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Sports village

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2020 5:58 pm
by Alfie
https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/ ... um=twitter

'A PUBLIC-private partnership behind an ambition to build a £20m sports village and secure a long-term future for a stadium and attract additional facilities to a town looks set to be abandoned.

Darlington Borough Council’s leading members will next week consider halting its scheme with Darlington Mowden Park RFC (DMP), which had received £450,000 of support from the Tees Valley Combined Authority, and had been planned to feature an improved arena as a centrepiece with artificial pitches and a reconfigured concourse for events.'

If true narrows our options

Re: Sports village

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2020 6:44 pm
by Darlo_Pete
If true it gives us virtually no options & unfortunately our bargaining position with the rugby club will be greatly diminished. Really bad news for the club going forward.

Our only possible option would be to play at the Arena, something I think DMP could well be interested in, as there is no way they can continue to remain their as sole tenant/owner.

Re: Sports village

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2020 7:24 pm
by lo36789
Darlo_Pete wrote:
Wed Jul 08, 2020 6:44 pm
If true it gives us virtually no options & unfortunately our bargaining position with the rugby club will be greatly diminished. Really bad news for the club going forward.

Our only possible option would be to play at the Arena, something I think DMP could well be interested in, as there is no way they can continue to remain their as sole tenant/owner.
Well we still have a ground for the next 20 years so it's not all doom and gloom!

Re: Sports village

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2020 7:27 pm
by quakerste
If the plug is pulled on the sporting village DMP could be more desperate to get us involved in the stadium.

Re: Sports village

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2020 7:35 pm
by LoidLucan
Wonder where this leaves the guarantee that the council gave for a £2.1m rugby club loan along with the £50,000 the council chucked in to the plans and £450,000 from the Tees Valley Combined Authority for a scheme that is now said to be not sustainable, overly ambitious and too risky.

Re: Sports village

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2020 7:37 pm
by Emdubya
Don’t know what the problem is.They only wanted the council to come up with 17million :o :o

Re: Sports village

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2020 7:40 pm
by Darlo_Pete
quakerste wrote:
Wed Jul 08, 2020 7:27 pm
If the plug is pulled on the sporting village DMP could be more desperate to get us involved in the stadium.
I'd heard that they've already agreed that we would have priority on Saturday's if we played at the Arena, before the Sporting Village was really mentioned.

Re: Sports village

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2020 8:02 pm
by Vodka_Vic
That's not what DJ has been saying all along Pete.

Re: Sports village

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2020 8:08 pm
by Vodka_Vic
Emdubya wrote:
Wed Jul 08, 2020 7:37 pm
Don’t know what the problem is.They only wanted the council to come up with 17million :o :o
They were never going to do that. I wonder how long DMP have kept this request for the council to stump up 85% of the project close to their chest, as surely if this had been their intention all along then it wouldn't have rumbled on or so long and wasted everyone's time. This really does leave DMP in a hole right now. No point in us coming on board as we'd have to share the running costs. We'd be dead in a couple of years. Within 5 years it could be a rusting lump resembling the hull of the Titanic.

Re: Sports village

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2020 8:25 pm
by Fat josh
Brilliant news
Now the piece of s*** Arena can finally get demolished..
It will be gone in 5 years

Re: Sports village

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2020 8:29 pm
by JasonDeVos
Vodka_Vic wrote:
Wed Jul 08, 2020 8:08 pm
Emdubya wrote:
Wed Jul 08, 2020 7:37 pm
Don’t know what the problem is.They only wanted the council to come up with 17million :o :o
They were never going to do that. I wonder how long DMP have kept this request for the council to stump up 85% of the project close to their chest, as surely if this had been their intention all along then it wouldn't have rumbled on or so long and wasted everyone's time. This really does leave DMP in a hole right now. No point in us coming on board as we'd have to share the running costs. We'd be dead in a couple of years. Within 5 years it could be a rusting lump resembling the hull of the Titanic.
It’s great to know we are no longer liable for the money pit anymore.

Re: Sports village

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2020 8:30 pm
by loan_star
Vodka_Vic wrote:
Wed Jul 08, 2020 8:08 pm
Within 5 years it could be a rusting lump resembling the hull of the Titanic.
On close inspection its like that already.

