Darlo Uncovered

For the benefit of us exiles who couldn't be there - anything worth reporting from last night?

They normally email update to members so expecting mine by Monday

It was a very encouraging meeting with the newly appointed commercial man making significant progress in moving things forward with business community re engaging with the football club, seems like a good call to bring Craig Morley onboard, onwards and upwards with Darlington fc.

I attended the meeting last night.The attendance was a dit disappointing only about 50 members turned up.The main issues raised was the match day experience including catering.I am confident we have the right people in place to address these issues.I would like to thank the board members past & present for all their hard work.The newly appointed commercial director comes across really positive & already has some great ideas.

950 members didnt bother to turn up, very disappointing turn out but a very good meeting and an impressive talk from Craig Morley some great ideas and already bringing in some good sponsorship money in his first week.

I know what you're saying Rob, but that's a bit harsh on us exiles. Hundreds of us live miles away, some overseas.

And plenty are happy to put their money in without attending every single event, fundraising or otherwise. They shouldn't be judged for that.

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robsraiders wrote:950 members didnt bother to turn up, very disappointing turn out but a very good meeting and an impressive talk from Craig Morley some great ideas and already bringing in some good sponsorship money in his first week.

Ok in that case maybe I shouldn't renew

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In which case Shawry you'd only be hurting the club.
Rob wears his heart on his sleeve and sometimes posts without thinking. I'm sure when he re-reads the thread that he'll realise that as a member of the board it's not a smart move to make a public put down of over 90% of the membership.

The night was a good one, realise that some people would have been busy on the night and people don't always live close, but main reason for the low attendance may be that there were no major issues at this time.

As to feedback:-
It was a very positive night.
While the number of members has reduced, revenue and net profit is up for DFCSG.

DFCSG now has 80% of shares and are looking to amend / improve the clubs articles in the very near future.

There has been substantial work undertaken in the background on ground restructuring for the future, including meetings with Northumbria Water.

Money raised from the bucket collection is being used purely for ground improvements, i.e. the erected wooden building selling 50/50 and programmes.

Overall there has been a massive amount of work undertaken by all the board members, which was obvious from the talk, looking to the future as well as dealing with day to day activity.

The talk from our new Commercial man Craig, was really good to listen to, he is clearly a Darlo fan, with lots of experience and contacts. Even in this first week he has met loads of people, building up relationship with the Rugby club, ( he genuinely believes that the relationship will start to improve now he is able to deal with them on full time basis), already sold £5k plus of packages, (including getting Darlington Building Society back in the fold), He has loads of ideas, plus has visited South Shields and seen how they have been running their successful commercial activity over the last 18 months. He is looking at a lot of diverse areas such as an outside marquee (had already got costings), DFC signage into the ground, programmes, more involvement with the players , fans and businesses etc.

He has also got contacts in Ibiza, and it may be that we play Ibiza Town as our pre season friendly next year, looks like we have provisional agreement .

More that that he has a professional outlook and looking at the ways we work to be more effective and customer focussed plus reduce costs, for example in hospitality looking for ways to improve (layout and food) which he is discussing with the Rugby club and programme layout. With him being full time, he is also able to take some of the pressure of the other board members.

Early impression is that this has been an great move for the club, having a full time member taking the load off others with full time jobs, lots of experience and Darlo fan to boot. Realise that it would not have been practical while at Bishop, and we have within a year back in Darlo our first full time employee who will make a difference I believe

A positive night, and we owe a great thanks to all the board members, and those involved with them and all our volunteers, I take my hat off to them.

Thanks for a comprehensive report.

That all sounds excellent, thanks.

shawry wrote:

robsraiders wrote:950 members didnt bother to turn up, very disappointing turn out but a very good meeting and an impressive talk from Craig Morley some great ideas and already bringing in some good sponsorship money in his first week.

Ok in that case maybe I shouldn't renew

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I won't renew next season I'm one of the people who didn't bother turning up, people do shifts...

