Interview with Johnston on Official Website

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H1987
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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by H1987 » Sat Dec 28, 2019 10:22 am

Yarblockos wrote:
Fri Dec 27, 2019 10:34 pm
H1987 wrote:
Fri Dec 27, 2019 9:35 pm
That figure for our 7th place conference campaign says it all. 1,800 overall, and i've just looked at our highest league attendance that year... It was 3,000 against York. We literally could have fit our highest attendance that year in Blackwell Meadows as it stands. We do not need to occupy a stadium that is too big to occasionally have a bumper crowd if we happen to play Hartlepool or get someone decent in the cup. It is a false economy - you have to maintain the thing, and it's a rubbish matchday experience for those who go to more than one game every few years. Blackwell is ten times better than the Arena, even as is. Further development is the key.

Anyone with halcyon memories of what the Arena is like, stuff Walsall, I suggest one day when we don't have a game, going to see Gateshead at home. Go, watch that, and tell me that is what you want for this club. That's what you're advocating. I'm sure Gateshead get some nice financial benefits from being there A good deal financially, decent suites in the main stand with the corporate money spinning it offers (to a point). You know what, i don't care if that's the price we have to pay. It's s***, and the thought of having to do that as a home fan again is absolutely heartbreaking. That's what the Arena was, and the reason Gateshead have never been able to build crowds (in spite of being quite good in recent years) is because going to watch games there is unbelievably crap. Ok, they've had the odd bumper crowd like in the playoffs - does that make it worth being there? In short. No. They can't even attract disgruntled Mags and Mackems, who have gone to watch Shields instead (who play in a pokey, awkward, makeshift stadium with a clubhouse). They've wanted to move for years, but can't afford anything else. If we move back to the Arena, that is what it condemns this football club to.
I know you don't want us to have a stadium even one seat bigger than our average attedance, but to play in the NL you need a capacity of 4,000. I don't think the FA will give us an exemption on the basis that we only average of 1400. Not sure DJ agrees wth you on the scope for devloping BM.
We can already be promoted as things stand. That was the whole point of the last seating expansion. To stay there, the capacity simply needs to be 4,000. It’s patently obvious that Blackwell can hold 4,000 with development. It’s not even open to sensible debate. It’s currently 3,000. It can clearly, easily be done.

If you want to debate the level above, that is fine, but I’d argue we are trying to run before we can walk. We are not going to trouble the football league any time soon, while there are still clubs at that level who are generously bankrolled.

I’m beginning to think we are being fed a stream of calculated comments, so that when it comes down to it, the fans are left with a choice of doom and gloom versus magical opportunity at the Arena. Don’t fall for it.

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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by H1987 » Sat Dec 28, 2019 10:24 am

Darlo_Pete wrote:
Sat Dec 28, 2019 10:16 am
Comparing the Arena to GIS is barmy. Your far nearer to the action at the Arena, the GIS is a terrible ground & football should not be played there in my humble opinion. Old Git is completely right.
The Arena is a terrible ground and football should never again be played there, in my humble opinion.

I’m talking about the experience of going a match there Pete. It’s pretty obvious there’s no running track at the Arena, I’m not claiming there is.

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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by Old Git » Sat Dec 28, 2019 10:32 am

Darlo_Pete wrote:
Sat Dec 28, 2019 10:16 am
Comparing the Arena to GIS is barmy. Your far nearer to the action at the Arena, the GIS is a terrible ground & football should not be played there in my humble opinion. Old Git is completely right.
Thanks Pete agreed about GIS will be packing my binoculars for that one!

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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by Darlo_Pete » Sat Dec 28, 2019 10:50 am

Old Git wrote:
Sat Dec 28, 2019 10:32 am
Darlo_Pete wrote:
Sat Dec 28, 2019 10:16 am
Comparing the Arena to GIS is barmy. Your far nearer to the action at the Arena, the GIS is a terrible ground & football should not be played there in my humble opinion. Old Git is completely right.
Thanks Pete agreed about GIS will be packing my binoculars for that one!
Exactly OG. A good few years ago, I went to the Don Valley Stadium to watch us beat Rotherham. I'd been before to see us play there. I actually took a set of binoculars for when we were attacking the other end. People around me were asking what was happening when we were kicking to the far end, as nobody could see from our end. Now that's like GIS, although fortunately we are placed in the far stand in the middle of the pitch, so seeing both ends isn't so much of an issue. Off to Blyth now, come on Darlo.

