THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

Yesterday sucked. A lot. But let's be fair, it's our first home defeat since January and generally we're in good form. It was a tall order to make automatics, and we knew that. We had a thread only a few days ago where almost all of us predicted 4th so let's accept it for what it is.

I'm not trying to be a window lickong positive hippy, but we are in a good place and a position I wasn't sure we'd make in playoffs - automatic push? Didn't cross my mind when we were in our crap spell under Alexander.

We have the luxury of 2 games to enjoy and look forward to. Build momentum and positivity. We are gonna be in for a tough and emotional ride, but it's achievable and we're the team to beat. Let's try to create a vibrancy and a bit of excitement instead of going into it glum we missed out on something that wasn't too likely in the first place.

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#DonYourWhite

Turn Stadium MK WHITE In The Playoffs

https://donsaction.co.uk/

GET THIS SEASONS HOME SHIRT FOR £16.50 ↓↓↓
https://shop.mkdons.co.uk/collections/23-24-home-kit

And I've saved some money by not going to Harrogate.

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Disclaimer: All my comments are my opinions unless stated otherwise. I'm just a fan following my club.

Having the play offs secured with 2 games to go is certainly a relief. I am also pleased we haven't ended up losing out on auto's on the final day (when we would have been relying on other teams).

Hoping the news on Tomlinson being out for the season didn't include the play offs and that he'll be back for that. Just think we are a totally different team with him in the side and offer so much more down the left.

Also hoping that yesterday was a bit of a wake up call and we can't just turn up at home to a guaranteed win.

Finish 4th or 5th, draw the away leg and then win the home leg. Get us to our first ever play off final, please.

It would have felt worse if we’d failed on autos due to the disallowed goal playing
Wrexham.

At least we can say that the top three now deserve to be there.

Some ideas for the club to try and generate some kind of atmosphere/hype.

* #DonYourWhite - basically the #DonYourRed thing we did at Burton, but in white. Especially the Cowshed, get that stadium looking bright, and stand out. It'd look great on the cameras, and against the black seats it goes opposite and brightens the stadium as much as possible. If we get a similar crowd to the Wycombe home playoff, it'd look good I reckon. Dons shirt or anything white.

* Ex players - Get some old fans favourites around. We did it in 2012 against AFC, loads of ex Dons came out to support us and I sure many would do it again. I think a few came out for Wycombe too. But bring them out onto the field before the game, get a rousing reception, gees up the crowd 15 mins before kickoff. Gleeson, Chadwick, O'Hanlon, Wilbraham, McLeod, Martin, Otsemobor, Kay, even Dele if possible. Just some random names there, sure there's loads more.
Call their names out over the PA, get them onto the field, the crowd will give them a cheer, maybe sing their song.. warm the fans up instead of playing loud chart music before the biggest game of the season drowning out any kind of pre match atmosphere.

* Cheaper tickets/deals - especially for a younger audience. Get that stadium as full as possible. Can't see it happening, they'll try to maximise the profit as much as possible I reckon. But for a big game people will come out. Get that stadium filled as much as possible.

* DonsAction - Will no doubt have ideas, so listen to them and get on board. Display will likely be deployed, get on board and help if you can with donations and volunteer to set up if possible. Get amongst it.

* Flags - if you own a Dons flag, and it's been sat in your shed or garage then bring it out. We've had loads down the years and they've not appeared for a while. Hang it down the Service tunnel, over the top tier or something. Fuck it, even surf it overhead before kickoff.

* Away game - go. Simple as. Book it off from work now if you're working. Maybe the MKDSA can put some kind of deal in place for coaches, maybe they can't, I don't know how it works. But either way, other than Barrow, there's Crawley and Crewe aren't the furthest in terms of travel should we get those. Donny is a bit of a mission too tbf but it'll be a big one and we need to support the lads.

* Spread the word - simple as that. Start spreading the word. Thursday 9th/Friday 10th. 8pm. Game under the lights. Huge game. Get it in people's heads already. Old faces who haven't been down in a while, get them all in.

_________________
#DonYourWhite

Turn Stadium MK WHITE In The Playoffs

https://donsaction.co.uk/

GET THIS SEASONS HOME SHIRT FOR £16.50 ↓↓↓
https://shop.mkdons.co.uk/collections/23-24-home-kit

All really good ideas. Really hope the club use some common sense and lower the ticket prices, and also don't let our opponents pack out the away end.

I asked my boss for the day of the away leg off first thing this morning. I just hope we don't have to trek to Barrow

Unfortunately there’s very little we can do about ticket prices for the home play off game. Basically the four competing teams split the semi final gate revenue from all four ties equally (12.5% each and 50% to EFL to be shared amongst the league based on league position). Therefore you need the agreement of all three competing teams, not just the one you’re facing, I believe and it’s difficult to argue for anything other than your average price based on your average gate as a benchmark for the revenue.

Someone suggested to me that “we should do £5 a ticket, that’d sell out 30,000, and there’d be a £150K in revenue to be shared”. That ignores the fact that we wouldn’t get 30,000 in anyway, but equally, if the average ticket is even just £20, then we only need 7,500 through the turnstiles to reach that same £150K. That’s what all four clubs will be looking at when deciding what price they’ll allow us to sell at. They’ll probably argue £25 a ticket gets you that same 7,500 attendance surely? They’d probably be right.

Ah, didn't know that rule to be fair.

£5 tickets is silly, but you'd hope £20 max would be a good start

_________________
#DonYourWhite

Turn Stadium MK WHITE In The Playoffs

https://donsaction.co.uk/

GET THIS SEASONS HOME SHIRT FOR £16.50 ↓↓↓
https://shop.mkdons.co.uk/collections/23-24-home-kit

Yeah I figured this would be a bit of a problem. But the least we can do is try. I'm not suggesting the prices should be as low as a fiver but maybe somewhere between £10 and £15 and I think it could work all round. The sort of price we would have for a family fun day. If the other clubs don't agree to it then so be it, but I'd rather we tried

Yeah, you’d hope so, but as I say, it’s out of our hands to some degree. The opposition would see it as trying to create a competitive advantage and the other two teams would question why their revenue was potentially being slashed. It’s up to us to strongly argue that £20 a ticket gets 10,000 home fans in while £25 only gets 7,500.

Also, as for “not letting them have millions of tickets”, I think we’re duty bound to give them at least 10% so that’s not far off Mansfield’s figure yesterday.