk of Newcastle being in Super League and how much they’ll spend etc but they can’t seem to get out of League One, so how are they going to cope in the Championship, let alone Super League? 

[wilsontown]

1 hour ago, Omott91 said:

My money would be on Ottawa for promotion.

 Back to York, is the stadium multi tenanted or built for the rl team?  

York City FC will also play there, if it ever actually opens. Delayed again and City played their first home game of the new season at Bootham Crescent last night.

[Eddie]

Not sure how York v Newcastle would be a local derby tbf. York is closer to Swinton than it is to Newcastle. 

[tms]

10 hours ago, Oldbear said:

I used to love going to games at York, great fans and the last stadium was OK, save for the running track. Having both York & Newcastle in the Championship would give a local rivalry. I’m so glad their new stadium is ready and it would be great so see them kick on as a result.I just have an unhappy memory of that ring road though!

Don't know about canada OB but in yorkshire the 91 miles  to get  to newcastle is hardly local in fact york is closer to lancaster 89 miles  and that would still be War of the Roses 

[Eddie]

6 minutes ago, ShropshireBull said:

The new stadium for York will be ready by the time fans can come back so no worries there. 

And Newcastle missed out in close fashion to oldham last season whilst being heavy favourites this year before covid. 

You have to believe of all the lower tier clubs ready and able  (even post Covid) to push on, it is them. Championship in two seasons is going to be stacked.

Indeed, with Leigh, Widnes, York, Ottawa (possibly), Toulouse, London, Fev, Bradford and possibly a drop out from the current SL it could be a great division. I’d love to see Sheffield kick on as well, plus there’s always potential for progression at at Halifax, Rochdale, Donny and Barrow. 

[wilsontown]

3 hours ago, Eddie said:

Not sure how York v Newcastle would be a local derby tbf. York is closer to Swinton than it is to Newcastle. 

In terms of distance this is true, but whereas transport links between York and Newcastle are pretty good (less than an hour on the fastest trains), links across the Pennines are poor going on terrible. And there's a fine tradition of pretty much the entire north east emptying every weekend as everyone goes out on the ###### in York. Despite the distance there's more a sense of rivalry with the northeast than with the northwest. 

[Oldbear]

7 hours ago, POR said:

Don't know about canada OB but in yorkshire the 91 miles  to get  to newcastle is hardly local in fact york is closer to lancaster 89 miles  and that would still be War of the Roses 

I live in a very big country, believe it or not people actually commute by road those distances into Vancouver, although that says a lot about the ridiculously high Vancouver property prices!

[Eddie]

33 minutes ago, Oldbear said:

I live in a very big country, believe it or not people actually commute by road those distances into Vancouver, although that says a lot about the ridiculously high Vancouver property prices!

Plus perhaps the roads are a bit better to drive on than our A and B roads in built up areas?

[Oldbear]

2 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Plus perhaps the roads are a bit better to drive on than our A and B roads in built up areas?

Mostly, although it never feels that way when travelling from Chilliwack to Vancouver and the traffic is wall to wall for approx 75km! The roads are great till you put traffic on them, good examples are Highway 1, Hope to Vancouver, Highway 400 around Toronto, beautiful roads, but choked with traffic.

Anyhow in my past life I used to travel on business a lot in the North East/North Yorkshire. I was based from home in Northallerton and my bosses would tell me it was a breeze doing a morning sales call in Newcastle, then an early afternoon one in York, then a late afternoon one in Harrogate, typical day, so it’s not exactly the end of the world having to travel from Newcastle to York a couple of times a season.

[wilsontown]

2 hours ago, Oldbear said:

I live in a very big country, believe it or not people actually commute by road those distances into Vancouver, although that says a lot about the ridiculously high Vancouver property prices!

I lived in Fredericton for a while, people thought nothing of driving 4 hours to Halifax (the other one) for a night on the town.