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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by theoriginalfatcat » Sat Dec 28, 2019 11:09 am

To me H1987 is bringing back memories. The Arena was awful, it's easy to forget this with the passing of time.
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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by lo36789 » Sun Dec 29, 2019 9:56 am

eek wrote:
Sat Dec 28, 2019 9:23 am
lo36789 wrote:
Sat Dec 28, 2019 8:21 am
When did you last go to Feethams? Whilst I believe we were one of the last grounds to allow people to switch ends I don't think this was actually active by the end of our tenure as segregation had become a thing and generally away teams received the open terrace - at least that is my memory from sort of 1997 onwards.

One of my earlier memories was the grand 'demolition' of the east stand...also known as removing a roof panel to fireworks. If I remember rightly the demolition of the old east stand and the positioning of the orange changing rooms would have prevented anyone switching ends so it may have been imposed from that point.

Feethams was a great mix. Covered terrace, open terrace, plush new stand and old stand. There were 4 different price points there for spectators so you could have a range of prices which could be more inclusive.
I think you mean offer the ability to charge higher prices - it's not exactly expensive at the moment and we left Feethams 16 years ago. And the risk of lower prices is that while you may get more money you might actually get less money overall - a 10% reduction in prices requires an 11% increase in attendance just to stand still.

As for how the club moves forward - no options are really that good so we just have to make the best of a set of not great options - personally leaving Blackwell, finding a clause that allows us to extract ourselves from the lease and waiting for their inevitable bankruptcy would be the best solution to get a ground but I don't want or expect that solution to work out.
It depends on how elastic you think demand is - and depends where you set the 'base' price.

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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by shawry » Sun Dec 29, 2019 10:01 am

theoriginalfatcat wrote:To me H1987 is bringing back memories. The Arena was awful, it's easy to forget this with the passing of time.
I didnt mind it tbh, my biggest issue was getting out of the car park afterwards, but its exactly the same at BM.

I guess the biggest issue is that we are bursting st the seams from a corporate ppont of view, and this is going to be our biggest stumbling block as it puts more pressure on the fans tocmake up the difference

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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by theoriginalfatcat » Sun Dec 29, 2019 10:11 am

shawry wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 10:01 am
theoriginalfatcat wrote:To me H1987 is bringing back memories. The Arena was awful, it's easy to forget this with the passing of time.
I didnt mind it tbh, my biggest issue was getting out of the car park afterwards, but its exactly the same at BM.

I guess the biggest issue is that we are bursting st the seams from a corporate ppont of view, and this is going to be our biggest stumbling block as it puts more pressure on the fans tocmake up the difference

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Just sticking to the football side of things, The Arena was poor in the league, worse in the Conference, and it would feel even worse than that at our present level. Even when we had the bigger crowds there it still felt soul-less, to me anyway. I reckon if we moved back there we could lose the kind of close feeling between club and fans that we now enjoy.
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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by divas » Sun Dec 29, 2019 12:15 pm

The Arena is 100% not the long term solution but it could be a better mid term solution that gets us where we need to be (an appropriately sized facility we have autonomy over to generate non matchday revenue) by allowing us to grow revenues over what we can at BM. We’ll also hopefully gain some inertia as part of the overall sporting village concept which I’m led to believe is very impressive

Short term pain for long term gain. There absolutely gas to be a solid business plan though

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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by Vodka_Vic » Sun Dec 29, 2019 12:20 pm

I trust the current board to work out a strong business plan.