HarrytheQuaker wrote:

shawry wrote:

robsraiders wrote:950 members didnt bother to turn up, very disappointing turn out but a very good meeting and an impressive talk from Craig Morley some great ideas and already bringing in some good sponsorship money in his first week.

Ok in that case maybe I shouldn't renew

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I won't renew next season I'm one of the people who didn't bother turning up, people do shifts...

Grow up.

There's at least half a dozen of us here and a load more in Manchester who would not travel for an AGM, I'm pretty sure. I will be renewing next year and it's a bit petty to not renew over a comment like this. Behave!

The point I was trying to make and got it wrong was that I would not pick on individuals, I well know we have a lot of exile members, people who work etc etc, but really we should have had more members there, an opportunity to meet new board members and ask questions.
Its just about making a little bit of effort to say yes I will come along, of course I cannot name people! Go on FB not just here, there are a lot of critical folk who like to hide behind the key board, a chance to come along but being anonymous is easy to do. Any one wanting a chat with me come long to fans table at games, got a question I will try my best to answer, or get you an answer.

loobyloo wrote:I attended the meeting last night.The attendance was a dit disappointing only about 50 members turned up.The main issues raised was the match day experience including catering.I am confident we have the right people in place to address these issues.I would like to thank the board members past & present for all their hard work.The newly appointed commercial director comes across really positive & already has some great ideas.

Thought the comments on catering were about the lack of man-buns

50 years wrote:The night was a good one, realise that some people would have been busy on the night and people don't always live close, but main reason for the low attendance may be that there were no major issues at this time.

As to feedback:-
It was a very positive night.
While the number of members has reduced, revenue and net profit is up for DFCSG.

DFCSG now has 80% of shares and are looking to amend / improve the clubs articles in the very near future.

There has been substantial work undertaken in the background on ground restructuring for the future, including meetings with Northumbria Water.

Money raised from the bucket collection is being used purely for ground improvements, i.e. the erected wooden building selling 50/50 and programmes.

Overall there has been a massive amount of work undertaken by all the board members, which was obvious from the talk, looking to the future as well as dealing with day to day activity.

The talk from our new Commercial man Craig, was really good to listen to, he is clearly a Darlo fan, with lots of experience and contacts. Even in this first week he has met loads of people, building up relationship with the Rugby club, ( he genuinely believes that the relationship will start to improve now he is able to deal with them on full time basis), already sold £5k plus of packages, (including getting Darlington Building Society back in the fold), He has loads of ideas, plus has visited South Shields and seen how they have been running their successful commercial activity over the last 18 months. He is looking at a lot of diverse areas such as an outside marquee (had already got costings), DFC signage into the ground, programmes, more involvement with the players , fans and businesses etc.

He has also got contacts in Ibiza, and it may be that we play Ibiza Town as our pre season friendly next year, looks like we have provisional agreement .

More that that he has a professional outlook and looking at the ways we work to be more effective and customer focussed plus reduce costs, for example in hospitality looking for ways to improve (layout and food) which he is discussing with the Rugby club and programme layout. With him being full time, he is also able to take some of the pressure of the other board members.

Early impression is that this has been an great move for the club, having a full time member taking the load off others with full time jobs, lots of experience and Darlo fan to boot. Realise that it would not have been practical while at Bishop, and we have within a year back in Darlo our first full time employee who will make a difference I believe

A positive night, and we owe a great thanks to all the board members, and those involved with them and all our volunteers, I take my hat off to them.

Thanks for the summary.

We've been back in Darlington for nearly two years though, not one.

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Apologies, Spyman your right - and I was wrong, clearly time fly's too quickly for me, put it down to old age.

robsraiders wrote:950 members didnt bother to turn up, very disappointing turn out but a very good meeting and an impressive talk from Craig Morley some great ideas and already bringing in some good sponsorship money in his first week.

400 mile round trip that's why!

