Just 560 (lowest of the season) today . The average attendance if my maths is correct 746.
Last home game we attracted 721 against Hunslet , we won that game, won at Batley a top 5 side. Yet we get 560 today.
The club have tried Ladies days etc . to try & get more fans to attend.
The directors/staff , coaching team are doing a brilliant job & it looks like we will achieve our aim of stopping in the championship.
Next season we need to attract better players to have any chance of finishing in a position where we will get into SL 2 , if that's the way the RL goes in 2015.

Please come along next Sunday & support the club.

I am sure this post will attract the fans who have fallen out with game &/or the Dons but I am concerned about our level of support .

Paul

Good post . I thought after last season ,'with the rugby served up and what was achieved, this seasons crowd figures would be much better. I echo what has been said by Paul, the club needs more support, its a great club.

Good post, Paul.

I think we all feel somewhat frustrated that no matter what the club do or achieve, the people of Doncaster won't turn out in numbers and support them.

I wish there was a magic wand we could wave to make things better.

If we could get crowds of 2,000, which for a town the size of Doncaster ought to be achievable, we should be able to compete for a top four place in the second tier of the game.

I really feel for Ray Green and all the good people at the club who work so hard for us. They deserve better.

If you've not been to a game for a while, but you're reading this, please try to get down next Sunday.

I haven't fallen out with the Dons but I have fallen out with the way the game is played today, after supporting the Dons home & away since 1960 through thick & thin (mostly thin) I just didn't enjoy watching rugby league anymore & about two years ago I stopped going to the Dons because I found watching the game very boring & predictable, after fifty years of supporting the Dons it was a very difficult decision for me to take and at first it was very hard getting used to not going to a game on a Sunday but thanks to those people at the RFL I have managed to kick a life time habit.

I can more or less say the same, it was very difficult at first not going after all these years

but it is the way our great game has changed that has put me off and the dual registration

thing was the straw that broke the camels back for me.

Geoff and Huby,

The powers that be need to take note of the reasons why people like yourselves stop supporting rugby. The game (and the Dons) can't afford to lose life-long supporters.

Is there anything that the Dons can do to try to persuade you to give them another go?

Will the proposed changes to bring back promotion and relegation make a difference?

It'd be good to know your thoughts.

I am in a similar boat to both my dad and Huby.

Yesterday was my first match this season and while we won I didn't feel enthused to return for another game and I cannot quite put my finger on why as I used to be a home and away follower. For me there needs to be something about the side to capture my imagination as a young lad back in '86 the stories my dad would tell me of Tony Kemp were one of the things that made me want to go and once I saw him on the pitch I was hooked.

I concede Paul Cooke is an excellent player but nothing captures the imagination like an overseas signing, surely with our clubs connections down under we could get one board for next year, A young Kiwi trying to find his was in the game.......If the Eagles can fund three overseas players surely we could sign one..In recent years look at the excitement generated by the likes of Zeb and Corie.

The return of P & R I think would add drama to the mix, I am pretty sure that some of the better teams in CL1 (Leigh, Fax, Fev, Eagles) would have put up a better game against Wigan than London did.

The game isnt the same as the one I started to watch back in '86. It lacks something, the format of everything seems to change every year. Personally I am not a fan of us at the Keepmoat its a lovely stadium but until we start attracting crowds of 2000-3000 its always going to feel empty and without atmosphere.

I think one thing people have forgotten about yesterday was that it was the first weekend of the school holidays so lot of people will have gone away. It was also CC Semi's weekend and a I can imagine a few people would have elected to stay at home and watch the Warrington/Hull match on telly.

You have made some good points. I too started watching the Dons around 86 and never missed a game home or away for many years. It was a great atmosphere at Tattersfield under that tin roof and i really looked forwards to a Sunday afternoon. Somehow the game doesn't seem to have the same appeal any more. The advent of Super League has seen the gap between the two divisions grow to an unbreachable chasm. Once upon a time i looked forwards to the Challenge Cup knowing that we really had a chance of causing an upset, but realistically that has gone unless Super league returns to semi pro. The pot of gold at the end of the rainbow has been taken away. We are a Championship side and that is it.

