Steve they Sheffield always have had good sponsors over the years.We seem to be doing a lot better regarding match & player sponsorship of late.

We took a chance on Paul Cooke because we, the fans, were prepared to put our hands in our pockets to fund his wages, and we're still doing so. If we'd not done that, he wouldn't be at the club.

We'd all love the club to speculate to accumulate but it would do us no good to speculate and go bust. The club can't afford to promise wages to someone in the hope the crowds will increase to cover those costs. It's too risky.

The only way I can see the club being able to do something like this is if the RFL get their act together, get a main sponsor that invests significant money, and that money is then more evenly distributed amongst all clubs, including those in our league.

This will give the game the shot in the arm that it needs, and probably help get old supporters back, although there are plenty of things we can do collectively to help move us forwards.

The links between players and fans are very important. People support football clubs because they have "heroes". Super League clubs have heroes for their fans. We're lacking in that department at the moment and I'm sure that holds us back.

One simple thing that I feel the club can do to help, is to have the subs benches on the same side of the pitch as the fans. When players come on and off we can applaud them, they'll give us a wave, and it helps to link us all together.

At the moment, players go on and come off and nobody notices, with announcements quite often happening some time after the substitution has been made.

It would cost nothing to do this and would bring us all closer together.

Match day prices are a tricky business. £15 is a lot of money but if the cost was dropped, would more people come along, or would it create a problem rather than solve one?

Issues such as parking costs and travel problems are areas that should be looked into, as they certainly don't help the club.

As mentioned earlier, I fear many of the problems are chicken and egg. We need more support to move forwards but the supporters want success and changes before they will come to watch us.

Personally, as long as I can afford to go, I'll be there supporting the Dons. I don't attach any strings. I'm proud of Doncaster, proud of the Dons, and feel I'm doing my bit to help all the people who bust a gut to keep the show on the road for us.

I hope we can do something to help entice the old fans back. It is important that everyone is listened to because collectively we can build Doncaster into a better team.

All the teams outside of the SL need to be concerned about there home attendance of the nine championship games played yesterday the attendances at the following games were lower than the Dons
Batley 450
Hunslet 432
South Wales 305
Gloucester 103
Rochdale 451

Which tends to make you think the product is wrong.

Some of the reasons I don't go to games anymore

Scrums are a disgrace

Feeding the scrums a joke

Far to much kicking of the ball straight in to opponents hands

Five drives & a kick and hunt the mistake.

They have taken a lot individual skill out of the game.

Wave your leg at the play the ball if you don't make contact with the ball its considered okay as you attempted to play the ball.

Referees inconsistent with their decisions.

If the RFL sort out most of the above I may consider to start watching the sport again

Cannot see you coming back then Geoff.

Correct

There is nothing wrong with product on show especially at the keepmoat , yes we don't win every week but neither do fev , the difference is media coverage , the West Yorkshire teams all get coverage on bbc radio Leeds , Sheffield , trax, Hallam ect do nothing for us (or the Eagles) there's next to nothing in the local papers , which potentially reach thousand of homes it all creates a sense of and interest and gets people talking. promotion and religation will help a small degree in that senses ,if it is communicated properly to the floating fans. I agree that the rfl need to do more too interms of bringing the games back to the people, that fact you can only see a handful of games for free on the bbc and if you want to watch our league you have to pay even more on top of your sky subscription , it's crazy !! People want sport put in front of them in their faces as there is that much on tv .

Trax have been good in the past, but I've not heard anything from them in ages (although, they seem to be far more focussed on Donny Rovers), Radio Sheffield have been decent when they've had chance to, but with 5 professional football teams to deal with in South Yorkshire, we are far down the list of clubs to deal with for them. I don't really think Hallam FM know we exist either.

One thing I have noticed is that the majority of the Dons photos and stuff have disappeared from around the corridors of the ground, having been replaced with photos of Rovers latest 'success' (I wonder if that will be replaced with photos of their next relegation?). The local print media try their hardest to give us a fair ride, but, again, they have to deal with several other sporting teams around Doncaster and the local region.

If the product is so good & the local media are partly to blame for not promoting the Dons why are the crowds down & so low at the majority of all the other championship teams?

General malaise? Pricing? Or just being fed up with the product on offer? For the first time in a long time, both Challenge Cup semis failed to sell out this weekend as well.

It right annoys me that the newspapers always put rovers on the back page especially wen ther not even playing we shud have the limelight for a change.

I do think rugby league needs to bring promotion/reglation bak it makes the game more exciting, ive only been a Dons fan for bout 10 years but how gud wo it wen relagated teams like castleford came to visit i can remember them coming to belle vue think our first league game that season n over 3000 ppl ther and didnt lose by that much not like wen they came to keepmoat couple years later n thrashed us : (

I do think tho we need to improve the match day experience like sumtimes u come into the stadium n it just silence no music or ote. The music needs to b better more upbeat songs and not just todays music. Dont know if this wud b possible but wen its a nice day having tables n chairs outside the stadium b4 u come in n having sumthin like a bottle bar simular to wot thet got a batley?

A lot of the time, it depends on who is up in the box. I'd put all sorts on if I had the chance, but then again, I've got a weird taste in music.

Most people arrive within 15-20 mins before kick off , by then players are on the pitch, so anything that is put on as pre match entertainment would need to be away from the playing field, and with so few in the stadium up until that time would probably be a waste. They tried with a veterans match before the sheffield game last season, hardly any there, and because of pitch wear, i would guess that having the under 18s playing as a prelude would be a non starter. Most go to watch the game, then leave. Kids entertainment might get more in, but costs in outlay first. I would guess that being tied to the stadium doesn't help much, as regards what can be made in revenue from food/drink. Like others i think a lot of it is down to media coverage, but you can't force them to give it. If there was a simple answer every club would do it.

It's a much more competitive world now than it was years ago.

People have far more choice with what to do with their time and I'm sure that many people pay their Sky Sports subscription and stay at home to watch sport instead of seeing it live.

We can't necessarily conclude that the rugby league product is the sole cause of declining attendances. It's the competition it faces from elsewhere.

It seemed like a poor decision from the RFL to allow television coverage of our league to leave Sky. The end result is that it is the die-hard fans who will pay more yet again, whilst this coverage won't attract any new supporters to the game.

Exposure through the various means, newspapers, radio, tv, etc, is critical and we're not winning the battle on that front.

One of the ways forward, and I hope the RL are listening, is for them to team up with Sky and create a dedicated sports channel for our sport, as they've done with motor racing. They should cover all the leagues and feature the amateur game too.

This would be the best single platform we could have to promote the game. It might seem ambitious but these are the type of initiatives the leaders of the game need to be looking at.

Doing this would help attract a large blue chip company to sponsor the game and in turn it would generate more income to be filtered down from the top.

There are no easy answers. The clubs and the RFL have to work together. Clubs can help shape their own future to a degree but the RFL are the key players in where the games goes to next.

Welcome to the forum...good start!

Cant remember the last time CC semis sold out