Darlo Uncovered

Pardon my ignorance/inability to have a proper look through past threads, having just seen the drone shots of Blackwell Meadows I was wondering what's planned for subsequent development. Terracing behind the goal? Extending the seated stand along the pitch?

Apologies if there's a thread covering this already...

Not sure if this is a fish! Look at the "new stand under construction" thread. Any new ideas are on hold as there's talk of a sports hub so it's wait and see.

don'tbuythesun wrote:Not sure if this is a fish!

Nope...I'm just hopelessly out of touch. And apparently unable to notice things that should be obvious when I scroll down the page

Thought it was missing some punctuation such as a comma and an exclamation mark - "Next, steps for Blackwell Meadows!"
LOL

Hapag Loid, now theres a blast from the Uncovered past!!!

don'tbuythesun wrote:Not sure if this is a fish! Look at the "new stand under construction" thread. Any new ideas are on hold as there's talk of a sports hub so it's wait and see.

what and where is the sports hub going to be?

bigdavethemaddog wrote:

don'tbuythesun wrote:Not sure if this is a fish! Look at the "new stand under construction" thread. Any new ideas are on hold as there's talk of a sports hub so it's wait and see.

what and where is the sports hub going to be?

Very early talks at the moment, can't bank on it quite yet. But it would be in the area surrounding the arena. (We wouldn't be inside the arena though!)

JamesDarlo wrote:

bigdavethemaddog wrote:

don'tbuythesun wrote:Not sure if this is a fish! Look at the "new stand under construction" thread. Any new ideas are on hold as there's talk of a sports hub so it's wait and see.

what and where is the sports hub going to be?

Very early talks at the moment, can't bank on it quite yet. But it would be in the area surrounding the arena. (We wouldn't be inside the arena though!)

Is there any actually any appetite within Darlo for a sports hub, I dont live there so I dont know.

Despite the early talks, I do think it is a good idea to concentrate the towns sporting clubs in one area if said clubs can get round the table and thrash out a plan for it to happen, I would certainly like to see plans as and when they become available

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

The council will no doubt be looking at this so they can get all the clubs up at one location. They will look at selling off the land at Blackwell as this will be deemed as high value development land, compared to around the arena which will be of lower value.

Who would want to build on Blackwell meadows with a big pipe running through the estate

quakerste wrote:The council will no doubt be looking at this so they can get all the clubs up at one location. They will look at selling off the land at Blackwell as this will be deemed as high value development land, compared to around the arena which will be of lower value.

I presumed that Darlington Rugby Club own the land around where they are situated and if that is the case, it would not benefit the Council.

darlo reborn wrote:Who would want to build on Blackwell meadows with a big pipe running through the estate

Who would want to build West Park and Faverdale with a big pipe running through the estate.

Not just West Park/Faverdale in Darlington. New estate at Skerne Park also has the pipe running through it. A good developer will make it a feature of the estate, turning it into a residential greenway. Which will push the prices of the houses up further.

Difficult decisions for the fans over the next year on how to finance any promotion push. Assume we break even this year with no debt (quite likely given what was said at the AGM ), we know that playing budget will be cut next year (fans able to increase that with donations), so may make a small profit next year. Problem comes if we get promoted the year after, budget will need to increase substantially I would expect, travel and overnight accommodation increased and by the end of the year would need to spend I assume as a minimum £200k to build retracing at open end to meet league requirements. Understand that league money is only about £30k a year more so a fair bit to make up (Chester, Halifax etc struggling with council owned grounds )- just how to do it?

Sell a few players for good money and replace with young local talent.
Good cup run (better chance under TW & AW than MG )
500 fans with standing order to Darlo for £10 per week (unlikely to get that many )

It's going to be hard to keep all this going to get to and maintain national league but if we can actually get to the FL we should be sustainable with little fans financial input ( look at Accrington Stanley) - dreaming I know

Hope D. Johnson stays as CEO as we will need his business accuman.

"Up the Quakers"

they are virtually building on top of Eastbourne Sports Complex so it wouldn't surprise me if the Athletics is part of the hub also.

PierremontQuaker03 wrote:they are virtually building on top of Eastbourne Sports Complex so it wouldn't surprise me if the Athletics is part of the hub also.

Good call, that land would be worth quite a bit to the council.

50 years wrote:Understand that league money is only about £30k a year more so a fair bit to make up (Chester, Halifax etc struggling with council owned grounds )- just how to do it?

We become eligible for more matched funding when we get promoted. Obviously we need to fundraise but we will get the club we pay for.

When it comes to playing budget let's just try and enjoy it. To get promoted we are going to need a cup run I reckon and hope that Hartlepool are still in the division so we can get the TV money from those games being televised.

Just out of interest (and with the title on this thread being next steps) has the club costed up the options for any bits of terracing at BM?

PierremontQuaker03 wrote:they are virtually building on top of Eastbourne Sports Complex so it wouldn't surprise me if the Athletics is part of the hub also.

