YORK City Knights executive chairman John Guildford believes the proposed sports village in Hull Road should be home for any new community stadium for the city.

Mr Guildford believes the new arena itself should be a 10,000 capacity part-seated part-terraced venue – bigger than the 6,000 all-seater stadium currently being proposed – and be modelled on the Halliwell Jones Stadium, which is home to Super League club Warrington Wolves and has hosted Liverpool and Everton reserves.

But he says the most important thing is for it to benefit the city as a whole.

“For it to work properly, it’s got to be a bigger site (than the Huntington Stadium site),” he said.

“I would like a 10,000 stadium.

“City aim to be back in the Football League soon and hopefully they’ll need it to be bigger than 6,000.

“Also, if it’s 10,000, that gives us the option of applying for a Super League franchise in the future and opens doors for us.

“If we get 6,000, that closes doors. I very much doubt anyone would pay additional money in the future to increase the capacity or improve it.

“As such, why not build it properly now?”

He added: “What I really want is a community stadium that the city of York could be proud of.

“It shouldn’t be just for the rugby or to help the football club out. It should have everything – hockey, athletics, tennis, training facilities.

“It should be all-singing and dancing.

“If the council can’t afford a full community stadium, then why not wait until they can afford it?

“There’s no point doing it half-baked.”