The Truth...can you handle the truth?

[les@donr]

I just want to add my two cents worth to the conversation. I remember sitting in a cold and wet BV in 1998 watching Rovers play FGR's with another 1,000 souls present. That is our nadir from which the club has had to rebuild its support base. It will take both time and a generation of supporters backing the club for there to be anything like the numbers people dream of that should be filling KM. Also remember in the Conference years where did Donny fans go? To L**ds, Wendies and the Blunts, they now take their kids to these clubs. Rovers is nothing without its fans, and the fanbase will grow through success on the field and the club reinforcing its identity with the people of Doncaster, for them in turn to have pride in their club. RTID.

[edwingray]

My point is that it is surely cheaper for Doncaster people to watch Donny Rovers than it is to travel to Leeds once a fortnight to watch Leeds. Therefore it is not necessarily down to the towns high unemployment for  the Rovers lack of support.

This was true 30+ years ago when I used to watch Rovers for a quid. Compared to the costs of getting to and into Elland Road. Went a few times with mates from school. Would have thought that it still applies today as well, but attendances seem to be generally dropping outside the Premiership. Leeds are 7000 down this year apparently than they had last season.

[WBDRFC]

I Don't think we are the most welcoming to floating supporters,it's a sense of your not a real fan,you shouldn't be here

That's the most sensible thing I've seen on here for a long time. Unless you have sell-out crowds every week and a waiting list for season ticket holders, a club needs floating supporters to be able to survive and compete.

I would say I am a floating supporting. I had a season ticket for a couple of years, but stopped after the last full season of Sean O'Driscoll (I couldn't watch the football they were playing any more). I fell out of the habit of going quicker than I fell into the habit. I went twice last season, and none this season. The club (and the KMS before the club took control of the stadium) made some mistakes with pricing, ease of purchasing tickets, marketing. Some of these may have been rectified, but the fact is they are still on my mind, and now I'm quite happy spending my Saturday afternoons watching Jeff Stelling.

[River Don]

I Don't think we are the most welcoming to floating supporters,it's a sense of your not a real fan,you shouldn't be here

That's the most sensible thing I've seen on here for a long time. Unless you have sell-out crowds every week and a waiting list for season ticket holders, a club needs floating supporters to be able to survive and compete.

I would say I am a floating supporting. I had a season ticket for a couple of years, but stopped after the last full season of Sean O'Driscoll (I couldn't watch the football they were playing any more). I fell out of the habit of going quicker than I fell into the habit. I went twice last season, and none this season. The club (and the KMS before the club took control of the stadium) made some mistakes with pricing, ease of purchasing tickets, marketing. Some of these may have been rectified, but the fact is they are still on my mind, and now I'm quite happy spending my Saturday afternoons watching Jeff Stelling.

That's not about the club not being welcoming enough though is it?

You're just more comfortable spending Satdi afternoon indoors with the telly.

[i_ateallthepies]

My point is that it is surely cheaper for Doncaster people to watch Donny Rovers than it is to travel to Leeds once a fortnight to watch Leeds. Therefore it is not necessarily down to the towns high unemployment for  the Rovers lack of support.

Those donny folk chose to follow Leeds (and the sheffield clubs) decades ago when those clubs were flying high and Rovers were shyte and never looking like being anything other than shyte.

BB, you're an avid fan of your chosen club.  Could ANYBODY pursuade you to drop that allegiance and go support Leeds or any other?

[southwestexile]

I'll say it.
Watch Weeds fly next year with their new investor. Of course, we don't do things like that

Funny, the comment from my Leeds supporting mate was that he hopes we stay up as they will need 3 teams worse than them to stay up.  He's looking forward to getting 0-0 every game and surviving on 46 points

[mrfrostsdad]

Hmmm South West. I reckon Chilano or whatever the #### his name is will spend loads of dosh this summer and buy his way back into the Prem. They may not do it next season (look now much Leicester and Cardiff spent and they didn't do it first season) but he will spend big.

I reckon they will be back in the if time in the next 2 to 3 years and the simple fact is, we won't. Because of one reason: money. I don't know how much money the new owner at Leeds has, but he won't be frightened of spending it, unlike at our club I'm afraid. And don't talk about financial fair play, it doesn't exist. It has more holes in it than our defence

[drfc1951]

How much do you suggest our owners spend of their money , so that you can watch us in the premier league

[andysly]

Would I rather be potentially going down to L1 with our board and philosophy or dreaming of the Premier League with the Italian bloke. I'll take the first option everytime.
Leeds will be screwed again, and so would we have been in the Autumn.