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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by theoriginalfatcat » Sun Dec 29, 2019 12:49 pm

divas wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 12:15 pm
The Arena is 100% not the long term solution but it could be a better mid term solution that gets us where we need to be (an appropriately sized facility we have autonomy over to generate non matchday revenue) by allowing us to grow revenues over what we can at BM. We’ll also hopefully gain some inertia as part of the overall sporting village concept which I’m led to believe is very impressive

Short term pain for long term gain. There absolutely gas to be a solid business plan though
But how much financially would we stand to lose by shipping out of B.Meadows early?

It's all very well making more on extras at The Arena, but what about the assets we leave behind - the Tinshed and side stand, they have a value and they cost us a lot to set up. How many years of extra income at The Arena will it take to recoup the hit of losing them?

Would it not be like spending £3000 upgrading your boiler to save £300 a year on your fuel bill? i.e. ten years until you reap any possible benefit.
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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by Gow9900 » Sun Dec 29, 2019 12:55 pm

I trust Johnston to do what is right for the football club moving forward.

When you look at how much progress we have made as a club off the pitch since he came in 2.5 years ago. We’ve come a hell of a long way, but it appears from comments made in programme notes/interviews we are outgrowing the ground we are allowed access too for 6 hours a week to play a football match.

He’s an experienced business man involved at high levels in multi million pound businesses. He knows more than I do and until we are presented all the facts it is all purely message board speculation.

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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by theoriginalfatcat » Sun Dec 29, 2019 2:06 pm

Gow9900 wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 12:55 pm
He’s an experienced business man involved at high levels in multi million pound businesses. He knows more than I do and until we are presented all the facts it is all purely message board speculation.
Yes, of course I agree - but this forum is for us to express our views and speculate.
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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by divas » Sun Dec 29, 2019 2:13 pm

theoriginalfatcat wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 12:49 pm
divas wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 12:15 pm
The Arena is 100% not the long term solution but it could be a better mid term solution that gets us where we need to be (an appropriately sized facility we have autonomy over to generate non matchday revenue) by allowing us to grow revenues over what we can at BM. We’ll also hopefully gain some inertia as part of the overall sporting village concept which I’m led to believe is very impressive

Short term pain for long term gain. There absolutely gas to be a solid business plan though
But how much financially would we stand to lose by shipping out of B.Meadows early?

It's all very well making more on extras at The Arena, but what about the assets we leave behind - the Tinshed and side stand, they have a value and they cost us a lot to set up. How many years of extra income at The Arena will it take to recoup the hit of losing them?

Would it not be like spending £3000 upgrading your boiler to save £300 a year on your fuel bill? i.e. ten years until you reap any possible benefit.
Well that’s what we’re waiting for - we’ll need to understand the answers to those questions first. However until the board have agreed a deal in principle with the SV then those numbers won’t be known.

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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by Yarblockos » Sun Dec 29, 2019 2:41 pm

theoriginalfatcat wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 12:49 pm

But how much financially would we stand to lose by shipping out of B.Meadows early?

It's all very well making more on extras at The Arena, but what about the assets we leave behind - the Tinshed and side stand, they have a value and they cost us a lot to set up. How many years of extra income at The Arena will it take to recoup the hit of losing them?

Would it not be like spending £3000 upgrading your boiler to save £300 a year on your fuel bill? i.e. ten years until you reap any possible benefit.
If you want to get back to the EFL then you are going to have to face those costs sooner or later anyway as the Tinshed and side stand will need to be ripped up.

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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by MB86DFC » Sun Dec 29, 2019 4:33 pm

Yarblockos wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 2:41 pm
theoriginalfatcat wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 12:49 pm

But how much financially would we stand to lose by shipping out of B.Meadows early?

It's all very well making more on extras at The Arena, but what about the assets we leave behind - the Tinshed and side stand, they have a value and they cost us a lot to set up. How many years of extra income at The Arena will it take to recoup the hit of losing them?

Would it not be like spending £3000 upgrading your boiler to save £300 a year on your fuel bill? i.e. ten years until you reap any possible benefit.
If you want to get back to the EFL then you are going to have to face those costs sooner or later anyway as the Tinshed and side stand will need to be ripped up.
Why would they?

