Doncaster Rovers: 'Owners' funding is a pleasure not necessity'

That is the verdict of chief executive Gavin Baldwin who insists the backing from Terry Bramall and the Watson family is not required simply to keep Rovers afloat.

“We're in a situation whereby hopefully the owners' funding is a pleasure rather than a necessity,” Baldwin told the Free Press.

“If they were to, for want of a better analogy, be run over by a bus, the club would survive without them.

“But their funding means that we are hopefully compeititve and we can maintain this top six budget that we keep talking about that gives us the best chance of the play-offs.

“That's what gives them pleasure as well.

“They want us to be competitive on a Saturday. They come to virtually every game, particularly the home games, and they want to enjoy their football as much as everyone else.

“So they give us a chance by choosing to put the money in now rather than having to put the money in.

“The club would be midtable League One without it.

“They choose for us to be competitive.

“We would still have the club. I'm not saying it wouldn't be tough at times but we would be here.

“They still choose to put the money in because they want it to be competitive and hopefully reach the Championship as we always speak about.”

With growing revenues from the Keepmoat Stadium site and the burgeoning Club Doncaster project, Rovers are becoming self-sustainable.

“That is through revenues such as having a national sponsor like LNER, iFollow has grown and is a far better product than it has been, revenues from all over which means financially the club is in a very good position and hopefully the funding for the owners is a pleasure not a chore,” Baldwin added.

“We can go to them specifically and say we would like to buy this player for this reason, rather than can we have some money but we're not sure if it's to pay the electricity bill or to maintain the car park or players.

“It's very specific now - they can choose to fund what they want to fund.”