[mrfrostsdad]

How do you know? And that's why we will always be a 'little' club. No ambition from board or supporters.
And I have never, ever once suggested THIS board had to spend any money they didn't want to. There was an alternative

[silent majority]

What alternative was that then?

[Filo]

What alternative was that then?

I think it's a veiled reference to the Take over saga, a few more will resurface when the invitable happens

[silent majority]

Oh dear. How wrong can you be.

[i_ateallthepies]

Oh dear. How wrong can you be.

My guess SM, no limit.

[atick45]

Barnsley Donny, Sheff weds Sheff utd Rotherham and Scunthorpe All within 15 to 20 miles apart from each other Dont think any other area has teams in such close proximity ,You can count Scum inthat as well. Probably apart from scunny and Rotherham all have been more successful than Rovers apart from last few years. Rovers have always had a core of support and will stuggle to compete with the others. You have to into town during the day and there seems to be more foreigners than english and they are the ones working.

[graingrover]

 I just saw this and it made me realise how very different our fans are ..



Offical TykesMOAN celebration Thread - For Moaners
Well done lads - proved you all right - bet you are all celebrating with a pint at our relegation safe in the knowledge that by knocking the team , players and manager (s) all season you can have the last laugh

 Seriously well done - makes you proud inside
 You can all come on here now and have a rite good moan - bet you were bricking it when we beat Charlton almost ruined your fun.

 Keep up the good work on here ..

 One small mercy see you are posting you are not renewing your season tickets - thank god might get some positive people down t'well for a change not moaning defeatist -STAY AWAY :star:

[DonnyBazR0ver]

I think there's some differing opinions about ambition. I'm sure the former Champions of Europe have someway to go to satisfy the lust for Premiership and European football. A big factor why Donny Whites followed the big club. Our recent success by comparison outweighs anything they have achieved over the same timescale. What if they kick on from here? Good luck to them. It will take a huge budget before they can once more rub shoulders with liverpool and Man U where they think they belong. Is it realistic to follow them financially or be fooled in to believing £10m will keep up with them. Wake up, they were losing £1m a month!

[mrfrostsdad]

Baz, I respect your opinion more than most on here. Your arguments are always well presented and not without merit. We have never been a 'big' club because we have never had the ambition from board or supporters to become a 'big' club.
All the usual suspects can come on here and spout their usual diatribe about how we shouldn't accept 'outside' investment. 'Because it's not good for the club' what rubbish! And how do they know? The truth is they don't.

I'm desperate for anyone to come Into my football club and invest the money we need to become established in the Championship, push on and hopefully, one day, become a premier league club. I want to see Donny Rovers in the Premier League in my lifetime. John Ryan would give is a chance if he had that sort of money, but he doesn't unfortunately. If I had £600m or whatever in the bank, a decent percentage of that would go to my football team, because I am passionate about them. Our board freely admit they are not 'football men'.

And, for your info, I have renewed my season ticket for next season and will do so this time next year, whatever division we are in

[silent majority]

Oh dear.

'I'm desperate for somebody to spend millions of £'s on my football club so I can watch Premiership football'.

And bugger the consequences!

[mrfrostsdad]

Tell you what SM, if you want to support a 'little club' forever, go and watch Accrington Stanley or Goole Town

[Filo]

Tell you what SM, if you want to support a 'little club' forever, go and watch Accrington Stanley or Goole Town

How old are you?


Grow up!

[Sprotyrover]

Baz, I respect your opinion more than most on here. Your arguments are always well presented and not without merit. We have never been a 'big' club because we have never had the ambition from board or supporters to become a 'big' club.
All the usual suspects can come on here and spout their usual diatribe about how we shouldn't accept 'outside' investment. 'Because it's not good for the club' what rubbish! And how do they know? The truth is they don't.

I'm desperate for anyone to come Into my football club and invest the money we need to become established in the Championship, push on and hopefully, one day, become a premier league club. I want to see Donny Rovers in the Premier League in my lifetime. John Ryan would give is a chance if he had that sort of money, but he doesn't unfortunately. If I had £600m or whatever in the bank, a decent percentage of that would go to my football team, because I am passionate about them. Our board freely admit they are not 'football men'.

And, for your info, I have renewed my season ticket for next season and will do so this time next year, whatever division we are in

So you would if you could but You can't so you shan't .

[BillyStubbsTears]

Tell you what SM, if you want to support a 'little club' forever, go and watch Accrington Stanley or Goole Town

Tell you what Frosty. If you want to watch a small club forever, let a Belize-based hedge fund buy it.