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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by divas » Sun Dec 29, 2019 4:54 pm

Because the rugby club won’t let us demolish the clubhouse

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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by Mister e » Sun Dec 29, 2019 5:04 pm

Gow9900 wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 12:55 pm
I trust Johnston to do what is right for the football club moving forward.

When you look at how much progress we have made as a club off the pitch since he came in 2.5 years ago. We’ve come a hell of a long way, but it appears from comments made in programme notes/interviews we are outgrowing the ground we are allowed access too for 6 hours a week to play a football match.

He’s an experienced business man involved at high levels in multi million pound businesses. He knows more than I do and until we are presented all the facts it is all purely message board speculation.
5 hours a game to play a football match 1pm to 6pm and if they've had a rugby match on they'll sometimes pull the shutters down even earlier so they can concentrate on serving their own members in the back room.

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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by Ghost_Of_1883 » Sun Dec 29, 2019 6:02 pm

MB86DFC wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 4:33 pm
Yarblockos wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 2:41 pm
theoriginalfatcat wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 12:49 pm

But how much financially would we stand to lose by shipping out of B.Meadows early?

It's all very well making more on extras at The Arena, but what about the assets we leave behind - the Tinshed and side stand, they have a value and they cost us a lot to set up. How many years of extra income at The Arena will it take to recoup the hit of losing them?

Would it not be like spending £3000 upgrading your boiler to save £300 a year on your fuel bill? i.e. ten years until you reap any possible benefit.
If you want to get back to the EFL then you are going to have to face those costs sooner or later anyway as the Tinshed and side stand will need to be ripped up.
Why would they?
Because we won't get to 5,000 considering those two stands take up a considerable amount of the available footprint.

I imagine that the clubhouse will remain hard standing, and one of the problems of hard standing is that at league level (and possibly National League as well) you can't count it towards ground grading requirements. So you have around 800/900 I'd imagine capacity unavailable. This means our capacity towards ground grading woudn't even be 2,500.

We'd have to fit in 5,000 into 3 sides, and that includes 1,000 seats for league level which needs to be 2,000 seats within 2 years.

So we'd have to fit in approx 2,500 extra inc 400-1400 seats into the space between the tin shed and pipe exclusion zone, and the open end from the main stand side to the pipe exclusion zone. I can't see how we can do it without knocking the existing stands down.

Once again this shows the short sightedness of the buffoons who designed the ground as it is. Why? Because it was obvious to anyone who was paying attention that in the long run the stands would not cover what we needed. I was informed that the difference in cost between the 8 step tin shed and a 12 step version was barely negligible - and don't forget the cost of the 8 step tin shed was increased because we had to shorten the metal struts as the roof overhung the terrace by too much! If anyone remembers, the original tin shed was 13 steps.

And don't get me started on that overly expensive utter fuck up of a main stand. 300 grand and it's an utter disgrace. A deck of the cheapest nastiest temporary seating which doesn't even line up with the stand.

I reckon we'd need to knock down the tin shed and replace it with a 16 step terrace, which would roughly double it's current capacity of 1,000 to around 2,000. I reckon we'd need to knock down the existing seated stand down and replace it with seating at least 12 rows deep roughly doubling current capacity from 588 to around 1176. Then perhaps another seated stand roughly the same depth (so it doesn't look stupid) in between the pipe exclusion zone and tin shed. Hopefully that would hold over 800 and provide 2,000 seats. Then a terrace at the open end enough steps deep to guarantee over 1,000 capacity - remember that we could only build up to just past the goal, again because of the pipe.

Although if we kept the existing stands there is nothing stopping us putting a huge terrace of 2,000 plus at the open end, and a huge seated stand which would have to have enough rows to seat 1400+ in the hard standing area on the main stand side (probs have to be 25 rows deep or something!) But that would just make the ground look even stupider than it already does, and maybe that would be more expensive than knocking the existing stands down and starting again.

Option 3 would be to pay the £1.5m needed to divert the pipe and give us the full footprint of the 3 available sides.

The rugby club aren't going to agree to knocking everything down on the clubhouse side, and neither are they going to agree to an 8 step terrace down that side in front of the clubhouse either, as a) it would look just stupid, and b) would block the views from the club house.

