Meet the Aussie businessman doing rugby league’s version of Wrexham

6 hours ago 3

This is the Australian businessman whose decision to buy a little known rugby league club in northern England five years ago may have just paid off.

Clint Goodchild’s York Knights have just been elevated into the top flight Super League competition after a 40-year stint in England’s lower leagues.

York Knights owner Clint Goodchild sits in the grandstand at the 8000-seat LNER Community Stadium in York.

Five years ago Goodchild became the 94 per cent majority owner of the rugby league club that holds the mantle as the only club team to ever beat the Australian Kangaroos in a mid-week tour match.

However the club had fallen off the map until Goodchild helped resurrect them, recently culminating in their addition to the expanded 14-team Super League competition in 2026.

It’s a story not unlike that of Wrexham Football Club who were purchased in 2020 by Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney. The club went from non-league status to eventually gaining promotion to the Championship, the second-tier of English football.

“I’ve been a bit of a head case and a dreamer since I was a kid,” Goodchild said.

“When I told my mum I’d bought it, I hadn’t even told her that I was interested. She just shook her head and said ‘well, good luck, let us know how it goes’. Fingers crossed we can do her proud, mate.”

Goodchild hails from Queensland but spent a large part of his adult life in America, where an opportunity to invest in rugby league became possible.

“I was living in the US for just shy of 14 years,” he said.

“I got involved in Major League Rugby as a passive investor. I’ve just done business turnarounds. I never really had enough money to go out there and buy a successful business. I always looked for the opportunity, looked at the one underperforming where I thought I could make a difference.

Goodchild in the York Knights office, where they’ve sold more than 1500 memberships for their return season in the first few days of sales.

“I got approached to look at the Toronto Wolfpack at the time. They were having a few challenges. I looked at it for a couple of weeks, it wasn’t quite the fit I was after. Then COVID came, I had a lot of time on my hands and York was brought to the table. I couldn’t see an obvious reason why it couldn’t work. I kept a promise to come over here and have a look. Then I stepped off the train at the station on a beautiful summer’s day. I walked into the city and I just fell in love with the place.”

The Knights won’t be given any favours in their return to the top flight competition. They will receive just half of the funding from head office as their rivals and have no guarantee to be in the competition beyond the 2026 season.

It makes it difficult for Goodchild to make strategic decisions. He’s also not blessed with a fortune like many of the owners in the NRL and Super League, but has done well enough in business to turn his dream into a reality.

“Growing up in western Queensland, rugby league’s a religion, isn’t it?” he said.

“It’s part of your identity and I couldn’t help but be intrigued. Then intrigue turned to something a little bit more.

“I’m not the billionaire, multimillionaire types that can just go out and throw money at the place and throw cash at it to see what sticks. We have to be really strategic with where we put it and why we do it.

“I don’t think anyone goes into these things thinking it’s going to triple in cash flow overnight. It’s a long-term play, but one of the big steps on the way was to get in the top tier. Now we’ve got to see what that next frontier looks like.”