[silent majority]

Tell you what SM, if you want to support a 'little club' forever, go and watch Accrington Stanley or Goole Town

I'm quite happy supporting my team at whatever level we find ourselves at. It's you who has the problem.

So, can I suggest if it's Premiership football you need then there a few within reasonable travelling distance of where you live?

[Dare to dream!]

Tell you what SM, if you want to support a 'little club' forever, go and watch Accrington Stanley or Goole Town

I'm quite happy supporting my team at whatever level we find ourselves at. It's you who has the problem.

So, can I suggest if it's Premiership football you need then there a few within reasonable travelling distance of where you live?

I really hope the board don't have the same mentality as you.

Even though JR didn't always conduct himself in the best manner, say stupid things and act like a child you know he wouldn't have this bullshit attitude of 'Im happy at whatever level we play at'. No matter what JR want's DRFC at the highest level. I get the impression TB isn't all too fussed. I have't heard any rallying cries from him in these tough last few weeks.

[River Don]

Tell you what SM, if you want to support a 'little club' forever, go and watch Accrington Stanley or Goole Town

I'm quite happy supporting my team at whatever level we find ourselves at. It's you who has the problem.

So, can I suggest if it's Premiership football you need then there a few within reasonable travelling distance of where you live?

I really hope the board don't have the same mentality as you.

Even though JR didn't always conduct himself in the best manner, say stupid things and act like a child you know he wouldn't have this bullshit attitude of 'Im happy at whatever level we play at'. No matter what JR want's DRFC at the highest level. I get the impression TB isn't all too fussed. I have't heard any rallying cries from him in these tough last few weeks.

We know TB isn't vocal like JR and prefers to stay out of the limelight.

He will see it as leaving it to the football people to deal with.

[silent majority]

Tell you what SM, if you want to support a 'little club' forever, go and watch Accrington Stanley or Goole Town

I'm quite happy supporting my team at whatever level we find ourselves at. It's you who has the problem.

So, can I suggest if it's Premiership football you need then there a few within reasonable travelling distance of where you live?

I really hope the board don't have the same mentality as you.

Even though JR didn't always conduct himself in the best manner, say stupid things and act like a child you know he wouldn't have this bullshit attitude of 'Im happy at whatever level we play at'. No matter what JR want's DRFC at the highest level. I get the impression TB isn't all too fussed. I have't heard any rallying cries from him in these tough last few weeks.

Well now you're confusing the discussion by mixing up different parts of the argument.

I said I was happy at whatever level we find ourselves at, and I stand by that. That doesn't mean I wouldn't want DRFC to compete at the highest level either.

But it seems to me that PL football is a 'must have' with some of you no matter what the consequences of attempting that are. It's no good having the ambition without the means to achieve that. We don't have the means, nor are we a big enough club to justify it on match day receipts either.

JR did have the ambition, the truth of the matter is he didn't have the funds to match it. Hence why our rise up the leagues is due to two other people, TB and DW. You might not like it, you might want to criticise them for what you see as a lack of ambition, but you should be careful of what you wish for. Football has a habit of letting you down badly.

[mjg]

I totally agree with the thread , we are out of our depth at this level , I said it at the end of last season and I say it now , but we are going to be ok in league one 😜

[mjg]

If we filled the ground every week it still would not be enough at this level , one decent player at this level is 15 to 20k a week

[i_ateallthepies]

Baz, I respect your opinion more than most on here. Your arguments are always well presented and not without merit. We have never been a 'big' club because we have never had the ambition from board or supporters to become a 'big' club.
All the usual suspects can come on here and spout their usual diatribe about how we shouldn't accept 'outside' investment. 'Because it's not good for the club' what rubbish! And how do they know? The truth is they don't.

I'm desperate for anyone to come Into my football club and invest the money we need to become established in the Championship, push on and hopefully, one day, become a premier league club. I want to see Donny Rovers in the Premier League in my lifetime. John Ryan would give is a chance if he had that sort of money, but he doesn't unfortunately. If I had £600m or whatever in the bank, a decent percentage of that would go to my football team, because I am passionate about them. Our board freely admit they are not 'football men'.

And, for your info, I have renewed my season ticket for next season and will do so this time next year, whatever division we are in

One word is enough to show just how much you know about the realities of football finances.


Just tell me would you, what is the definition of the word 'investment' because in any financial context I can think of it is inextricably linked with getting your money back and more besides.


How many people who 'invest' in football clubs in this country have actually achieved that?  Only one that I can think of.