Mowden Park RFC To Buy Arena

by Scott Thornberry - 6th September 2012

The former home of Darlington Football Club looks like it could be the new home of Rugby in the town after Mowden Park reveal they have agreed to purchase the ground.

The arena has stood empty and mothballed since we left the ground at the end of last season.  The future of the 25k seater looked bleak with the football club choosing to play at Heritage Park after being unable to afford the reported £270k a year running costs.

After selling their current ground to developers quite a while ago it was thought that they would move to a new ground which was to be built over West Park, but that project appears to have stalled.

This evening Mowden Park released the following statement.

Following long drawn out discussions regarding the development of DMPRFC and the purchase of land at West Park, unfortunately negotiations have stalled due to vendor issues beyond the control of the club which neccessitated the club looking for an alternative site.

Following in depth discussions with Darlington Borough council and its owners the club has made an offer to purchase the Northern Echo Stadium which has been accepted in principle, negotitions will now commence to complete the heads of terms and more news will follow in due course 

Ground owners Scott and Sizer said “We are in discussion having received an acceptable offer and will progress with due diligence over the next few weeks.

“This is good news for the town as the stadium is an important local amenity.”

The Arena used to be owned by the football club but was seperated by George Houghton during his devasting spell at the club.  A multi million pound loan was then taken out by Houghton and it was secured on the stadium.  After the spell of administration it was agreed that Raj Singh and George Houghton would continue to pay the loan off to Scott and Sizer, unfortunately Houghton failed to pay and they defaulted on the loan and Scott and Sizer became owners of a stadium they never wanted.

So that is how Darlington Football Club eventually became homeless with nowhere to live, businessmen seperated the stadium from the club, took out a loan on it and then defaulted on the loan and our home was reposessed.

Darlington Mowden Park currently get crowds of around 200, but will be attracted by the land surrounding the stadium more than the stadium itself.  It is rumoured that they are to receive around £5m from Bellway for the land at Mowden, giving them plenty of cash to build some pitches around the stadium.  It will be very interesting to see their full plans for the club going forward.