Re: What can the club do to improve attendances? : Wed Mar 04, 2015 4:18 pm  

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.

Re: What can the club do to improve attendances? : Wed Mar 04, 2015 4:28 pm  

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

Re: What can the club do to improve attendances? : Mon Mar 09, 2015 3:08 pm  

Tatty Feeld wrote:

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.

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?

Re: What can the club do to improve attendances? : Tue Mar 10, 2015 3:41 pm  

Double Movement wrote:

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?

[Jemmo]

Re: What can the club do to improve attendances? : Tue Mar 10, 2015 3:54 pm  

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

[Jemmo]

Re: What can the club do to improve attendances? : Tue Mar 10, 2015 4:04 pm  

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

[Jemmo]

Re: What can the club do to improve attendances? : Tue Mar 10, 2015 4:06 pm  

Stand-Offish wrote:

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

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

Re: What can the club do to improve attendances? : Tue Mar 10, 2015 6:00 pm  

Tatty Feeld wrote:

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?

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.

Re: What can the club do to improve attendances? : Tue Mar 10, 2015 9:55 pm  

Double Movement wrote:

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.

Re: What can the club do to improve attendances? : Tue Mar 10, 2015 10:39 pm  

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