Rugby World Cup honour helps put York’s Community Stadium in the spotlight

So began an arduous journey towards the creation of today’s York Community Stadium, adorned with state-of-the-art facilities, a feel of fresh modernity, and an abundance of potential for the next century and beyond.

Despite only opening in 2021, the venue is now guaranteed to host its second major international tournament in the form of the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup.

One person who is especially excited by the prospect of successfully staging another world event, following last year’s 2021 Women’s Rugby League World Cup, is stadium manager Pete Kitchen.

Since arriving at the 8,500-capacity venue, Kitchen has overseen the delivery of grand finals, summer bashes, play-off matches, and countless televised games.

Originally hailing from Hull, he has fallen in love with the North Yorkshire city and holds ambitions to build on the great progress the venue has made so far.

“From a stadium point of view, we want to put York on the map, and to get bigger and better events constantly,” he told The Yorkshire Post.

“It’s about trying to grow the stadium, grow its name and try to get big occasions.

“We’re not big enough to host England women now, but we were in the process of trying to get a Lionesses game. They did well and got too big for us!

“Ultimately, we want to eventually one day say we can host a concert here. We’re not ready for that yet, we’re nowhere near that, but that’s what we want to strive towards.”

These objectives are not only about the stadium’s development, however. Kitchen and his team have wider hopes for the impact this will incur on the local community, while making the city an even more attractive prospect for tourists.

He added: “We just want to get people involved in sport, watch an enjoyable game and bring people to the city. I love the city of York and I love coming here. It’s just a nice place.

“We want to bring people to York to see what we’ve got to offer and see what we’re putting on.”

The arrival of 2025’s tournament also means the stadium, which cost approximately £44.2m to construct and is the home of York City and York City Knights, will be required to emplace certain developments in its regular infrastructure – including LED-powered advertising boards and a brand-newscoreboard.

York will be accompanied by eight other venues during the tournament, including Sunderland’s Stadium of Light, Twickenham Stadium, Brighton’s Amex Stadium, Bristol’s Ashton Gate, Exeter’s Sandy Park, Northampton’s Franklin’s Gardens, and Salford Community Stadium.

Its success in the highly competitive tendering process was strongly influenced by its recent staging of the Rugby League equivalent as well as the achievements of York Valkyrie, who won their first Betfred Women’s Super League title in October.

Kitchen said: “It definitely had an impact.

“Basically, how we put it on, how well we did, and how the city and council got involved and helped as a host city had an effect.

“They were very interested in what we did there with advertising the city, and they want to drive on from that.

“Also, it comes from how well York Valkyrie have done recently. It’s trying to make York a rugby city really, just to drive that forward.”

Between last May and next June, the stadium is set to host a remarkable 90 fixtures. When looking for a Yorkshire-based venue as part of its nationwide focus for the event, World Rugby seemingly had the ideal candidate in mind with this allocation.

As such, the stadium’s management team are harbouring hopes it will bear witness to at least one Red Roses match during the tournament. If they fail to do so, it will certainly not be through a lack of effort.

Irrespective of those particular fixtures, World Rugby’s approach to the occasion means venues will not be restricted to a certain pool of teams as opposed to the typical administration of something akin to a FIFA World Cup.

“We don’t know any fixtures as yet,” Kitchen added.

“We met with them about three weeks ago now and with the whole team from the World Cup. I must have dropped in the conversation about 10 times that we’d love to have an England game here.

“What they’re looking to do is have as many venues as possible host different teams, so there’s a possibility we might get England.”

One thing that is a guarantee is the excellent progress being made at York Community Stadium. Twenty years from that initial agreement to build a new ground, it is clear the city has finally found a sporting home it deserves.