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Netcafe with David Johnston tonight

Posted: Fri May 11, 2018 11:15 am
by Darlopartisan
As above starts around 1830.

Re: Netcafe with David Johnston tonight

Posted: Fri May 11, 2018 11:59 am
by poppyfield
A reminder that David will be holding a netcafe this Friday evening, between 6.30pm and 8pm, to discuss any points that Darlo fans might like to raise. Please mail any question to media@darlingtonfc.org.

You can listen to an interview he recorded with the official website earlier in the week here.

http://darlingtonfootballclub.co.uk/its ... ng-season/

Re: Netcafe with David Johnston tonight

Posted: Sun May 13, 2018 11:05 am
by PierremontQuaker03
some interesting comments about the sports hub - seems the most sensible and viable option for the football club and a rugby club combined.
I don't think its worth spending any more money on "new" developments at Blackwell until we can decide whats best.

Re: Netcafe with David Johnston tonight

Posted: Sun May 13, 2018 11:22 am
by Vodka_Vic
Interesting also how much legacy debt there must be. DJ is going to produce the figures in time, and also states he wants it clearing up by the end of the season, but let's just estimate our future possible extra incomes:

20k from Marathonbet
20k from the legends friendly
10k from the York friendly
Hopefully - 5k if Harrogate go up (realise I've just jinxed that but am ready for the abuse later).
That's around 50k so there must still be a fair amount as DJ said he'd taken friendlies into account during costings.

Re: Netcafe with David Johnston tonight

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 7:35 am
by mikkyx
I must admit I thought the 500 club offers we put on earlier in the year had gone a long way to lowering that debt (was it £60k he quoted at the Dolphin Centre?) - you've quoted £55k worth of extra income there - surely between that + the earlier fundraising it should be done now?

Re: Netcafe with David Johnston tonight

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 7:57 am
by Quakerz
But then we struggled to attract much more than 1,200 to the home games after that, so on the other hand there is lost income there.

It will be nice this season to have a realistic budget set (I believe around 250k playing budget thanks to our 86k contribution), gates get back over 1500 average, and have a bonus cup run so we can actually get some money in the bank and not have the seasonal cash call!

We're in the best shape we ever have been to achieve this, as under Gray we were always pushing budgets to their limit.

Let's not forget that last season we started out with a 334k playing budget which was revealed at a forum, and Gray's entourage was a minimum of 72k (that's what it cost in the Evostik season according to the staff costs in the 15/16 accounts), so a total budget of at least 406k. Of which we contributed 42k BTB so the club had to cover at least 364k.

This season the playing budget will be c250k, and I can't see the staff costs exceeding 50k (pure guess to be fair) simply because Tommy does not have a massive blue coated entourage following him around sucking money out of the club. So with maximum total playing/staff costs of about 300k going forward and an 86k BTB contribution from us, then the club would be covering 214k...

All I can say is that if there is yet another mid season cash call, then we may as well give up and fold the club.

Re: Netcafe with David Johnston tonight

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 8:01 am
by mikkyx
Good points, and well made. Let's hope for a nice green number at the bottom of the mid-season spreadsheet!

Re: Netcafe with David Johnston tonight

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 8:01 am
by dfc4me
DJ also mentioned that the new stand cost more than expected though he didn't say how much more so that will have increased our debt.

Re: Netcafe with David Johnston tonight

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 10:38 am
by PierremontQuaker03
As per above it looks like our budget under Gray was pushed over the limit - and its been shown as a lot of players that have been shown the door already have been no where near the first team in recent times - therefore I only expect there to be 4 signings max in the summer.
We should hopefully move Burgess on with little problem (I think he will attract interest), however I think Caton will be a different matter. If we do have to keep him, I think he could make a decent squad player and hopefully come into form, but TW and AW are going to have to use all their management skills to get the best out of him.

Re: Netcafe with David Johnston tonight

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 2:10 pm
by Nigel Batches Beard
DJ answered a question on Chris Hunters departure and whether there was a fee involved
"as a club we will not be commenting on whether we receive any fees as this is sensitive commercial information that makes signing players more complicated."
The add on for Mark Beck from Harrogates promotion seems to be well documented? Sounds like this is new club policy - but its going to show up in the club accounts further down the line. And the question wasnt asking how much, but did we get a fee? Is that really that commercially sensitive?

Re: Netcafe with David Johnston tonight

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 2:39 pm
by spen666
Nigel Batches Beard wrote:DJ answered a question on Chris Hunters departure and whether there was a fee involved
"as a club we will not be commenting on whether we receive any fees as this is sensitive commercial information that makes signing players more complicated."
The add on for Mark Beck from Harrogates promotion seems to be well documented? Sounds like this is new club policy - but its going to show up in the club accounts further down the line. And the question wasnt asking how much, but did we get a fee? Is that really that commercially sensitive?