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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by H1987 » Sun Dec 29, 2019 6:52 pm

Ghost_Of_1883 wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 6:02 pm
MB86DFC wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 4:33 pm
Yarblockos wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 2:41 pm
theoriginalfatcat wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 12:49 pm

But how much financially would we stand to lose by shipping out of B.Meadows early?

It's all very well making more on extras at The Arena, but what about the assets we leave behind - the Tinshed and side stand, they have a value and they cost us a lot to set up. How many years of extra income at The Arena will it take to recoup the hit of losing them?

Would it not be like spending £3000 upgrading your boiler to save £300 a year on your fuel bill? i.e. ten years until you reap any possible benefit.
If you want to get back to the EFL then you are going to have to face those costs sooner or later anyway as the Tinshed and side stand will need to be ripped up.
Why would they?
Because we won't get to 5,000 considering those two stands take up a considerable amount of the available footprint.

I imagine that the clubhouse will remain hard standing, and one of the problems of hard standing is that at league level (and possibly National League as well) you can't count it towards ground grading requirements. So you have around 800/900 I'd imagine capacity unavailable. This means our capacity towards ground grading woudn't even be 2,500.

We'd have to fit in 5,000 into 3 sides, and that includes 1,000 seats for league level which needs to be 2,000 seats within 2 years.

So we'd have to fit in approx 2,500 extra inc 400-1400 seats into the space between the tin shed and pipe exclusion zone, and the open end from the main stand side to the pipe exclusion zone. I can't see how we can do it without knocking the existing stands down.

Once again this shows the short sightedness of the buffoons who designed the ground as it is. Why? Because it was obvious to anyone who was paying attention that in the long run the stands would not cover what we needed. I was informed that the difference in cost between the 8 step tin shed and a 12 step version was barely negligible - and don't forget the cost of the 8 step tin shed was increased because we had to shorten the metal struts as the roof overhung the terrace by too much! If anyone remembers, the original tin shed was 13 steps.

And don't get me started on that overly expensive utter fuck up of a main stand. 300 grand and it's an utter disgrace. A deck of the cheapest nastiest temporary seating which doesn't even line up with the stand.

I reckon we'd need to knock down the tin shed and replace it with a 16 step terrace, which would roughly double it's current capacity of 1,000 to around 2,000. I reckon we'd need to knock down the existing seated stand down and replace it with seating at least 12 rows deep roughly doubling current capacity from 588 to around 1176. Then perhaps another seated stand roughly the same depth (so it doesn't look stupid) in between the pipe exclusion zone and tin shed. Hopefully that would hold over 800 and provide 2,000 seats. Then a terrace at the open end enough steps deep to guarantee over 1,000 capacity - remember that we could only build up to just past the goal, again because of the pipe.

Although if we kept the existing stands there is nothing stopping us putting a huge terrace of 2,000 plus at the open end, and a huge seated stand which would have to have enough rows to seat 1400+ in the hard standing area on the main stand side (probs have to be 25 rows deep or something!) But that would just make the ground look even stupider than it already does, and maybe that would be more expensive than knocking the existing stands down and starting again.

Option 3 would be to pay the £1.5m needed to divert the pipe and give us the full footprint of the 3 available sides.

The rugby club aren't going to agree to knocking everything down on the clubhouse side, and neither are they going to agree to an 8 step terrace down that side in front of the clubhouse either, as a) it would look just stupid, and b) would block the views from the club house.
Largely correct - however - all of this wouldn't need to be done until we are close to the football league. Which we are absolutely nowhere near, and won't be anytime soon. It's a huge step up from where we are to the National Level. Let alone getting out of that level. There's a bunch of stadia in the National level who aren't fit for League Football yet. But you get time and chance to do that when it becomes a problem.

There is no good reason whatsoever we need to go and plan in that damned Arena, beyond, and I will accept, if it was the difference between promotion to the Football League, years down the line (and that involves a hearty assumption that the Arena would be in any fit state years down the line). Lets approach that as a problem, if we cannot fix BM at *that* time, rather than throwing out the baby with the bathwater, to go and play in a miserable, soulless bowl... for what? To sell a few more hospitality seats? Personally, I had no idea we had all these money spinning, plastic fans.