Re: Sports village

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2020 8:52 pm
by Vodka_Vic
The issue isn't the Arena though. DJ said it was essential going forward that we eventually developed a plot of land up at the Arena site that we could build up in time and move to. This would be the only way that we could make enough money to be self sufficient. If this was tied in to the SV then this is dead in the water, which is not good news. However, if it isn't, then it may still be our future. This plot of land though. If we were to share it with DMP and to hell with the Arena, then that would be interesting.
I also wonder what the new source of funding that DMP have identified is, given that they plan to go ahead with a scaled-down version of the project.

Re: Sports village

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2020 10:12 pm
by jjljks
Didn't hear Rishi Sunak mention anything about support for white elephants, so leave DMP to sort the Arena & keep our hands in pockets as finances will get tighter after Covid19.

Re: Sports village

Posted: Wed Jul 08, 2020 10:55 pm
by H1987
I can’t pretend I’m not happy about it. It’s not a realistic project, we would end up tied to the rotting white elephant. Pull it down and we can all move on. DMP will be gone in no time.

Re: Sports village

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2020 6:49 am
by Alfie
It would be financial suicide for us to go back to the arena as tenants of DMP. There is no way they can afford to run the place as a stand alone facility without the opportunities the sporting villagewas supposed to bring - although I thought those projections were very optimistic. The sort of rent we could afford would be tiny compar d to the sums needed to keep the stadium safe, let alone a decent place to watch a game. When it goes bust in a few years we would have burnt our only bridge at Blackwell Meadows. Unless some deal can be done - with or without DMP - to access some of the council owned land in the area then it looks like BM for the foreseeable future

Re: Sports village

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2020 7:12 am
by onewayup
DMP aspirations were far more than the council anticipated. DMP wanted the lions share of what could be made and most of the say on what went into the plan .
over selling the plan. Now it won't happen. Greed.pure greed.

Re: Sports village

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2020 7:37 am
by darlo_baron
Fact remains that currently, as alluded to many times by DJ, we are not putting any further money into BM when the relationship isn't beneficial to the football club.

DJ has also stated that, ideally, we need our own facility that wholly benefits the club. On the face of it, therefore, BM is not a viable long-term solution for our aspirations.

We also have an ambitious fan base, board and management team that look capable of building a squad that can, at least, challenge for the playoffs in this division.

If we were to go up, do we plough more money into BM, with limited financial reward or overall say, or move to the Arena, with potentially similar issues but a facility easily capable of hosting higher level football?

I understand the hostility towards the Arena, but, if short-term it would benefit the club more than BM (currently unknown) and there was a firm plan for our own facility, long-term, I'd be looking into it. People talk of development of BM, when we don't even know if the egg chasers are on board. It's difficult to stomach raising X thousands of pounds, when we see very little for it.

Look forward to what the club says on this in the future. Certainly a difficult challenge.

Re: Sports village

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2020 8:31 am
by quakersfan
The talk of building a new stadium next to the arena was never going to happen. Before Covid I would have said get back to the Arena ASAP, and possibly on today’s news we could still negotiate a great deal. If not it’s probably a case of the club just surviving not going for promotion and staying unfortunately at Blackwell. Rather than developing Blackwell with only a licence to play there for another 13/14 years why not start now creating a long term fund to buy our own land. I think DJ has mentioned in the past a 5000 stadium would cost approx £5m. Be good to hear what the DFC or DFCSG board think on our long term future.

Re: Sports village

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2020 8:35 am
by al_quaker
Got to admire the boldness of Mowden Park wanting £17m from the council :lol:

I don't think it's partcularly good news for our club though - it removes leverage we potentialy had to get a better deal with DRFC. Now they can sit and play hardball as we have no other options, like they seemingly did when we were playing in Bishop Auckland.

Re: Sports village

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2020 8:48 am
by LoidLucan
The problem with the Arena site now is that the important safety net of council involvement is now being withdrawn which massively increases the doubts about the site's long-term future. It would be a brave decision to tie our club's future to that site given the huge doubts now hanging over it. They say they have an alternative source of investment but you would need to know what that now involves and who is behind it. I'd be surprised if someone was willing to chuck large sums at this, particularly in the current climate. This doesn't look good for MP and the future of the Arena site.

