Is Ted Forster back?

Moving the pitch to make the water pipe corner to corner is a great idea but when we are having to spend money this summer on the pitch with the grant and proberly some fund raising money to top it up it should be moved now as it saves paying more money out when we actually want to move thr pitch and also if any problems with pipe were to occur you just move the toilets

My idea with the pipe as it stands now and if we where wanting more seating or terracing is to build around it and the actual space where the pipe is utilise that space by placing the portable toilet blocks at each end. So one at the side of the seating area now and one at the away end, that way it minimises the cost of moving the pitch.

If we need more seating stands just build round it job done, what we also have to remeber is that we will never have a ols east main stand like we did at feethams and that we will never have a big ground without having a financial backer

He never left. Except that bit around 2011 when he pretended he'd died or something.

Weirdo.

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Undertones of violence?? There's only only person throwing abuse about on here. I'm worried that you are planning on being as abusive at the fans forum to those who wish to voice an opinion.

If there is not feasible plan to get back into the football league then surely the club is going to stagnate in these lower leagues.... We can all sing from the terraces that we are "darlo till we die", and so on, but, if the club do not even have ambition to even attempt a long term plan of us getting back into the football league. without ambition of ever getting back into the football league what do the fans have to look forward too? another top half finish in some poxy league where sky sports news can't even be bothered to do the half time scores for... because of this attendance will fall to such a state where we won't have the financial capability to even compete in this league and will end up exactly where we started four years ago and end up being a similarly standard of the likes of bishop auckland, shildon ect. I understand that the club at the moment do not have the realistic funding to build a ground anywhere near football league standards, but at least give the fans some hope and optimism instead of leaving us in the dark.

So, if your theory is correct, those clubs that are currently flourishing in League 2 are only doing so because of their declared ambitions to reach the Premiership. I seem to recall that Darlington FC was once in that position with a certain Mr. Reynolds and look where that got us in the end.

Fly in ointment time. For those suggesting that the pitch should be moved westwards, you have remembered that rugby pitches are longer than football pitches

http://laws.worldrugby.org/?law=1&language=en

Rugby club will need to be content that their first team pitch would fit before anything else could be discussed

There is no magic wand here - based on the accounts in recent years we've continually overspent and had to make the cash back from fans at the end of the season. Crowds haven't improved relative to the move up in levels and therefore additional playing budget needed we've seen.

The board running the club although astute business men have only done so using the cash that the operation has brought in plus donations from fans, all the while we've had to build a new ground by mortgaging our future operational income in the form of 5 year season tickets and community shares. Save for what goes in the B2D buckets and the money from FSIF everything will have come from operational receipts over the next 20 years.

A heavy dose of reality is needed by many and a re-assessment of where we can get to, especially in the short to mid term without huge external investment, and by that I mean donations we'll need to plod along now we've reached a level where teams have similar resources and don't have to build their own ground from scratch. A very good cup run most years is the only way I see currently of really banking the types of sums that will take us to the next level.

Either we have a new generation of fans who only know success or many have short memories of what's gone before in the past. As was stated at the outset of this journey, the fans will get the club that they can afford to build. At the moment and for the next 3 years at least I see this as a NLN club with the aspiration and ability to move up to NL once the 5 year ST are paid off. From there the step back into the league is huge, not only from and infrastructure point of view but from a playing budget point of view which has been stated is at least 2 times what we have now. That's another £300K per season needed.

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The ultimate ambition of the football club is to get back into the Football League.

The ultimate ambition of Martin Gray is to be the person that takes DFC back into the football league. I believe he's shown over the last 5 seasons he has the ability to do that.

Will it be easy? No
Have we stagnated yet? No
Do we need lots more £££ to be invested into BM infrastructure? Yes. We're are going to have to dig deep & raise it ourselves or fund it through exceptional income (cup runs, player sales).

We have demonstrated this season that we have the football management team & the finances to compete in this league. If the board, the supporters group & the fans can provide MG with a similar level of finances next season whilst at the same time funding an additional 200+ seats then there is every chance we can go up to the National League in 2018.

The challenge now is to grow the football club revenues to match Martin Gray's ambition. The initial aim must be to get crowds consistently over 2k. We need to maximise our commercial revenue & grow all other revenue streams. Off the pitch we're going to need fresh ideas, additional volunteers, an effective strategy & strong leadership.