A fee on a sale is unlikely to appear in the abbreviated accounts filed by Darlington (or any other club). There is not much financial detail required by law for an abbreviated set of accounts

Re: Netcafe with David Johnston tonight

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 6:13 pm
by Darlo-and-Back
Quakerz wrote:But then we struggled to attract much more than 1,200 to the home games after that, so on the other hand there is lost income there.

It will be nice this season to have a realistic budget set (I believe around 250k playing budget thanks to our 86k contribution), gates get back over 1500 average, and have a bonus cup run so we can actually get some money in the bank and not have the seasonal cash call!

We're in the best shape we ever have been to achieve this, as under Gray we were always pushing budgets to their limit.

Let's not forget that last season we started out with a 334k playing budget which was revealed at a forum, and Gray's entourage was a minimum of 72k (that's what it cost in the Evostik season according to the staff costs in the 15/16 accounts), so a total budget of at least 406k. Of which we contributed 42k BTB so the club had to cover at least 364k.

This season the playing budget will be c250k, and I can't see the staff costs exceeding 50k (pure guess to be fair) simply because Tommy does not have a massive blue coated entourage following him around sucking money out of the club. So with maximum total playing/staff costs of about 300k going forward and an 86k BTB contribution from us, then the club would be covering 214k...

All I can say is that if there is yet another mid season cash call, then we may as well give up and fold the club.
It’s the same Directors so let’s hope they’ve learned a lesson. The DFCSG have to stand firm and push back on overspend.

This underlying messaging on a sports hub is worrying. It either creating some leverage with DRFC or we are being lined up to fall into the hands of developers. Needs transparency, back to DFCSG to get a handle on.

Re: Netcafe with David Johnston tonight

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 7:08 pm
by Spyman
Nigel Batches Beard wrote:DJ answered a question on Chris Hunters departure and whether there was a fee involved
"as a club we will not be commenting on whether we receive any fees as this is sensitive commercial information that makes signing players more complicated."
The add on for Mark Beck from Harrogates promotion seems to be well documented? Sounds like this is new club policy - but its going to show up in the club accounts further down the line. And the question wasnt asking how much, but did we get a fee? Is that really that commercially sensitive?
He's quite right. We don't need to know and there's no point advertising our financial position to other clubs or prospective targets.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

Re: Netcafe with David Johnston tonight

Posted: Tue May 15, 2018 10:06 am
by D_F_C
Spyman wrote:
Nigel Batches Beard wrote:DJ answered a question on Chris Hunters departure and whether there was a fee involved
"as a club we will not be commenting on whether we receive any fees as this is sensitive commercial information that makes signing players more complicated."
The add on for Mark Beck from Harrogates promotion seems to be well documented? Sounds like this is new club policy - but its going to show up in the club accounts further down the line. And the question wasnt asking how much, but did we get a fee? Is that really that commercially sensitive?
He's quite right. We don't need to know and there's no point advertising our financial position to other clubs or prospective targets.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
Completely agree. I’m half expecting the first person to pipe up with ‘I’ve put money into the club so I’m entitled to know’


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Re: Netcafe with David Johnston tonight

Posted: Tue May 15, 2018 11:53 am
by eek
D_F_C wrote:
Completely agree. I’m half expecting the first person to pipe up with ‘I’ve put money into the club so I’m entitled to know’


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I've put money into the club so I explicitly don't want it wasted by revealing information that could impact the price others ask for.

Re: Netcafe with David Johnston tonight

Posted: Tue May 15, 2018 12:39 pm
by Nigel Batches Beard
Spyman wrote:
Nigel Batches Beard wrote:DJ answered a question on Chris Hunters departure and whether there was a fee involved
"as a club we will not be commenting on whether we receive any fees as this is sensitive commercial information that makes signing players more complicated."
The add on for Mark Beck from Harrogates promotion seems to be well documented? Sounds like this is new club policy - but its going to show up in the club accounts further down the line. And the question wasnt asking how much, but did we get a fee? Is that really that commercially sensitive?
He's quite right. We don't need to know and there's no point advertising our financial position to other clubs or prospective targets.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
I agree - I wasnt disagreeing with it as a policy. Just that, as Becks transfer wasnt that long ago, that the policy must be a recent one :)

Re: Netcafe with David Johnston tonight

Posted: Tue May 15, 2018 8:05 pm
by Beano
Nigel Batches Beard wrote:
Spyman wrote:
Nigel Batches Beard wrote:DJ answered a question on Chris Hunters departure and whether there was a fee involved
"as a club we will not be commenting on whether we receive any fees as this is sensitive commercial information that makes signing players more complicated."
The add on for Mark Beck from Harrogates promotion seems to be well documented? Sounds like this is new club policy - but its going to show up in the club accounts further down the line. And the question wasnt asking how much, but did we get a fee? Is that really that commercially sensitive?
He's quite right. We don't need to know and there's no point advertising our financial position to other clubs or prospective targets.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
I agree - I wasnt disagreeing with it as a policy. Just that, as Becks transfer wasnt that long ago, that the policy must be a recent one :)
Beck's fee was discussed as other parties had released it into the public domain.