Having been in the hospitality once had mixed feelings great view of game but was disappointed with meal and half time snacks so if some improvement there would do again

Hello party people!
This is captain Kim speaking
Welcome aboard Venga Airways
After take off we'll pump up the sound system
'Cause we're going to Ibiza!

50 years wrote: There has been substantial work undertaken in the background on ground restructuring for the future, including meetings with Northumbria Water..

This has pricked my ears up, what sort of things have been discussed with NW?

Because let's face it if the pipe problem goes away that makes a massive amount of difference to what we can do with the ground.

Ghost_Of_1883 wrote:

50 years wrote: There has been substantial work undertaken in the background on ground restructuring for the future, including meetings with Northumbria Water..

This has pricked my ears up, what sort of things have been discussed with NW?

Because let's face it if the pipe problem goes away that makes a massive amount of difference to what we can do with the ground.

Mine too...

Does anyone know what sort of things have been discussed? The pipe currently stifles development on two sides of the ground currently but if this is lifted then it would make a massive difference to the outlook on BM.

Quakers83 wrote:

Ghost_Of_1883 wrote:

50 years wrote: There has been substantial work undertaken in the background on ground restructuring for the future, including meetings with Northumbria Water..

This has pricked my ears up, what sort of things have been discussed with NW?

Because let's face it if the pipe problem goes away that makes a massive amount of difference to what we can do with the ground.

Mine too...

Does anyone know what sort of things have been discussed? The pipe currently stifles development on two sides of the ground currently but if this is lifted then it would make a massive difference to the outlook on BM.

This does confuse me, as surely the only thing to discuss is us asking them to move it and coughing up the price they want, I guess if we can persuade them to do it for free?

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They’ve probably been doing the logical thing and finding out exactly what is required / what the cost would be so that they can assess the options for the club going forward in the light of the sporting village. You can’t make a fair assessment if you aren’t in possession of all of the facts and numbers.

divas wrote:They’ve probably been doing the logical thing and finding out exactly what is required / what the cost would be so that they can assess the options for the club going forward in the light of the sporting village. You can’t make a fair assessment if you aren’t in possession of all of the facts and numbers.

Was anything said about the 'sporting village' haven't heard this mentioned for a while.

I had to leave early but nothing of note before I left. I think talks are slowly ongoing but we obviously have to ensure IF there is a deal to be done it has to be on our terms. I guess It’s tough when you don’t have many cards to play. No point in jumping from the frying pan into the fire if we do move again it has to be for good to somewhere we can grow our non matchday revenue and prosper

Think the discussions with NW were about what is practical to achieve at the club, for future development of the ground with the pipe there, so we know what can be actually achieved rather than assume wat we can do, from the comments on the night (plus it may be how they got NW to provide the base etc for the outside buildings we have with there volunteer activity?).
Re the Sporting village this was raised but as expected this is in the council hands with Mowden and the work being undertaken is something that is just being discussed and the feasibility, so far too early to even make a guess so I suppose it is one we just have to wait for and believe in our people at the top that they are able to have their input (which I believe with in DJ there will will).

divas wrote:I had to leave early but nothing of note before I left. I think talks are slowly ongoing but we obviously have to ensure IF there is a deal to be done it has to be on our terms. I guess It’s tough when you don’t have many cards to play. No point in jumping from the frying pan into the fire if we do move again it has to be for good to somewhere we can grow our non matchday revenue and prosper

When the Sporting Village was first revealed, the implication by DJ was that both DFC and DRFC could / would be leaving Blackwell Meadows and the land used for high value residential properties - though how that water pipe would affect this potential development is anyone’s guess.
Moving to play at the Arena may just replicate what we’re experiencing now with either slightly better / worse terms. It’s hard to see how we (DFC) would be able to acquire our own smaller stadium at the Arena or elsewhere, particularly if DMP install a 4G pitch which negates DJ’s plan for one of our own to generate large-scale club funds.



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