Scotts crossroads,

Open now for discussion of all things Darlo!

Moderators: mikkyx, uncovered

Post Reply
onewayup
Posts: 2851
Joined: Fri Jul 31, 2009 6:02 pm
Team Supported: Darlington

Scotts crossroads,

Post by onewayup » Sun Apr 30, 2017 7:12 am

Scott,a very well written article, I am in full agreement with you on this.
Let,s listen to what whoever it is has to say about their investment structure.
Then if were happy with it go with it,
Onward and upward with Darlington f.c.

princes town
Posts: 4127
Joined: Mon Oct 31, 2011 2:14 pm
Team Supported: Darlington/Blackburn

Re: Scotts crossroads,

Post by princes town » Mon May 01, 2017 7:37 am

Scott makes some interesting points about the volunteer base and the expectation of the fans. On the first point, the sustainability of the volunteer base has been a concern of mine for a number of years. More so around delivery of the matchday experience than fundraising.

The second point about fan expectations is a black hole for me. I'm concerned that there is a romantic nostalgia about our football league experience that doesn't accord with the present reality. You only have to look at the likes of York, Stockport, Hartlepool, Blackburn and others to see that the footballing universe, particularly in the North, has changed. The move to Darlington hasn't produced the spike in crowds expected and there comes a time when you simply have to budget for WHAT IS. My other fear is that there are large numbers of league clubs who would probably wish they were near where we were financially.

The problem with the private investor model became more visible to me when I was at Spennymoor last week. Lots of top NE semi pro players playing in front of 800 fans - it just isn't sustainable despite the best efforts of the directors there. My fear is that move from a members base will just produce a temporary slush fund for the management and playing staff rather than do anything for the long term sustainability of the club. At the end of the day, it is the club who shape policy.

The beauty of the fans model is that it deals with this sustainability question head on. It should be flexible enough to shape the club around the customer base rather than creates an identity that doesn't fit. That is why the board were correct to discuss reductions to the budget. It is a common sense.

User avatar
coles
Posts: 310
Joined: Mon Jul 13, 2009 3:10 pm
Team Supported: Darlington

Re: Scotts crossroads,

Post by coles » Mon May 01, 2017 7:43 am

Spot on princes town the big problem we have is that our managers ambition outweighs our current financial clout. Also as a result of the teams success this season our fans ambitions are also ahead of our financial clout. I've said all season we don't want to go up this season as the infrastructure off the pitch is not ready it's been chicken and egg since we restarted we needed a successful team to generate the interest but we needed to achieve sustainability off the pitch. For me we must recalibrate our ambitions yes the aim must always be to get back to league 2 but to do so as a sustainable model. Our fans and manager have some tough choices to make but we must look beyond the next few seasons and look at the long term plan something we have not done yet

Post Reply