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Robbie Painter - http://twitter.com/RobbiePainter

Agree 100% with your post Robbie, it is imperative MG has a budget to compete with the big boys in this league, will be tough with the pitch and ground issues to finance as well but we have the basis of a very good side and a couple of quality additions will make us a big threat next season.The fans forum will be interesting, roll on.

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There is one thing that is worrying me about this statement. I may be totally wrong, and it is based purely on comments on here, which is not the most reliable source of information I know

It has been said that part of the money from the FSIF grant was for pitch works.

The FSIF grant is fund matching ( as I understand it). Thus Darlington must have already raised their share of the money for the pitch works to have been able access that part of the grant.

Yet, there is talk on here of needing to fund raise this summer to pay for the works to the pitch. If this fund raising for the pitch works is necessary then :

a) what happened to the money raised last time for the pitch? (spent on the playing budget? spent on the ground - if so on what?)
b) does this mean the club are in breach of the FSIF grant because they do not have the funds to match the grant at the time the grant was received?
c) if the club are then in breach of grant, does that money have to be repaid?

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"are you going to hit them" would suggest that you have violent intent buried somewhere.

Thanks for your concern, however let me worry about myself. Clearly the "back of a fag packet" designs and long term strategy ready for your presentation Friday night. Will you have a remote link to your backers ?

No Spen. This has clearly been published I'd have thought someone as qualified as you would be a capable of understanding it. Surely this is a required competence for your role - I have concern for your clients at the moment.

> The ground went over budget.
> The FSIF gave permission that as it was too late in the season we could improve the pitch this year instead of last year.

Why are you still here anyway? Spen's latest saga that he can't seem to resolve is a chipped windscreen...

Because he's been having sleepless nights worrying about our predicament.

The FSIF permission you describe seems to relate to timing, not to funding.

The timing point is pretty irrelevant as the pitch could not be improved mid season..

The more worrying point is that for matched funding, you have to have the funding BEFORE you get the grant.

If the funding is being raised now, then it appears the terms of he FSIF grant may not have been complied with. This would result potentially in the grant ( or that part of it) being repayable to the FSIF.

Attack me all you like. I am not the one who prima facie appears not to have complied with the terms of the FSIF grant.



Oh and for your information- not only did I get windscreen replaced, a free courtesy vehicle for over a month. Depreciation free motoring for a month for me) and a cash profit of several hundred pounds as a result of a very generous compensation deal from the windscreen company.

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Well done Kavanagh QC.

Can't argue with any of that. Whilst the playing squad has had lots of investment, off the field has had nothing. We have filled that space with willing and passionate fans who have volunteered but many just don't have the key skills or time needed to take the club to the next level in terms of bringing in incremental revenue.

There is only one pot of money so bringing in the people will skills and time off the pitch will reduce the playing budget, however they should also be able to bring in incremental funds through their role - of course that's not guaranteed.

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Supporters who abuse other supporters = good

Supporters who ask questions about the future of the club = bad

What are you on about?

We raised however much which was matched by a grant to do works on the pitch. This may have been £10k (matched to £20k) or whatever. We then received that grant money into a 'bank account' and the ground development went over budget.

If we do not spend said amount of money on the pitch as per our plans then we would need to pay that element of the grant money back.

I don't think that the FSIF brought us a case of £20 notes and stated that those specific notes had to be spent on pitch improvements. They gave us an overall grant to improve the ground of which £x amount was allocated to pitch improvements - and we have until this summer to make said pitch improvements.

Is it that hard to understand?

Part of the grant was for pitch improvements ( timescale is irrelevant for this point). It was a grant to match the funding raised by the club.

The club have not got that funding it appears. Hence why there may be an issue with the matching element of the FSIF funding.

The money from the FSIF is specifically allocated for specific works. and is to match funding the club claim to have. The club now apparently do not have that matching funding.

If the other works went over budget, the club needed to fund raise for those works, not spend the funding that was match for something different


However, its not my problem. I merely raise a potential concern that may come back to bite later

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"However, its not my problem. I merely raise a potential concern that may come back to bite later."


Translation:

"Yeah I know it's got nowt to do with me but I've been frantically bashing the bishop for two weeks now and I don't intend to stop now."