Leeds Rhinos Netball making a success of playing across Yorkshire, but what is latest on search for Leeds home

Leeds Rhinos latest adventure across Yorkshire may have resulted in a Vitality Superleague defeat to Loughborough Lightning on Friday night but the impact they are having growing the game cannot be questioned.
Nick Westby
By Nick Westby
Published 12th May 2023, 20:45 BST
Updated 12th May 2023, 22:55 BST

For the first time this season and fourth time in their near three-year existence, Rhinos played to a sell-out crowd of more than 800 punters at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield.

Add that to full houses in similar sized venues at the Allam Sports Centre in Hull, the universities of Huddersfield and Leeds Beckett and a crowd of 3,700 at First Direct Arena, and Yorkshire’s leading team certainly has a growing fanbase.

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"We’re taking the sport into local communities,” Mariana Pexton, a director of the club and chair of the Leeds Rhinos Foundation, told The Yorkshire Post before the 72-56 defeat to the play-off bound Lightning.

On target: Ellie Bird, right, scores for Leeds Rhinos in their defeat to Loughborough Lightning at the EIS on Friday night.On target: Ellie Bird, right, scores for Leeds Rhinos in their defeat to Loughborough Lightning at the EIS on Friday night.
On target: Ellie Bird, right, scores for Leeds Rhinos in their defeat to Loughborough Lightning at the EIS on Friday night.

“We’re getting good appearances from clubs and schools who are bringing big groups to the games.

“It’s good that we are the Yorkshire franchise and even though we’re branded Leeds Rhinos we’re absolutely here for the whole of Yorkshire.”

In year three of the second incarnation of a Yorkshire team, though, Rhinos know they need to lay down roots in their home city. Talks have begun with Leeds Council, and the club is seeking to identify a site to build a small arena that could house not only netball, but also wheelchair rugby and other indoor sports.

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“It’s still a work in progress,” said Pexton. “It is complex. There’s not a capital pot ready to spend. It’s about sourcing the funding, sourcing the land, deciding what business model we go for: is it something we do with the Rhinos Foundation? Is it something we do with a university? We’re at the stage of thinking through those options.”

An intimate feel for netball fans at the EIS.An intimate feel for netball fans at the EIS.
An intimate feel for netball fans at the EIS.

They also do not want to neglect what is becoming a successful experiment in taking home games on the road. For all the wow factor of Leeds arena, there is a more intimate feel when fans are on top of the play, closer to the speed of hand and movement, at the EIS.

“We would still want to make games accessible to kids across Yorkshire,” added Pexton. “We could take age-group netball out to the regions. Kids will still learn.”

Related topics:YorkshireLeedsRhinosLeeds RhinosLightning