As a former fan no longer attending here are a few thoughts.

I have been a rugby league fan since the mid eighties but I have stopped following the sport over the past year.
I used to follow the Dons home and away, go to finals and internationals etc.
As with many Dons fans I first became interested during the Sheridan era and really looked forward to a Sunday afternoon down at Tattersfield. The whole buzz and atmosphere under the old tin roof was great.
As time has gone by things have changed, the sport sold its soul to Sky and the whole SL closed shop, franchising, money troubles at virtually every club, inept administration by the RFL and cost of attending games has really put me off. The worst thing for me though over the past few years, and this probably relates to most of society and not just RL, is the general aggressive, angry attitude which now seems so common amongst opposing sets of supporters. By all means shout for your team, but do we need all the anger?
I have now started watching Doncaster Knights.
The main reasons for this are:
I can pay on the gate the full adult price of £10
Although the car park costs £3 there are often offers such as this weekend where if you arrive more than an hour before kick off it is free, obviously hoping early birds will spend in the bar and food concourse.
The quality of food and drink is excellent. The cow pie is grand.
It is a pleasant experience watching a sporting event without people falling out with each other over every refereeing decision.
Generally speaking RU seems to be more professionally run than RL.

These are my reasons for not attending any longer.

Interesting points, Rupert, providing food for thought both metaphorically and literally.

Paying at the gate does seem to be a common point raised. Sometimes it might not always be the obvious things to the club that are creating barriers.

The actions of the RFL are beyond what the club can control but this does seem a point regularly raised.

Quality of food and drink, paying on the gate, costs compared to rugby union, and the atmosphere inside the ground are probably things the club needs to review.

Hi peeps, l have to agree with most of the points that our long lost fan "Rupert bear" has put on here, every season going way back we have had concerns about falling attendances, But in my opinion we need to stop looking at ourselves ( the club, the players, the fans)n that's not where the problem is, the issues are with the whole of the structure of rugby league, everything is centred around SL, but even the big clubs are struggling so the lower leagues have no chance. We have to stop looking over our shoulders at rugby union and making comparison we will never compete with them at club or international level. The rugby football league attendances across the board are poor terrestrial TV coverage is non existent. sky only care about SL.
The RFL are responsible for OUR demise not the club or the fans.
Rant over going to the pub, I will be there Sunday and l recruited a new fan last week who had a great day and is coming again this week..

Well I am at the Knights tomorrow, so I will review the facilities and compare them with the experience at the Dons.

Good stuff S-O. Can you print off a few flyers and hand them out at the game? Only kidding. Looking forward to hearing what you make of it.

Let folk in FREE



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You are a clown Charlie

That's a cross I have to bear ,anyway im over the moon with Donnys success , its my Favorite away game , I love the Keepmoat , I call it Little Wembley , and cant wait for our game there later in the Season .

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hope to see you there.
Hope plenty of fans get down from both sides for what should be a cracking game.

Thought i would put in my two penneth, i know some won't like it but here goes, the club needs to have something to capture the imagination of young kids, something they can identify with. I thought Doncaster Dragons was a good name, and a good marketing opportunity, just badly done at the time. Something needs to be done, we are all aware of that, the club cannot rely on an ageing fan base, it needs younger people to get involved, so give them something that they can talk and get excited about, and gives the club an opportunity to cash in on merchandise that kids want to wear etc. Just my thoughts.

I can tell you what won't help. Been today and found out that the bar upstairs is open to season ticket holders only from the official start of the season. Well that's one punter less as I'm not getting my massively overpriced half time pint from the dinghy bars on the concourse. I have to work some weekends so a season ticket isn't viable, but when I do attend I want to spend my hard earned in a nice comfortable setting. It's not as if the bar is ever heaving anyway!
Who the fook thinks up these ideas? You couldn't make it up.

Car Park one is also now only for Pass Holders (not the same as season tickets) which is a pity as its the nearest Car Park to the main East Side entrance. PS the burger from the concourse wouldn't have been allowed in had I brought it - deemed a dangerous heavy object..

Attendances at the Keepmoat will never improve as far as Dons supporters are concerned.I amongst many others don't see the Keepmoat as a true home of rugby like the wonderful Tattersfield that attracted support from the rugby side of town including such as Askern,Bentley and Toll Bar.
In fact it seems tome that the Dons are treated as "Hangers On" and not really part of the Sport Doncaster set up. There isn't even a banner on the Keepmoat signifying it as the home of the Dons.
Furthermore I believe that the plight we are in now as far as results go is because the team strengthening that was planned has been knocked on the head by the Rovers Board/Executive and Cooke has had to sign other teams cast offs that will never make the grade because they are not likely to get any game time.
Look at Kitrick who allegedly was snapped up ahead of other interested clubs and didn't play against Workington.Instead we played a DR hooker at scrum half. Farcical.
And this is another reason why supporters don't attend, the hook up with the Rovers is not seen as trustworthy.
I'm just grateful that so far the Knights have repelled the idea of jumping onto the Club Doncaster bandwagon.

Careful, Jemmo must be severely tempted to have a moaners only thread.
In fact that might be a laugh ...
The others could throw the cyber equivalent of rotten tomatoes at them.
e.g.
This week in the moaners only stocks is ..... stand-offish .... fill yer boots ... lol

Tatty Feeld, we all have fond affection for the old ground but what can the present set up do to win you and others like you around?

