The club has announced there will be a Fans Panel Meeting on Thursday 10th October.

Gavin Baldwin (Club Doncaster CEO), Carl Hall (Dons CEO), Ray Green (Stalwart), Shaun Lockwood (Marketing & Communications), and Mark Hughesman (Marketing) are normally in attendance.

Wanderer (Gary) and I (Mike) are the forum posters who normally attend.

I have received no copy of the agenda yet but assume the club will give updates on season ticket costs and other general matters.

As time has passed since the original meeting date (several weeks before the season ended), could anyone wishing to ask a question please either send me a Private Message or post it below. Please state who your question is intended for.

The club do not like anonymous questions. To be assured of an increased chance of an answer, please add your real name (either on here or on the PM you send me). The minutes of the meeting are made publicly available. They will include the questioners' names.

Could you please post questions no later than 8pm on Wednesday evening. Thanks!

One point I was considering raising is whether paying for season tickets by monthly Direct Debits, to help spread the cost over 12 months, could be an option.

Some fans may be struggling financially, this would be a step in the right direction towards keeping them or helping bring in new supporters.

What does everyone think?

Has anyone got any other ideas to help boost crowds (apart from having a winning team ).

Poor communications by the club is often mentioned. What would you like to see the club do better?

I like it!

The agenda for last night's meeting was:

1) Welcome
2) Minutes from last meeting
3) Introduction of the Legacy Officer
4) Marketing Update/To Include Season Tickets
5) Questions from Carol Green - Supporters Liaison Officer
6) Any Other Business
7) Date of next meeting

The club will be making the minutes available in due course.

Minutes from the meeting, as supplied by secretary Louise Jankowski:

Fans Panel Meeting
Thursday 10th October 2019


Attendees: Barry Brown, Gary Fox, Phil Buxton, Mike Lindley, Carol Lindley, Carl Hall,
Gavin Baldwin, Shaun Lockwood, Mark Hughesman, Martin Rowlands, Ray Green, Stewart Piper, Jackie Green

Apologies: Stewart Thompson, Chris Scorah, Scott Goddard


1. Welcome – CH thanked everyone for attending the meeting.

2. Minutes From Last Meeting – The previous minutes were discussed with various opinions shared.

The Wembley trip to The Challenge Cup Final went ahead and was run by Ray & Stuart and everyone had a great day.

Questions from the Forum – Previous meeting

A) We didn’t put any buses on to Featherstone but we did put a subsidised coach on to Workington.

B) Regarding us setting up a ladies team, Rhianna is setting up at Toll Bar, we want to show her our support. It should go well and we will see how that goes for starters.

C) CH has not heard anything about League 1 in 2021, will update when he has further information.

D) MH Dons4Life meeting went ahead, with a list of things we have done this year, will be publicised shortly. We are looking to relaunch before the end of the year, with our priority at this present time being the season tickets.

3. Introduction of The Legacy Officer – CH introduced Martin Rowlands as the new Legacy officer for the next two years for the World Cup and has been tasked with other things for us on match days and the academy. MR informed everyone he is looking into getting more activities happening on game day, stadium tours, mascots, the more children we have, the more parent’s we have. The main thing for me is engaging more with the community, schools and local teams. I will be speaking to local teams to get them playing before matches u7, u8, etc, talking to schools to bring years 3&4 & 5&6 down for tag rugby, a dance school from Armthorpe will be performing before the game and at half time. We want the children to enjoy the experience and they will want to return. People are there just need to engage with them and get them interested. We are working with The RFL with developments of the world cup, main aim at the minute is match day.

4. Marketing Update – Season Tickets – A discussion was made by SL regarding ticket revenue over the past few seasons and information was handed out. MH/SL presented various season ticket packages that have been put together, with an official announcement to follow in the next week or two. Opinions/thoughts were shared regarding the various offers. Different ideas were discussed regarding what would sell season tickets and bring more people to the game.

5. Questions from The Panel –

A) BB – Without mentioning any names how many players are on board at the moment?
We have approx 16 players on board at the moment, with more signings to be announced over the coming weeks.

B) BB – Can the club announce things quicker than Social Media?
Anything not announced by the club and is seen on Social Media is just a rumour. For example everyone knew Luke Gale was going to Leeds before it was announced by Leeds! The club announce signings when everything is concrete and signed off.

C) ML – If you had 24/26 players in your squad would players leave if not getting game time?
No as they will be eligible to play for community clubs, it will help to cover any injuries that we may come across. We can also have any super league players on loan if needed too. I will also be revisiting clubs we have a good relationship with.

D) BB – When will the season tickets be going on sale?
SL advised they will be going on sale towards the end of October, date to be confirmed.

E) SP – Will be have any friendlies?
The coach only wants one or two, so we need to choose wisely. We picked up a lot of injuries in pre-season last year and we don’t want this to happen again. We have Pete Greens testimonial to think about as well.

F) ML – It was mentioned last time about money being invested in local clubs?
Yes all community clubs can apply for Rlwc2021 Legacy funds, We have assisted the community clubs in applying for funding and believe one or two of these have already been successful with their applications.





6. Any other Business – SP commented it was refreshing that club is in the state it has been, there has been some great games of rugby. I know we didn’t get promotion. The season overall as a fan has been brilliant. CH pointed out that we were the last League 1 team in the 1895 Cup and last league 1 club Challenge Cup. We finished 4th in the League, we thought we would go into the play offs strong, but we had at least 4 bad injuries, which set us back. We will move forward with our own team, no dual reg and a full time Doncaster Head Coach. We have the backing of the board and early preparations are being made for the season ahead.

7. Date of Next Meeting – TBC by email

Am I OK, to copy those minutes onto the Facebook group

Yes, for sure, Jemmo. They're for the public to see. In the past the club have posted them on their website but this doesn't seem to happen with regularity now.

I have already posted them on FB Jemmo.

Cheers

Will the club avoid taking games away from Don caster in 2020.

At the meeting, Shaun Lockwood stated that the Season Ticket will make clear that some games (maybe two games) could be played outside the borough.

I'm sure the club will do what they can to reverse fixtures wherever possible but I believe this does rely on the co-operation of our opponents. If they dig their heels in and won't reverse the games, the problem remains the Dons.

Imagine Newcastle's first three fixtures of the new season were: Barrow (away), Dons (home), and London (away). If we approached them to play their "home game" against us in Doncaster as the keepmoat was unavailable in June (when we were scheduled to play them), as a Newastle representative, I'd be inclined to tell the Dons to forget it. Newcastle wouldn't want to start with three consecutive away games. It wouldn't be fair on them or their supporters.

So, I can fully understand why clubs might not want to reverse fixtures, leaving us in a predictament.

It's a shame we're not able to use the Athletics Pitch as a back up but I suspect that similar to Oldham's plight at their Vestacare Stadium, the Athletics Pitch would only meet league requirements whilst we're in League One anyway.

From what I believe Doncaster Athletics club have the rights to the track and field and pay for all associated costs incurred.

Club Doncaster would have to spend a large amount of money getting the field up to standard.
Hardly worth the outlay for one or two games as the revenue wouldn't cover the costs.
I believe the figure of 20k was mentioned some time ago , surely that money would be better spent on a couple of quality players.

Yes I believe that to be true

I appreciate that from the clubs point of view, as fans we're asking for the best possible player recruitment as the best place for the clubs money, but also want them to pay so we don't have to have any games away from the Keepmoat. Oh and we only want to spend £60 on a season ticket