Please excuse my ignorance (Scorpions fan) obviously now you are owned by DRFC the Keepmoat is an obvious choice.

But having just seen photo's of the Knights ground it looks impressive and more suited to your crowd size. So therefore how come it has never been an option to share the ground?

It has been discussed over recent years, but never come off .

Castle Park is more suited to Rugby than the Keepmoat as regards the size of the stadium. The atmosphere would be much better. The food and drink available is of a far higher standard than the Keepmoat and the prices are reasonable. So as the OP says why don't we play there?

We donot play there because we are owned by the Rovers. They will want us at the Keepmoat using the facilities & making a profit .

To be fair to the new owners things appear to be going well all it needs now is more fans thro the turnstiles.

COYD

We weren't owned by the Rovers before though. We could have moved ages since but we didn't, preferring to carry on at a souless, sterile stadium which is far, far to big for our needs. I don't think a potential new fan would be impressed by the matchday experience/atmosphere at the KM.
I can't really see the crowds going up, would anyone other than a diehard RL fan understand the forthcoming league structure?

I really really don't understand why people are finding the new structure complicated, it's simple!. It's a real confidence boost for me though, I must be a genius!

I repeat my question would anyone other than a die hard understand the new structure? Would they even know about it, or for that matter do most of the towns population even know what division we are in?

Going back to the Castle Park issue , we are where we are ,lets give the Rovers experience a chance. I donot go for all this looking back stuff it tends to be negative !

Just my opinion fellow Dons fans .

I agree with you Weighman.
Lets look forward, at the moment everything looks positive, to me anyway.
and the keepmoat would be a criteria for super league, and we now have the chance to get there.

the boards plan is for us to be there within 5 yrs.
Lets get behind them and push us towards that goal.

IMO,i personally think this is why the Rovers bought into the Dons.
Getting into superleague will be less costly than getting into the premiership.
And Could fetch in alot of finances.

The more i look at the structure the more i think it will be a revelation. Its going to create games at the end of the season (in our league not superleague) like the football league playoffs. Everyone thought that was dodgy when it was introduced.The final is now the most lucrative in world football.

I fully agree the positive comments made by Weighman, onedon, and Karlos.

There are lots of reasons to be positive:

1) The Rovers and Dons tie up gives us greater scope to develop going forward
2) We're playing at a good ground that would allow us to enter Super League
3) The RL structure means that Super League rugby is a possibility
4) We have a team that should be competitive at this level
5) We have a coach that most others teams would love to have

Can't wait for the season to start!

i think that P.Cooke could be coaching in Super league in 3 -4 years
and hopefully that will be with the DONS.

but i think this first year could be crucial for him.
i.e keeping us in the Championship.

I think if that is Cooke's goal, we can turn off the lights now.
It's surely to make the top six at least again.

I agree with S-O , 5th would be a good position to finish in.

I don't think we should under-estimate any of the teams in our league.

It's a massive season for everyone. Realistically, finishing 5th would be a really good achievement for us. Anything better would be a bonus but the obvious priority is not to get in a scrap for the relegation spots.