We could get into SL2 in 2015 , but we need bigger crowds and/or some investment .

COYD trying to remain positive but still concerned.

I am not sure on the fixation with SL, if you are not one of the top sides you are not going to get a look in at all sadly.

I think another French side would be "crowbarred" in over any of the very well run Champsionship clubs.

I the the club wants ideas for getting people in they need to look at things like pricing and the match day experience.

Car Parking is expensive...yes there are free alternatives but you have to have been going a while to know of them, little or no bus service from the town centre during the weekends.

Entrance fee, its pricey £15 is a lot of money to some folks and if you factor in couples or families coming then it starts to add up to a lot of cash for 1.5 hours of entertainment. Going to the cinema is cheaper and that's a rip off at £8 a seat.

Social media is a great technology and gives the club a free method to communicate with the public at large, the club in general is doing a good job with it, but we could do with a little more I feel, match hi lights, player interviews (videos) all brings the supporters closer to the club

I work at the college with two of our current squad and the club doesn't have a massive presence here, maybe something could be done to get students into the game at a reduced rate. Same for the kids maybe free kids tickets as long as they bring an adult, if the kids get hooked the adults will take them.

The club/sport needs to be more attractive then the cinema, football or any other summer activities as this is what it has to compete with so it needs to be keenly priced and accessible so that its an attractive option to individuals and families alike.

Nice to hear from Steve again.
I tend to agree with him.
For Christ's sake let's have some kiwis in our side.
I can't get my head around this one what with Carl Hall in charge.

I can't however see the point about the sport being predictable.
It's still bloody exciting!
I know too many stay-aways, dozens of them.
What do they want?

I think by predictably they mean 4 drives and a kick.

There are very very few players in our sport who can make something from nothing who use skill and guile to unlock the oppositions defense.

Yesterdays semi final was one of the best games I've seen in quite some time, a good entertaining contest.

I also think there is nothing the fans love more than a player who plays without fear and just runs there blood to water for the club and they become a folk hero of sorts..we have had these in the past Audley, Parkie, Asa Amone, Billy Conway and due to the nature of the game now we dont seem to have these players around which is a real shame...I'd say Dennis is our closest these days.

In the past the club has spent money they couldn't afford & look what has happened . Will always remember under JCW we announced plans for Super League , the next week we went into administration.
The current regime have spent only what they can afford . So we cannot afford Kiwi's etc .
If we want better players we need more income = bigger crowds. Catch 22.
Anyway thanks for the response but no one has said they will return !

Do season tickets count towards the attendance figures even if they don't turn up?

I'd like to know how the Eagles manage to finance 3 south sea islanders.

I have never stated the club should throw money at the side we know this doesn't work, but they club needs signings to spark the imagination of supporters.

I don't think signing a relative unknown from the south seas is beyond the club given our track record of them leaving us for bigger and better things.

Look at the folk hero status players like Sonny,Vila and Carl achieved having arrived at the Dons as relative unknowns.

The 3 at Sheffield are now sort after by the bigger clubs and have helped make them a force in the Championship.

If you want me to be honest Paul I shall, the signing of Cooke last year was a marque one and convinced me that the club wanted to progress and as a result I attended 90% of all home games, the signings this summer were uninspiring and didn't show any real ambition to me. Feeling the club would struggle I decided to place my hard earned wages into other activities rather than watching a team getting tonked week on week. Recent form against the better sides has rekindled my interest. I am pretty sure results against some of the lower teams and the performances they team have put in at these games has lead to people thinking their Sundays would be better spent elsewhere.

Looking at it now save for dual reg I think there is only Waller and Dennis playing now out of our new signings.

I agree its catch 22 but sometimes you have to speculate to accumulate, we took a chance on Paul Cooke and its paid off we need to repeat that for the coming season so people have can see that the club wants to progress and compete week in week out with the likes of Fev, Leigh, Fax and the Eagles.

Just for reference Batley's crowd against Town (two teams above us in the league is reported at being less than 500).