York City Knights - 2021 club of the year

[AB Knight]

https://yorkcityknights.com/club/knights-named-rfl-club-of-the-year/
 

Well done to everyone involved. Club of the year in each of the last 3 full seasons.

And before the usual comments about ‘Whitehaven/Batley/Halifax have been a better team’ it’s club of the year not team of the year. 
 

Men’s team - consolidated themselves as a championship club, second highest ever championship finish, first visit to Wembley in 91 years.

Ladies team - Challenge cup runners up, competed at the top compared to previous seasons when they’d been near the bottom, profile has raised significantly.

Other teams - Great work in the community and with the foundation and LDRL team.

Attendances - Despite COVID and the stadium management group challenges, we are (probably) one of only a few clubs to have not seen a significant drop in crowds. Across all divisions we are seeing quite a big decrease, whereas at York we’ve only dropped from 2025 in 2019 to my estimate of 1800 average for the season (with only one club this season - Bradford - bringing more than 100-150 ish). 
 

Exposure - Hospitality (a big money earner for clubs) sold out most matches, was a great initiative having the park and ride bus decked out in Knights colours. A shame the World Cup isn’t going ahead with the 8 games scheduled to take place at the LNER, hopefully this goes ahead next season. 
 

A lot more work to be done especially on the pitch but we are getting some real building blocks in place off it. 

[DEANO]

Great news

[spanishknight]

Couldn't be anyone else, well done everyone.

[White Knight]

9 hours ago, AB Knight said:

https://yorkcityknights.com/club/knights-named-rfl-club-of-the-year/
 

Well done to everyone involved. Club of the year in each of the last 3 full seasons.

And before the usual comments about ‘Whitehaven/Batley/Halifax have been a better team’ it’s club of the year not team of the year. 
 

Men’s team - consolidated themselves as a championship club, second highest ever championship finish, first visit to Wembley in 91 years.

Ladies team - Challenge cup runners up, competed at the top compared to previous seasons when they’d been near the bottom, profile has raised significantly.

Other teams - Great work in the community and with the foundation and LDRL team.

Attendances - Despite COVID and the stadium management group challenges, we are (probably) one of only a few clubs to have not seen a significant drop in crowds. Across all divisions we are seeing quite a big decrease, whereas at York we’ve only dropped from 2025 in 2019 to my estimate of 1800 average for the season (with only one club this season - Bradford - bringing more than 100-150 ish). 
 

Exposure - Hospitality (a big money earner for clubs) sold out most matches, was a great initiative having the park and ride bus decked out in Knights colours. A shame the World Cup isn’t going ahead with the 8 games scheduled to take place at the LNER, hopefully this goes ahead next season. 
 

A lot more work to be done especially on the pitch but we are getting some real building blocks in place off it. 

Couldn’t put it better myself AB. A huge well done to all! 

[clogdance]

21 hours ago, spanishknight said:

Couldn't be anyone else, well done everyone.

[Gav Wilson]

4 minutes ago, clogdance said:

You've already had it explained to you on the main forum why the Knights deservedly won this award, don't show yourself up for a second time.

[Puk]

Great effort from everyone at the knights

[clogdance]

18 minutes ago, Gav Wilson said:

You've already had it explained to you on the main forum why the Knights deservedly won this award, don't show yourself up for a second time.

You'll probably win it every year from now on, until you get relegated. 

[DEANO]

3 hours ago, clogdance said:

You'll probably win it every year from now on, until you get relegated. 

Relegation wouldn’t stop you winning this award

[Simon Hall]

13 hours ago, clogdance said:

You'll probably win it every year from now on, until you get relegated. 

Maybe other clubs should look at what York have achieved off the pitch and look at doing similar, surely the game would be stronger if every club had Ladies teams, LDRL festivals, strong Foundations doing work with schools and community initiatives, Excel programmes to spot young talent and working with the local amatur clubs etc etc, rather than just concentrating on 17 lads running round the pitch and every penny going into that?

What York have done should be the minimum clubs have to do to be a professional club, especially as it's all been done without a money man chucking pots of cash into it.

Fans of other clubs having a dig about York doing things properly and being rewarded for it just because their team scored more points on a Sunday is everything that's holding the game back.

[Fenton Knight]

1 hour ago, Simon Hall said:

Maybe other clubs should look at what York have achieved off the pitch and look at doing similar, surely the game would be stronger if every club had Ladies teams, LDRL festivals, strong Foundations doing work with schools and community initiatives, Excel programmes to spot young talent and working with the local amatur clubs etc etc, rather than just concentrating on 17 lads running round the pitch and every penny going into that?

What York have done should be the minimum clubs have to do to be a professional club, especially as it's all been done without a money man chucking pots of cash into it.

Fans of other clubs having a dig about York doing things properly and being rewarded for it just because their team scored more points on a Sunday is everything that's holding the game back.

Well said Simon. 

[White Knight]

Bang on there Simon.