Re: Sports village

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2020 9:18 am
by cbh89f
Does not the prospect of working with the council to develop Eastbourne and potentially building a stadium there seem to be the option .
There’s already facilities and different clubs located there .
It seems logical to locate DFC there too .

Re: Sports village

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2020 9:34 am
by Vodka_Vic
We're not the alternative source of investment are we?

Regarding Eastbourne, It's been looked into and the transport infrastructure is insufficient.

Re: Sports village

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2020 9:41 am
by quakersfan
More housing to come on Eastbourne not sport

Re: Sports village

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2020 10:55 am
by poppyfield
I would like to see the club approach the council to acquire 5 aches of the 42 aches of land it owns near the Arena , the council could still own the land as do many councils where football grounds sit,the club paying a peppercorn rent, this ensures the long term future of the site.
This would be a long term project, obviously it would take us some time , but like anything of this scale it would not have to be done all in one go.
The key would be getting the land , plans approved , the plan would include the ground, car park, 4g training pitch, club gym and physiotherapy unit, all done in stages.
Then the hard work of getting the project started. It would take us a number of years to complete, its 8 years since we started this fan owned journey 8 years!
It would be an ambitious yes,but we have to have a long term plan , if we don't i can see the club stagnating at BM

Re: Sports village

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2020 11:36 am
by theoriginalfatcat
A good post poppyfield.

In fact very good :thumbup:

Re: Sports village

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2020 11:52 am
by lo36789
poppyfield wrote:
Thu Jul 09, 2020 10:55 am
I would like to see the club approach the council to acquire 5 aches of the 42 aches of land it owns near the Arena , the council could still own the land as do many councils where football grounds sit,the club paying a peppercorn rent, this ensures the long term future of the site.
This would be a long term project, obviously it would take us some time , but like anything of this scale it would not have to be done all in one go.
The key would be getting the land , plans approved , the plan would include the ground, car park, 4g training pitch, club gym and physiotherapy unit, all done in stages.
Then the hard work of getting the project started. It would take us a number of years to complete, its 8 years since we started this fan owned journey 8 years!
It would be an ambitious yes,but we have to have a long term plan , if we don't i can see the club stagnating at BM
The hard work would not be getting the project started. The hard work would be sustaining sufficient funds for the project whilst simultaneously sustaining a football club which needs >£100k of cash injection from fans as it is.

Out of interest what do people distinguish as the difference between stagnation and "finding your level"?

Unless people genuinely think our aspiration to reach the pinnacle and win a quintuple Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup, World Club Championship surely we would always "stagnate" at some point?

Re: Sports village

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2020 12:49 pm
by LoidLucan
Emdubya wrote:
Wed Jul 08, 2020 7:37 pm
Don’t know what the problem is.They only wanted the council to come up with 17million :o :o
I'm sure they need every penny they can get as they have a big, full-time, professional squad and have been running at an average attendance not far off half of ours (and that includes free under-16s and cheap ticket prices). Can't be easy sustaining that. And all the while the giant, heavily-rusting Arena drains more and more cash.

I also think some serious questions need to be asked about why half-a-million quid of public cash along with a £2.1m loan guarantee went towards what now seems to be deemed a wholly unrealistic, high-risk venture that appears to be completely unsustainable, Covid or not. It doesn't appear there was much diligence, caution and realism from the outset.

Re: Sports village

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2020 1:18 pm
by theoriginalfatcat
lo36789 wrote:
Thu Jul 09, 2020 11:52 am
Out of interest what do people distinguish as the difference between stagnation and "finding your level"?
In National league 1 - having a spirited go at a play off place every other season season. A bit like where we were for years, except a league down.

Re: Sports village

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2020 1:34 pm
by Darlopartisan
theoriginalfatcat wrote:
Thu Jul 09, 2020 1:18 pm
lo36789 wrote:
Thu Jul 09, 2020 11:52 am
Out of interest what do people distinguish as the difference between stagnation and "finding your level"?
In National league 1 - having a spirited go at a play off place every other season season. A bit like where we were for years, except a league down.
League football for me, that will always be and should be the aspersion of DarlingtonFC