End of an era for Leeds Rhinos: Gary Hetherington's 'great pride' as he prepares to bow out after 29 years

After 29 years as chief executive, October 31 is Gary Hetherington’s final day at Leeds before he leaves to take on a new role with London Broncos. Hetherington will depart a very different club to the one he and chairman Paul Caddick took over in the autumn of 1996.

The then-Loiners had run out of money, crowds were down and Headingley seemed to be on borrowed time. Since then, not only have Rhinos enjoyed outstanding success on the pitch, but also the financial situation has been turned around, the stadium redeveloped into one of the most impressive venues in British sport and the club become a key part of the local community.

Reflecting on his time as chief executive, Hetherington stressed advances off the field have given him as much satisfaction as victories on it. “What I look back with a great deal of pride on is the way we have implemented change and made the club bigger and stronger,” he told the Yorkshire Evening Post.

“The off-field initiatives give me a lot of pride and one of those is the name change. The change to become Leeds Rhinos was quite significant and it wasn't popular at all. Sometimes you have got to make a decision if you think it’s in the interests of the club and go with it and that's exactly what we did. It was probably one of the best things we did, creating Ronnie the Rhino and the Rhinos brand and the logo and everything else.”

In terms of facilities, Hetherington said Rhinos were “ahead of the game” in taking ownership of their Kirkstall training base, which he describes as a “rugby league centre of excellence and an elite-level facility”. That ties in with the club’s community involvement.

“We started engaging with the community, going out and visiting the community and getting the community coming into Headingley,” Hetherington, who had previously been owner of Sheffield Eagles, recalled. “We were doing that to such an extent, it was overtaking us. There was a realisation we needed a dedicated resource thinking about community engagement and community support.

“That’s what led to the formation of the Leeds Rhinos Foundation, a charitable trust that has done - and continues to do - a tremendous job for the city, for Leeds Rhinos and for rugby league in general. That is a source of great pride.”

Before the takeover, Headingley was used only on rugby league and cricket matchdays. Hetherington added: “Effectively, if you turned up on a Tuesday morning, you couldn’t get into the place because there was no sport going on. Now it's a 365 days a year business. It has a conference and banqueting business, a hotel, a retail business, it’s an education facility, it’s home of the Leeds Rhinos Foundation and there’s a cafe bar that’s open to the public. It’s a vibrant and active community facility.”

Probably Hetherington’s most enduring legacy is the new-look AMT Headingley Stadium, which will next week stage its first rugby league Ashes Test since 1984. In 1996, a rival consortium were considering taking the rugby league club to Elland Road to groundshare with Leeds United, while Yorkshire County Cricket were set on a move to a new site in Wakefield.

“It’s now an iconic stadium, just like it used to be many, many years ago and the home of international rugby league and international cricket,” Hetherington said. “I have to pay tribute to the Caddick Construction Group who have done a tremendous job in converting what was a dilapidated stadium to what it is now. That is another source of great pride.”

Yet another development was the introduction of ‘Team Rhinos’. As Loiners, Leeds ran first team, reserves and colts. They now boast a second-team, scholarship, academy, Wheelchair Super League and development sides, women’s first team and academy, physical and learning disability lineups and a netball operation.

“They're all part of Team Rhinos,” Hetherington said. “They all wear the badge, they are all part and parcel of the club. They are all very proud members of Leeds Rhinos. That’s another source of great pride, as is the growth of our corporate business.

“Most match days we were pretty full corporately. At one time, rugby league clubs used to attract builders’ merchants and breweries and the like. Nowadays we’ve got financial services, lawyers, accountants, professional services - all fans of Leeds Rhinos who come to Headingley on a Friday and enjoy top-class hospitality and entertainment in great facilities.”

Rhinos’ average crowd this year was almost 15,000. In 1996, it was 8,581. Hetherington said: “I remember the last home game in 1996. I knew I was taking over, I came to the game - against Workington - and I had a walk around. Leeds had just escaped relegation that season and the attendance was 4,956.

“That's where it had got to and it was a pretty desolate place. I knew we could turn that round, but it would need some positivity and success to do so. Developing the fanbase like we’ve done and developing the connectivity with the fanbase and developing the corporate support base as well has given me a great deal of pride.”