Club Doncaster chief executive Gavin Baldwin has written an open letter to supporters following the Government announcement of a second national lockdown on October 31.
Dear all,
The news of a further lockdown has disappointed us all here at Club Doncaster, and while we are understanding of the reasons and that the safety of the public must come first, the decision once again impacts our club.
With fans not able to attend games, the car boot market and Club Doncaster Academy pitch hire were two key sources of income for the club helping us to stay alive. The new lockdown measures will prevent their operation and without doubt hurt us financially. With retail limited to online sales, this will also have consequences for our club store and Purple Vouchers book, both of which were about to enter a key sales window. However, we will continue to be as resilient as ever.
Despite the fact most of our staff have worked 13 days out of the last 14 due to our fixture list over the past two weeks, following last night’s announcement, they continued to give up their own evenings and work through the night to find ways of safeguarding the club and are continuing to volunteer their time on this Sunday.
Plans are currently being developed and new business support schemes investigated to see how we can use these to secure the short-term future of the club, I am confident the work already undertaken will help protect the club in the short term. We hope that this work will therefore provide yet more time for the relevant parties to now step up and secure the future of professional football through an appropriate rescue package. It has been seven months since our last ticket sale and that is too long. Our owners have always been and continue to be hugely supportive, but the remits we are being asked to work under and the obstacles we are being set go beyond owner support.
I assure you all however, that with the combination of our owners, senior management team, playing and office staff and of course your continued support, we will get through this and emerge stronger for our experience.
Gavin