Key points from tonights Fans Forum ...

The Club were represented by John Scarrow, Carl Hall and Steve Scholes. Club employees Ray Green (Heritage / Community) and Jackie Green (Administration) were also in attendance.

£250,000 per Season is required to run the Club.
It is intended that this will be made up from;
Sponsors 33%
RFL Grant 33%
Lottery 5%
Events 5%
Challenge Cup 4%
Gate receipts 20%.

The Club will budget for 350 Adults £12 per game and 100 Children £1 per game. Season Tickets will cost £100 for Adults (for 13 games).

Costs to the Club are;
Coach / Players / Doctor / Travel / Food (56%)
Management / Administration (24%)
Technical Support (8%)
Stadium inc Accommodation (12%).

The Company which runs the Rugby Club is owned as follows;
Carl Hall - 51% of shares
Steve Scholes - 49% of shares.

The Club has 10 identified Sponsors;
Centurion
Lazarus
Green Energy
Doncaster Dome
Pipers Car Sales
Furniture Factors
Warpaint
Crozier Jones & Co
Tommy Morton
The Dons Community Foundation.

Pre-Season Friendlies have been arranged as follows;
Featherstone Rovers (Away) - Saturday 26 December 2009
Castleford Tigers (Away) - Friday 22 January 2010
Hull Kingston Rovers - TBC

Regular season home matches will be played on a Sunday wherever possible.

Player recruitment is well under way with 18 players now signed up.

The Club will hold a Race Night at the Conservative Club on Thursday 10 December 2009 (players will be in attendance).

The Club has pledged to have Home and Away Replica Shirts for the 2010 Season available by the end of November 2009.

Further Fans Forums to be arranged - ideally one before the season starts.

The Club has requested to meet with the Supporters Society (Trust) Committee.

The most disappointing thing about this evening was the attendance - excluding the Club representatives and Steve Hossack (press) only 23 other people attended and 7 of those were Supporters Society (Trust) Committee members.

sounds promising, would of come, but I have been really ill



Did they identify the players that have already signed??

Those known can be viewed on the [url=http://comeonlineyoudons.co.uk/viewpage.php?page_id=11Supporters Society (Trust) website[/url

Take the New Zealand kit but in the clubs traditional colours in honour of Carl.


Moorends are looking at it



Looking at the pre-season games wouldn't it have been better to have played some at home to gain finance, if the Keepmoat is booked take the games to Thornensians and anyother enclosed ground.

Quite agree another home game would be better at Thorne/ Brodsworth/ Athletics Track at Keepmoat or elsewhere it could have possibly served to promote the club in community if they played an amateur club if at all possible.

Possibly greater attendance could have been achieved if the forum was put on at a later time to allow people to get home from work.

Playing at Thorne would be a good option.

i like the idea of the new zealand style kit in Dons blue n yellow

. also the dons could play at amuater clubs for some small friendlies then at the Keepmoat for the hull kr game.

That's the first time in years I've seen something that resembles a workeable plan. Attendance would be poor because the distribution of information routes were broken last season and I know it's something Carl is working on alongside everything else.

The Community foundation is key, and I would say from experience those attendance targets are achievable and beatable if the charity works to its potential and I'm convinced it will now.

The Supporters trust could also go a long way to beating target figures if they gave the right style of support.

Well done and Keep building bridges Carl......

Carl was asked about playing a friendly against a local amateur club but he thought it might not be wise to pit the young lads against this type of opposition for the time being.

Martin, please see PM.

Couldn't make it myself due to time and distance from work. I would go to any further forums if they were a later start time.
Looks good though and sounds a sensible business plan with the finances,crowds budgeted for etc.

I agree about the business plan , very realistic .

Also the Dons would get a cut of the match takings for the Fev and Cas games.

Reference the percentages required to make up the £250,000 required to run the Club, I have made a slight amendment (above) ...

John Scarrow quoted 20% Season Tickets but we believe this to actually be Gate Receipts as Carl Hall later indicated that the budget is for 350 Adults and 100 Children paying at the gate - with no season ticket sales included (these would be additional revenue for the Club).

When will Season Tickets be available ?
Could be a good Christmas gift if available in time.

Application forms are available from the club. 01302 765888 or call in the office.

Thankyou.

www.thestar.co.uk/doncaster-spor ... 5772460.jp

www.thestar.co.uk/doncaster-spor ... 5772460.jp

I attended the meeting last night and have got to say i was pleased with what was said. It seems to me we have now got a group of people running the club that are being really sensible regarding the business plan they have put together. It was also clear that there is no intention to veer away from the plan even if we happen to have a bit of a windfall, i.e cup tie against one of the big Super League sides in the cup. The attendances the plan is built around are totally achiveable even in our current league. The price for admission for U'16s is £1, hopefully this will get more kids in and hence eventually more adults. We may not have a world beating side for the next few years but i honestly believe we will have a team giving 110% and probably more importantly will have a team to follow next year. I really hope everyone who is abit sceptical give the Dons another chance as i think they may well be pleasantly suprised.

Heres looking forward to a good season, COYD.

who actually runs the club will both carl and steve run day to day running?
what does rays role entale (heritage)? it mite have been mentioned before but i missed it sorry

Carl is also CEO , so he is running the club. Ray in charge of community matters & jackie does the admin.

So we are not over staffed !

From talking to Carl and Steve after the meeting, I would suggest that the day-to-day running of the Club will predominently sit with Carl (as Chief Executive) but with Steve having key input to some of the Clubs activities.




The Club has been awarded a Heritage Grant which should allow for the funding of an exercise relating to gathering and ultimately making available for public viewing items relating to the history of the Dons. I understand that Ray's role will also involve work in the community - which ought to sit comfortably with the heritage exercise.

thanks for that info

is dave marshall is involved with club on the community side? i fort he did a job in the circumstances

No Dave left b4 the end of the season . He got another job with British Gymnastics I think.

Alick Jeffrey jnr also working for the club on fund raising .