While there is a multitude of sporting delights on campus to participate in, with facilities and societies that cater for everyone, the City of York is rich in professional sports teams and venues that cater for the spectator. All the following major attractions are within easy access of campus and normally offer student-rate tickets and fees or, failing that, prices that should not bother the student loan too much.
Football
York City FC – The Conference team are always there or thereabouts at the end of the season, and came close to being promoted back into the Football League two seasons ago, when they lost to Oxford in the play-off final. A typically small, community-based club (with a rich history), they play at the petite but character-full Bootham Crescent stadium near the Minster, about 25 minutes on foot from campus (although a new stadium is in the pipeline).
Attendances are about 3,000 per game – one of the biggest in the league – and a Saturday afternoon out with mates at a game is great fun. With student tickets for just a tenner, and the club one of the favourites for promotion, York City would benefit from student support.
Learn more at yorkcityfootballclub.co.uk
Rugby
York City Knights – Rugby league is a huge sport in the north of England, and the Knights have improved drastically in the last few years, culminating in promotion at the end of the 2009/2010 season to the Championship, the league below the Super League.
With the rugby league season running from January to September, they are holding their own as the season draws to a close, sitting five points clear of the relegation zone. They will want to improve in the 2012 season, and with tickets costing a student £10 at the Huntingdon Stadium at Monk’s Cross, a short taxi ride away from campus, or on the number 9 bus route from the town centre, it is also an affordable afternoon out.
For Rugby Union, York is only a half-hour train journey away from Headingley, where Leeds Carnegie play.
Learn more at yorkcityknights.co.uk and leedscarnegie.co.uk
Horse Racing
York Racecourse – York is one of the premier racecourses in the country, winning countless awards, holding many prestigious races during the flat racing season and even hosting Royal Ascot while the Berkshire Course was being refurbished a few years ago.
Ticket prices vary drastically with many enclosures and tariffs, but at the bottom end, somewhere in the region of £25 for a whole day of racing is typical, especially in the spring and summer months when the course is most active. It is near campus, a short taxi ride out onto the ring road – virtually nothing if there’s a group of you in the cab.
Learn more at yorkracecourse.co.uk
Cricket
York Cricket Club/Yorkshire CCC at Leeds and Scarborough – As club cricket goes, York are one of the best in the country, winning the ECB Yorkshire County Premier League for an unprecedented five years straight. Situated in Clifton on the other side of the city (but still not at all far from campus, such is the size of York), they are worth watching next summer when the new season comes around.
Yorkshire CCC, one of the most famous counties in English cricket, do not play in York, but at the famous Headingley in Leeds (again, only 30 minutes by train from York) and also playing some matches in Scarborough, an equally short train journey in the other direction. A Roses match against Lancashire and the atmosphere that goes with it is not to be missed.
Learn more at yorkcricketclub.co.uk and yorkshireccc.com