I understand your concerns but do you really think Carl Hall, John Scarrow, and Paul Cooke would accept being used in the way you suggest? I think they are men of integrity and wouldn't stand for it.

Personally, if the people in charge of the Dons are happy with the arrangement, then I'm prepared to give them my backing. Why can't you do the same?

They are happy with the arrangement because they have got to be. Where else would they play,certainly not by moving to Castle Park because Carl Hall told me it' s too expensive to play there.
That's why the Rovers have got them over a barrel.Increased season ticket sales,allegedly the biggest budget ever,money from Sheffield playing at the Keepmoat and to date an increase in attendances.
Get real,where do you think these benefits are going,certainly not into the Don's coffers.
And by the way I am backing them by still going down to matches even though I don't enjoy it any more. I wouldn't go if I hadn't bought a season ticket on the strength of what Carl Hall told me pre season.That was that if he gets his targets he had lined up I would be very exited.
They didn't materialise,I wonder why?

Who were they trying to sign? I've always assumed the majority of our signings were the targets. It's whether they are as exciting as they thought which is the question

The problem with the whole Tattersfield argument is that it doesn't exist anymore, and as you have said there aren't really many other options short of a Dons fan with several spare million to spare and a keen understanding of planning regulations. If we're going to keep saying we'll never achieve anything while Tattersfield doesn't exist we might as pack in now, cause it isn't coming back. If it did still exist we may very well have bigger gates now (less glory grabbers flocking to Leeds and Castleford etc) and be achieving more; similarly if we'd remained unbeaten in all competitions since 1997 we'd probably be doing better now. But neither of those are the case. The club need to concentrate on what they can do with the hand they have been dealt, not what they would do if they could have done if they could change history

I thought this was it?



There's probably an argument to say this thread should be unstickied, baring in mind the guy at the club who was reading doesn't walk there anymore!

Don't suppose anyone applied for the supporters liaison post? That would be the perfect way to get ideas to the right people

1) If the Dons (or the fans) have any aspirations to see us play in the Super League, we've got to play at the Keepmoat. Castle Park doesn't meet the RFL ground regulations. There is no alternative to the Keepmoat.

2) How do you know that money has been siphoned off by the Rovers? Have you got access to some figures that we don't?

3) For all we know, the Dons may have a bulging bank account waiting for the right opportunities to sign some better qualities players.

4) Jemmo's already mentioned it, but who were the players Carl Hall promised you were coming before you got your season ticket?

5) The strategy of signing young players appears to be an intentional one, not one forced upon us by the Rovers. Whether it's the right one is another matter, but I repeat what I said before that I cannot believe John Scarrow, Carl Hall, and Paul Cooke would still be at the club if they were nothing more than puppets for the Rovers.

1. If Castle Park doesn't meet regulations why are we playing there whilst the Keepmoat pitch is being reseeded.

2. Have I said money is being siphoned of by the Rovers? What I have said is that we are not seeing the benefits of season ticket sales,biggest budget etc.

3. Do me a favour

4. As I said he told me I would be exited if he got his targets,no names mentioned.

5. If it was intentional he should have signed good young players not those that other clubs see no future in.At the last forum we were told these young players were signed to cover the back end of the season when injuries are taking their toll. If we are struggling to stay up can you really see these youngsters getting us out of trouble?Once again you are misquoting me because haven't said they are puppets but their aspirations of where they want to take the club are being stifled by being second best in the partnership with the Rovers.

If you are minded to respond please make sure you quote me correctly next time.

The PR side of the Dons is not very good of they let speculation like this go unchecked.

If the club do have reserve funds meant for future advancement, as Donny suggests, we should know about it, because otherwise as things stand it is looking a very Steptoe and Son set-up.
The word cheapskate springs to mind.

They may not read this stuff anyway ... but I would be surprised

Those players were wanted but they chose to leave to come to Donny.. It works both ways!..

[iI will try to respond to the points you made:[/i

1) The reason we can play at Castle Park this season is because the ground regulations for playing in the Championship are less stringent than those when playing in Super League. We couldn't play Super League at Castle Park because the seated areas are not big enough.

2) I'm sorry if I misunderstood you when I said that you were implying the Rovers were siphoning money off. I drew those conclusions from what you wrote: "I believe that the plight we are in now as far as results go is because the team strengthening that was planned has been knocked on the head by the Rovers Board/Executive"

"Increased season ticket sales,allegedly the biggest budget ever,money from Sheffield playing at the Keepmoat and to date an increase in attendances. [uGet real,where do you think these benefits are going,certainly not into the Don's coffers[/u."

I assumed you were suggesting that if the money hadn't gone into the Dons coffers, the only other place it could have gone was to the Rovers.

3) I take it you do not believe the Dons have got any reserves of cash? Where do you believe the money has gone?

4) I'm sorry if Carl's mentioning of exciting signings has disappointed you. I was hoping for at least two or three bigger names to have been signed too.

5) "Once again you are misquoting me because haven't said they (the Dons) are puppets but their aspirations of where they want to take the club are being stifled by being second best in the partnership with the Rovers."

"Dead right,couldn't agree more.Rovers puppets and that's it.,which is why the Keepmoat doesn't have an sign up saying home of Doncaster rlfc."

Again, sorry if I misunderstood you but if the Rovers are stifling what the Dons can do, it appears you are suggesting the Rovers are pulling the strings, and the Dons don't have control of their own destiny. And as the last quote shows, you [uhave[/u used the word puppet yourself!"

'Un-stickied' at the request of the OP.