York City FC are granted new stadium

With the FA Trophy already in the bag and the all-important showdown against Luton in the conference play-off final this Sunday, York City have received some positive off the pitch news this week, as a planning committee voted 11-4 in favour of a new 6,000 stadium at Monks Cross.

Club communications director Sophie Hicks said “It is an historic day in the club’s history,” as they learnt that not just themselves, but York City Knights would be playing in the re-built Huntingdon Stadium, the site of York’s Roses 2011 rugby victory over Lancaster.

This has a positive knock-on effect for the City of York Athletics club, who will move from the crumbling stadium to a new purpose built facility here on campus next to the brand new sports centre on Heslington East.

Next to the stadium is a proposed retail park containing a huge John Lewis and Marks & Spencer megastores, which the developers say will create up to 1,000 jobs.

City centre businesses vociferously opposed these plans due to fears their business will suffer, but the alleged £16 million a year that would be pumped into the economy, as well as the safe-guarding of the city’s sports teams, swayed the councillors’ decision.

Knights chairman John Guildford had said before the decision was made that ““if York wants to be seen as a modern city, an attractive place to work and live and, crucially, invest in, then this is exactly the sort of scheme that should be supported.”

The plans for the all-seater stadium include large car parking space, more corporate hospitality opportunities, the scope to expand for the future and crucially, excellent community facilities to accommodate schemes such as healthy lifestyle initiatives and after school and school holiday coaching, all of which cannot be obtained at City’s dilapidated home, Bootham Crescent.

City chairman Jason McGill summed up the mood around the football club and the city: “we said when we came in that we wanted to secure a new stadium and to win promotion and now, what a wonderful eight days in the history of the club this could be.”