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In the early 1970s Hull KR purchased a site at Winchester Avenue with the aim of building a new stadium. The plans never came to fruition and the site was later sold to a private developer. The profit made from this land was used to buy back Craven Park with greyhound racing continuing as a subsidiary concern.

New Zealand visited Craven Park on Wednesday 8 September 1971. The Kiwis, playing their third game in five days, were unable to match the Robins, who beat the Kiwis 12-10.

Rovers won a further two Yorkshire Cup winners medals in 1971/72 and 1974/75. In 1973/74 the club was relegated to Division 2 when they finished 14 out of 16 in Division 1. Rovers gained promotion back to Division 1 the next year and won the Yorkshire Cup for the sixth time beating Wakefield 16-13 in the final. They also reached the semi-finals of the BBC2 Floodlit Trophy, the John Player Trophy and the Premiership Trophy. In 1975/76 the club were runners-up in the Yorkshire Cup losing 11-15 to Leeds.

In 1977 a new revolution started for both Millward and Rovers. After the unfortunate death of Rovers coach Harry Poole, Millward was named both Hull Kingston Rovers' and, yet again, the Supporters "Player of the Year". The Floodlit Trophy proved to be the turning point for Rovers as they started out towards winning every major honour in the game of rugby league.

Coach Harry Poole died in 1976/77, and Millward took over as temporary player-coach and in his first season guided the club to their first ever BBC2 Floodlit Trophy victory as the Robins beat St Helens 26-11. The club finished 4th out of 16 in the league.

Phil Hogan was transferred to Hull KR in 1978 for a then world record fee of £33,000. Rovers topped the league for the first time since 1925. In 1979/80, under coach Roger Millward, Hull KR achieved a famous defeat of neighbours Hull FC, by a margin of 10-5 in the final of the Challenge Cup, at Wembley in front of 95,000 fans. A makeshift sign was left on the A63 (the major westerly road out of Hull) that read "last one out turn the lights off!" due to most of the city travelling to Wembley for the final.

Steve Hubbard scored nine out of the ten points for Rovers and is still a minor sporting celebrity in Hull today. Captain Roger Millward played the full game, despite having his jaw broken early in the game. Earlier in the same season, Rovers had lost in the final of the BBC2 Floodlit Trophy against Hull.