TODAY marks 100 days since Clint Goodchild became the new owner of York City Knights. We sat down with the Australian to reflect on his first few months at the helm.

You’ve now been in charge for 100 days. Does that feel like it has come round quickly?

“It’s certainly come quickly, but it also feels like I’ve been here longer than that. I don’t know how that works, but that’s the feeling I have.

“There’s been a lot of hours that have gone into getting to know all aspects of the club and knowing where I can be of most value, support and help.”

Where has most of your time been spent so far?

“The lifeblood of all sports clubs is the commercial division.

“We’ve hired three people full-time: one focused on events and two focused on maintaining and building our relationships in the community with businesses and not-for-profits.

“I’m hoping that that bears fruit in the coming months.

“The sustainability of the club has got to be the number one (priority).

“(It’s about) making sure that the business is very secure. Then we can start to play fun and games with spending money on the field.”

What’s been the biggest lesson you’ve learned so far?

“Adjusting to the schedule. I don’t want to sound critical but (I’m) learning about the quick turnarounds.

“When there’s a Monday night game, how quickly that can be changed and in the Challenge Cup, are we at home? Are we away? When is that?

“From a planning perspective, I was probably a little naive.”

It’s seven wins from nine in the Betfred Championship so far. What do you make of the start on the field?

“The two games we’ve lost were to clubs (Featherstone Rovers and Leigh Centurions) that are really pushing for promotion to Super League this year.

“With that being said, I definitely hope that we can spoil the party. We’ve just improved week-in, week-out and I think this team has got incredible potential.

“Whether that potential, is reached this year or next year, I’m pretty sure that it will be reached.

“We always felt like we were a top four team in this competition, from the first conversation that I had with James (Ford), even before I purchased the club. I still think that’s very much where we sit.”

Is third a realistic ambition this year?

“There’s so much of the season left but third and a home play-off game would be lovely.”

You signed a dual registration deal with Leeds Rhinos last month. How did that come about?

“The opportunity came around with Leeds loosening their relationship with Featherstone, who are going after their own players and that created a partnership there.

“The ability to give our young players game time will reap rewards for us I think.

“In the future, I’d like to think that we could bring that in house in one way or another but for now, we have to give these young guys opportunities to play.”

What can you tell us about those Academy plans?

“That’s definitely something that is further off than I thought initially just doing the research on the price tag that is attached to that.

“It’s something that is probably three or four years away as opposed to one or two years away.

“But it’s still part of our plan and we’ve got to reverse engineer it to reality and work hard to make it happen.”

How much would running an Academy cost?

“For an average Academy, it costs £250,000 to £350,000 (per year) to run.

“That is a fair chunk of change. That’s not un-doable but planning has to be in place and it has to be made a priority at the right time.”

York City Knights Ladies are continuing to grow. What did you make of the 500-plus crowd for the Oulton match?

“To have a standalone women’s game at the new stadium, some people were quite critical of us doing that, seeing it as an expense rather than an opportunity.

“But I just think that the women’s game is incredibly exciting and it’s a great story that we have to tell right now.”

How much growth do you see in the women’s game?

“If you look at the WNRL, it’s an incredible product. The way that the viewing numbers have gone up and the competition is expanding, they’re growing in the right way.

“In time, (here) I’d like to see a more consistent competition in games. The gap between teams competing and teams playing is significant.”

What’s your relationship like with York City?

“I met with their owner (Jason McGill) and I really enjoyed the experience. Anything that’s York, I’m behind it and I hope they do well.”

What are your future plans for the club?

“I want us to be an entertaining day out in York. I think that York is crying out for something to get behind.

“If you look at the number of people that go to the Races and I bet if you ask 90 per cent of them which horse is running, they wouldn’t be able to tell you what colour it is, let alone its name.

“We have to become something that people enjoy, from grandma to granddaughter, we have to provide something really entertaining.

“As the sun now starts to come out, we hope that our matchday experience increases as well as the quality of our results.”