York City Knights chairman Jon Flatman says that ticket sales for the club’s Championship clash with Bradford Bulls tomorrow (3pm) have been “positive”.

York made the decision to give all season ticket holder for either the 2019 or 2020 season two complimentary tickets for the game at home to Bradford, should they have registered by Wednesday.

The last time that the two sides faced off at Bootham Crescent in last year’s League One, a crowd of 4,221 was recorded.

And while Flatman wouldn’t be drawn on a particular target figure for this weekend’s game, he says the offer has been received positively by Knights fans.

“Ticket sales have been really positive and we’re really looking forward to what will be a great match-day,” said Flatman.

“There will be two passionate set of supporters there, watching a game where there’s so much to play for between two really good teams. Hopefully we’ll enjoy a victory and have a strong rest of the season and finish what has been a magical year for ourselves.

“The ticket offer has been taken up well by our supporters. The season ticket holders have really got on board with what we are trying to achieve at York, which is growing our fan base and introducing new players to both rugby league and the York City Knights.

“I think the season ticket holders have welcome that idea of embracing new fans to the sport and I’m looking forward to welcoming those people to Bootham Crescent this Sunday.

“We’ve not set out a number of those that we’d like to attend, we’re just looking for as many people as possible to come down to the game.”

The York chairman insists that he hasn’t seen any negativity from Knights fans since the announcement of the offer.

“To be honest, I really haven’t seen much negativity from our fans in response to this offer,” Flatman continued.

“I think that the supporters understand that concept behind what we’re trying to achieve with this. Of course, our season ticket holders are key to the club.

“They’re passionate and positive people and we feel like the word-of-mouth marketing that they are providing to the club is essential to our growth.

“Our season ticket holders are great advocates for the game in trying to bring more people to the ground.

“This offer wasn’t something that has come from a quick decision. It was all part of a strategic process by the club as we specifically targeted this match and we’ve put lots in to try and promote the game as best we can.

“As a general rule, we don’t give out free tickets to adults, but we wanted to reward the commitment that our season ticket holders have shown and grow a unified fanbase.

“For us, the offer came about through our plan of growing our fan base as we head into the 2020 season.

“As a club, one of our key objectives has been to grow our match day attendance. That comes from looking at specific markets and implementing a process.

We’re working hard with the RFL and our own data analytics to do that. I think our own promotions have worked really well too and hopefully we’ll see some growth from that.

Flatman also hailed the passion and noise that the York fans have made at Bootham Crescent this year.

“The atmosphere at our games have been fantastic this season and that has been generated by our supporters,” he said.

“It’s the club’s role to try and make the match day experience a positive one and of course winning the game does help in that. But the passion from the stands comes from our supporters, without question.

‘They should be and are applauded and commented on by the media, away fans and the general public in the city of York.”