I can’t get excited about the latest developments in our long running new ground saga, Events are certainly running at a much slower pace than that outlined by Nick Bassett and Sophie Hicks late in 2009.

Monks Cross now seems to be getting the preferred location treatment.

Everyone is bigging it up, citing Hull City and Doncaster Rovers as clubs whose fortunes have risen dramatically after a move from their traditional games into brand new (council backed) grounds.

No one can argue with that. Well, ok , I will.

Right on our doorsteps, we have history that disproves that theory.

Way back in the 1980s, York Rugby League Club played at their traditional Clarence Street ground, opposite the City Hospital for you youngsters. In 1986, they sold their training ground and 3 years later they sold their home and moved to their Monks Cross home.

At Clarence Street, they maintained a mid ranking position. In the days of one 30 team league, a mid table position. Later, in the 2 division era, almost too good for Division 2, but not nearly good enough for Division 1. A promotion was followed by hammerings by all and sundry, it took a couple of years back in Division 2 to re-group and gain another promotion.

Just one constant, they enjoyed above average crowds when compared across the rugby league kingdom.

Since the move to Monks Cross, not sure what success they’ve had. I don’t recall any real attempts at promotion to the top flight and now in the 3 division era, the natural habitat is Division 3.

Crowds have fallen. Clarence Street with its central location, and its local pubs, was easily accessible.

York's last match at Clarence Street produced a 26-17 victory over Hunslet in front of 2,904 spectators. At Monks Cross, the record attendance for a rugby league game was set on January 5^th 1990 when 4,977 saw a Division 2 game with Halifax.

At Monks Cross, attendances gradually fell as success continued to elude the club. In 2002, the club went bankrupt.

Back in 2003, the first year of the current club, attendances averaged about 1,200.

In 2010, a fairly successful season, the top crowd for a home league game was 1,002 and that was on Family Fun Day. Average crowds were at couple of hundred lower.

With a re-developed Monks Cross back on the agenda for City’s new home, we could be playing at a re-developed Monks Cross by 2014 or 2015 in a brand new shiny 6,000 all seater stadium, presumably shared with the rugby league club.

At least a re-built stadium (doesn’t stadium sound too posh for Monks Cross) would be a step up from the current Monks Cross stadium, an athletics stadium, with running track and just 2 grandstands. It seems the funding gap on this option is significantly less than the other sites on offer.

"Funding gap", 2 words but so important. That shortfall means that we’ll need to scrimp, save and cut corners to get to the new ground and we’ll need to continue to scrimp, save and cut corners at the new ground.

"Council backed", 2 more important little words which got mentioned further up the page in connection with Hull and Doncaster. Look at their grounds, both much bigger than our proposed 6,000 capacity. In both cases, the local councils actively supported redevelopment and provided stadiums the team could be proud of. Not sure if any one can prove a link between a stadium to be proud of and on field success. However, in both their cases, the new stadiums proved to be the springboard to success, rising from the lower divisions, Conference in Doncaster’s case to the upper reaches, 2 seasons in The Premiership for Hull.

Just think. Every appearance on Match Of The Day and other televised football means a bit of promotion for the town. With due respect to both Doncaster and Hull, I don’t think many people thought, "Hull, I must go there for a weekend soon", but in York’s case, it would be free publicity for our tourism industry.