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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by eek » Sun Dec 29, 2019 7:47 pm

H1987 wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 6:52 pm

There is no good reason whatsoever we need to go and plan in that damned Arena, beyond, and I will accept, if it was the difference between promotion to the Football League, years down the line (and that involves a hearty assumption that the Arena would be in any fit state years down the line). Lets approach that as a problem, if we cannot fix BM at *that* time, rather than throwing out the baby with the bathwater, to go and play in a miserable, soulless bowl... for what? To sell a few more hospitality seats? Personally, I had no idea we had all these money spinning, plastic fans.
I wouldn't call it plastic fans it's corporate money that is often not otherwise obtainable. A company can easily and will happily expense £150+ a head to take a suite in St James to entertain customers or reward staff.

I know people that even do it at the Stadium of Light - the money is there if the space (and the food) is good enough. Currently though it isn't

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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by theoriginalfatcat » Sun Dec 29, 2019 9:03 pm

This corporate thing is only part of the equation though - not the be all and end all.

All this stadium thing is hanging over us like a dark cloud just when the football side of things is starting to pick up.
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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by H1987 » Sun Dec 29, 2019 9:11 pm

Comparing the hospitality we can offer, even at the Arena, to Newcastle or Sunderland, is patently ridiculous. We are in the Conference North. There's just simply a finite appeal.

I simply don't accept we've outgrown the current set up. We've filled it twice in three years. Once for a cup game, once for the opening game. I agree in the short to medium term we need to get it to a place where it's suitable to stay in the league above, and provides better viewing points for supporters. This could be done at very little expense, comparatively.

We can't just jump ship, throw whatever we've done to this point in the bin, and go and play in a bleak, rusting white elephant... because what? Walsall sell some nice hospitality packages and Mr Johnston thinks he can copy it? Sorry. No.

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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by Old Git » Sun Dec 29, 2019 9:38 pm

H1987 wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 9:11 pm
Comparing the hospitality we can offer, even at the Arena, to Newcastle or Sunderland, is patently ridiculous. We are in the Conference North. There's just simply a finite appeal.

I simply don't accept we've outgrown the current set up. We've filled it twice in three years. Once for a cup game, once for the opening game. I agree in the short to medium term we need to get it to a place where it's suitable to stay in the league above, and provides better viewing points for supporters. This could be done at very little expense, comparatively.

We can't just jump ship, throw whatever we've done to this point in the bin, and go and play in a bleak, rusting white elephant... because what? Walsall sell some nice hospitality packages and Mr Johnston thinks he can copy it? Sorry. No.
Oh really I think David Johnston deserves a bit more respect than that. Unless of course you feel that you know better than him how to run the club.

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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by lo36789 » Sun Dec 29, 2019 10:00 pm

Yarblockos wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 2:41 pm
theoriginalfatcat wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 12:49 pm

But how much financially would we stand to lose by shipping out of B.Meadows early?

It's all very well making more on extras at The Arena, but what about the assets we leave behind - the Tinshed and side stand, they have a value and they cost us a lot to set up. How many years of extra income at The Arena will it take to recoup the hit of losing them?

Would it not be like spending £3000 upgrading your boiler to save £300 a year on your fuel bill? i.e. ten years until you reap any possible benefit.
If you want to get back to the EFL then you are going to have to face those costs sooner or later anyway as the Tinshed and side stand will need to be ripped up.
If you want to get back to the EFL you would have to face the cost of pulling up an artificial surface at the arena and somehow compensating the rugby club / 'sporting venture company' for their loss of earnings on that facility.

If the goal is the FL. An artificial pitch at the arena is a blocker as is the current capacity restrictions at Blackwell. If EFL is your basis for an argument both venues fall short as current proposed.

Which is a problem and there are so many other factors at play here. I suspect we are going to have to basically accept that wherever we play EFL is actually not legitimately a target or option unless a third party (the competition rules) requirement changes.

