00:00i've got some connections with york and um i'm being fascinated to see how how they do
00:13uh it potentially could be um could be a a real hit that i think i worry it may become a little
00:24bit too early for them but they've been building steadily for um for the best part of of eight or
00:30nine years they um they were top of the championship last year i think they won 20 straight games before
00:37losing to to lose in the grand final they've made some good additions um they've got a nice stadium
00:44it's not big um i think their capacity is about 8 000 but if they can get 4 000 5 000 in there every
00:53week there'll be a good atmosphere and york's a nice city to visit people i think will will look
00:58forward to to a trip to york it'd be interesting to see when they'll play their um the home games i
01:03hope they'll they'll try to play as many as they can on a sunday afternoon i think that would be ideal
01:07for them but their issue like to lose is that is the money they've only got this 600 000 pound funding
01:16which is less than less than their rivals and they're not competing on a level playing field
01:21unfortunately did speak to um their owner clint about this the um the other day clint goodchild and
01:29he said well it's actually a bonus because they weren't expecting to get any funding um so 600 000
01:36is more than they expected so they seem confident that they can um they can make a go of it despite
01:44that handicap and they do have some some investors uh who are backing them quite quite heavily um
01:53they've got a very good coach in mark applegarth who's proved that he can get the best out of his
02:00players they've got a a decent mitch mix of um experience and youth and i mean i'd be very very
02:09surprised if they uh if they finished in the top half of the table next season but i think they're
02:15certainly capable of um of avoiding the wooden spoon which realistically will probably be their first
02:21objective for their for their first season back in super league and um that their goal will just be to
02:28to entertain provide a good match day experience and and try and make sure they've got a team that are
02:33worth um worth watching so they can build up their the home support they're averaging just a shade under
02:403000 this year obviously it's going to have to be a lot better than than that if they're going to
02:46sustain a super league club but um i think that the foundations are there for them and they'll have a
02:52lot of goodwill behind them as well i think just quickly on your on york what will i mean you live in the
02:58city what will what will having a top flight team in any sport do do for sport in the city and and
03:05and that fan base well it's the first time for um roughly 40 years i think they've they've had a top um
03:13a top flight rugby league team obviously york city a non-league at the moment um it's it is a rugby
03:20league city people don't realize but but york is a rugby league city um always has been there's it's got
03:27strong working class roots with the the railway workers here and the chocolate factories and and
03:32that sort of thing it's a it it's a pretty typical rugby league city it's just been starved of success
03:40but they they do produce players there's um there's quite a number of york lads running around in super
03:47league and the championship at the moment um ollie pratt the kid who's doing really well at wakefield is from
03:54from a york club in the past they've all gone to um they've gone to academies at leeds and hull and
04:01and cass and wakey york don't have a youth system at the moment they need to to set that up so the
04:07local lads come through at their home city club um but there is there is a pool of support there
04:14the problem is that because they've been stabbed of success for such a long time people in york tend to um
04:21tend to go and watch other clubs they watch leeds or they watch cass so they watch hull or hull kr
04:26um getting them to come and watch york is going to be the the key i think for um for the knights but
04:34having said that you used to walk around york and you'd see a lot of um a lot of rhinos jerseys and a
04:39lot of cast jerseys and a lot of hull jerseys and you still do but now you you see knights jerseys as well and
04:44they are beginning to make an impression on the city and um they're doing good they're doing good
04:51things they're involved in the community they're um they're quite they're a professional setup they're
04:58a better run club than than certain um super league clubs which i i won't name um but they they are
05:05they've they've got some expertise behind them and some know-how and um i think they'll they'll
05:13have a go of it and as i said and as you said well you know it's a city that has been starved of top
05:19flight sport for a very long time and um there's an appetite for it if if they're successful i think
05:26they could um they could do well but obviously you know being successful is is not easy when you're um
05:33when you're up against teams that have more money and more resources
05:42thanks for joining us please like and share and we'll see you next week
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