Rovers welcome Keepmoat lease

DONCASTER Rovers have secured a 99-year lease from Doncaster Council for the running of the Keepmoat Stadium.

The club – which previously held a 25-year lease – informed supporters of the news at a fans’ forum, held at the stadium, last night.

The Keepmoat was built as a community stadium by the council for £32m in 2006, but has reportedly cost the authority £2.5m since.

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Until now, Rovers – who begin life in League One next season against Walsall on August 18 – were merely tenants with the day-to-day running of the venue falling under the remit of a stadium management company.

But with the stadium now coming under their influence, Rovers feel they can not only enhance their own sustainability, but that of the stadium as well.

Rovers chief executive Gavin Baldwin said: “Now the stadium is going to come within the club we feel that the club will have more influence in the community.

“This gives us control of the stadium and that gives us control of or destiny. It allows us to generate a small profit that we can put back into the football club to be spent on the playing side.”