Happy for sports hub concept, however I would not be happy as suspect many others would be if the football part was in the middle of an athletic track, Gateshead is a prime example of how bad it can be watching football in that type of ground.

Darlopartisan wrote:

PierremontQuaker03 wrote:they are virtually building on top of Eastbourne Sports Complex so it wouldn't surprise me if the Athletics is part of the hub also.

Happy for sports hub concept, however I would not be happy as suspect many others would be if the football part was in the middle of an athletic track, Gateshead is a prime example of how bad it can be watching football in that type of ground.

Watching football on a pitch in the middle of a running track is not pleasant. In fact, its awful.

A couple of clubs in SE (Enfield and Chelmsford) play at such venues, and have built Atcost type terracing behind the goals (inside the running track) which partially reduces the problem, but only partially.

If it ever came to playing at an athletics track, then that would be something to consider. Photos of Chelmsford can be seen at http://www.footballgroundguide.com/leag ... adium.html

There is of course another club that is in London area that plays at an athletics stadium. There fans are "Hammering" the board over the venue and its fair to say, neither home or away fans like it.


I hope that it never is an option Darlington have to consider

spen666 wrote:
I hope that it never is an option Darlington have to consider

Stop with the faux concern. Everyone on this board knows you and the rest of your pitchfork-waving chums would be guffawing all the way back to your sheltered accommodation.

Everyone on this board knows how two-faced you are. You're too stupid to realise people pick up on your social media posts elsewhere.

Darlogramps wrote:

spen666 wrote:
I hope that it never is an option Darlington have to consider

Stop with the faux concern. Everyone on this board knows you and the rest of your pitchfork-waving chums would be guffawing all the way back to your sheltered accommodation.

Everyone on this board knows how two-faced you are. You're too stupid to realise people pick up on your social media posts elsewhere.

Yes - you are right

Darlogramps wrote:

spen666 wrote:
I hope that it never is an option Darlington have to consider

Stop with the faux concern. Everyone on this board knows you and the rest of your pitchfork-waving chums would be guffawing all the way back to your sheltered accommodation.

Everyone on this board knows how two-faced you are. You're too stupid to realise people pick up on your social media posts elsewhere.

as I'm a lazy sh-te (and can't be arsed to sing up to / look at other social media sites), would be good to see some examples of the two-facedness re: Spen so that I and perhaps others can understand said two-facedness.

lo36789 wrote:We become eligible for more matched funding when we get promoted. Obviously we need to fundraise but we will get the club we pay for.

£150k match funded if promoted within the next 4 seasons. But this has to cover more than just increasing the terraced capacity, as floodlights and turnstiles and all manner of trivially important stuff needs to be done too.

Gazzadfc wrote:Just out of interest (and with the title on this thread being next steps) has the club costed up the options for any bits of terracing at BM?

Yes. From what I know, this is on the radar. However, we have to be patient about it as any 'master plan' for the ground needs to be finalised before any further long term structures can materialise.

PierremontQuaker03 wrote:they are virtually building on top of Eastbourne Sports Complex so it wouldn't surprise me if the Athletics is part of the hub also.

Interesting to see what they've done in Sheffield. The Don Valley is gone, and the Olympic Legacy Park now sits on the site. They have a rugby pitch on it, and they are going to build a much smaller scale stadium around it. And then there are other facilities, a school and an open bowl in it's place. Perhaps the future of the Arena might be without the stadium being a part of it? Sheffield is of course a much bigger place than our little town.

Darlogramps wrote:

spen666 wrote:
I hope that it never is an option Darlington have to consider

Stop with the faux concern. Everyone on this board knows you and the rest of your pitchfork-waving chums would be guffawing all the way back to your sheltered accommodation.

Everyone on this board knows how two-faced you are. You're too stupid to realise people pick up on your social media posts elsewhere.

Darlington Council have no spare cash so we have to stand on our own when it comes to financing the future. We need to get a consensus of opinion in order to create a master plan that is realistic and enables a sustainable future. The new Board have done a good job in stabilising the club post MG, but now need to outline our strategy for the next 5 years. More solid information, please.

As said above patience is needed. I'd like to see us have a settled period, try to get us debt free and then look at what's next. Whether the council has any money or not we've done very well on our own so far. We've had so much knee jerking over the last few years it needs some calm....that new stand looks boss!

Patience is a virtue sadly lacking with social media. DJ stated at the meeting at the Dolphin Centre that future development at BM will be decided once further details of sports hub were known (expected to be March) The update about over a million being raised with a breakdown shows what has gone on off the pitch and is still going on now that DFCSG have an infrastructure development team in place.

jjljks wrote:Darlington Council have no spare cash so we have to stand on our own when it comes to financing the future. We need to get a consensus of opinion in order to create a master plan that is realistic and enables a sustainable future. The new Board have done a good job in stabilising the club post MG, but now need to outline our strategy for the next 5 years. More solid information, please.

I heard somewhere that DBC had bailed MPRFC out of a situation where a certain ex chairman of ours had a charge on the arena. Money for rugby but not for football.