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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by theoriginalfatcat » Sun Dec 29, 2019 10:12 pm

Was there ever talk of building our own stadium on one of the other pitches at Blackwell Meadows? Or have I just imagined this?

What a great solution that would be - a nice tidy little ground of our own with a grass pitch.
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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by Lallacab » Sun Dec 29, 2019 10:34 pm

theoriginalfatcat wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 10:12 pm
Was there ever talk of building our own stadium on one of the other pitches at Blackwell Meadows? Or have I just imagined this?

What a great solution that would be - a nice tidy little ground of our own with a grass pitch.

Is that not part of the proposal at the SV? We will be given land to build our own stadium at the pace we can move at and play in the arena until it’s complete ?

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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by H1987 » Sun Dec 29, 2019 11:04 pm

Old Git wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 9:38 pm
H1987 wrote:
Sun Dec 29, 2019 9:11 pm
Comparing the hospitality we can offer, even at the Arena, to Newcastle or Sunderland, is patently ridiculous. We are in the Conference North. There's just simply a finite appeal.

I simply don't accept we've outgrown the current set up. We've filled it twice in three years. Once for a cup game, once for the opening game. I agree in the short to medium term we need to get it to a place where it's suitable to stay in the league above, and provides better viewing points for supporters. This could be done at very little expense, comparatively.

We can't just jump ship, throw whatever we've done to this point in the bin, and go and play in a bleak, rusting white elephant... because what? Walsall sell some nice hospitality packages and Mr Johnston thinks he can copy it? Sorry. No.
Oh really I think David Johnston deserves a bit more respect than that. Unless of course you feel that you know better than him how to run the club.
It's not disrespectful to disagree with someone. There's nothing realistic in what is being hinted at, and this has been going on for ages. Endless hints, designed to move the fans towards one way of thinking. I don't agree with it at all.

Plenty on here were far less respectful when Martin Gray spent months and months bemoaning the club and how it absolutely needed outside investment - of course what he had in mind was his mate Mr Singh. For the record, I happen to think Gray probably also had the best interests of the club, as i'm sure David Johnston does.

This is fundamental for the club. We cannot go back to playing in a miserable, soulless, oversized bowl. Maybe i'm selfish, but I grew up watching us at Feethams, stood on the terraces. I felt like we lost a huge part of the club in that miserable place, and that we reclaimed a small part of it, both at HP and BM. Neither were / are perfect, for different reasons.. but neither was Feethams. I don't want plastic bowls and corporate hospitality, and I honestly believe most of our fans don't want that either. Returning to the Arena wasn't countenanced as an option a few years ago, and it shouldn't be now. We can argue finances and opportunities all day long, but there is more to it than that. There's more to a football club than that. We should never, ever go back there. I don't find the finances terribly compelling, and the plastic pitch is problematic too, but my real objection is based on more than that.

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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by theoriginalfatcat » Sun Dec 29, 2019 11:21 pm

As a separate thought, isn’t it a shame that DFC has always had to kowtow to another sporting club. Everywhere we’ve ever played has seen someone else ultimately in charge, only a short period of time at The Arena saw a change to this situation and even then that was under G.R. Whose motives were questionable.
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Re: Interview with Johnston on Official Website

Post by Quakers83 » Sun Dec 29, 2019 11:24 pm

OK - if this is on the cards, let’s find out what the business plan is first before being dismissive.

For all the match-day experience at the Arena leaves a lot to be desired, so does Blackwell. I can list pro’s and con’s to both in all honesty. The Arena could unlock further revenue streams, and dare I say it, landlords with an interest of making the relationship work whilst we build our own ground at the SV.

At the moment, we are/have;

A) Landlords behaving with their own best interests in mind
B) Restricted in a ground which struggles to hold 2,500+ when segregated (if not less) - you have people with restricted views as hard standing becomes 2/3 rows deep with no steps
C) Restricted development by a water pipe - the current infrastructure was also built with the short-term in mind and not for FL standard
D) Restricted commercially

If we do dial A, and the business plan is right with a view to building our own ground on site in 5 years or so, then I’d be interested.

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