Anonymous letter in the Echo.

[theoriginalfatcat]

Has anyone else spotted this? It seems a bit of a pointless anti Darlo rant tbh, written in short paragraphs that when added together make little sense - but the writer asks a few questions which I will give my personal answers to (below the line in capitals)

******************************* here is the letter

WHAT are Darlington Football Club thinking about when they say they need a new ground?

"I'm sorry guys, but how many new grounds do you want, where's the money coming from, and where has a new ground got you in the past?

"It is only 19 years since Darlington Football Club was situated in the centre of the town at Feethams where, with financial help from the Football Foundation, a brand new stand had just been built with refreshment bars attached.

All those thousands of pounds were wasted because George Reynolds, the chairman of the club at the time, devoted all his time and resources into building the arena, an out of town financial disaster which eventually was the reason the club were relegated back into the Conference.

"In the season just finished, 2021-22, Darlington, finished 13th out of the 22 clubs in the National League North, not even halfway.

"They are nearer to Mars and Saturn than they are to the Football League.

"A little bit of advice to Darlington Football Club, concentrate all your energies and resources into building a team good enough to get back into the Football League Division 2, then think about a new ground."

*******************************************

"I'm sorry guys, but how many new grounds do you want - JUST THE ONE.

where's the money coming from - IF IT"S NOT YOU DOES IT MATTER?

and where has a new ground got you in the past? BLACKWELL MEADOWS AND HERITAGE PARK WERE NOT OURS, WHILST THE MOVE FROM FEETHAMS TO THE ARENA WAS ENGINEERED BY G.R. A MOVE WHICH TURNED OUT TO BE A MISTAKE BUT NOT RELEVANT NOW.

"They are nearer to Mars and Saturn than they are to the Football League. IN REALITY TWO PROMOTIONS.

"A little bit of advice to Darlington Football Club, concentrate all your energies and resources into building a team good enough to get back into the Football League Division 2, then think about a new ground." GREAT ADVICE GET A REALLY GOOD TEAM, GET PROMOTION, THEN NOT BE ABLE TO TAKE IT BECAUSE THERE IS NOWHERE TO PLAY.

[onewayup]

Anonymous, says it all really. Absolutely clueless, does not know any facts, doesn't want to and has no interest in DFC. Best not give the merchant any encouragement.

[TKOA]

Plenty more where they came from I’m sure. A lot of the Darlington public have never bothered with the club or like in this case see it as a hindrance. There’s more people in the town who would rather travel nearly 40 miles to watch the horse punchers.

[Quaker85]

Yep totally clueless. As if you could build a twice promotion winning side on revenues from playing at BM. Great business plan. Give him / her a job advising Sunak at HM Treasury


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[TKOA]

If you asked then to name a Darlington player they’d probably say Asprilla. An absolute idiot who should not have had their embarrassing letter printed.

[Darlogramps]

Not even worth worrying about something with that staggering level of ignorance. Sadly there’s a lot of it about it in the town when comes to the club.

[onewayup]

Printing from the northern Echo has gone right down the pan with these so called new reporters,
They don't checkout facts before before printing spurious anonymous letters full of holes,

[spen666]

Printing from the northern Echo has gone right down the pan with these so called new reporters,
They don't checkout facts before before printing spurious anonymous letters full of holes,

It's not for repirters to censor letters, no matter how silly they are.

It's for people to express their views no matter how silly they are.

Only censorship is to prevent defamatory comments.


The writer is clearly someone who knows nothing about the business of football

[PierremontQuaker03]

The bigger issue was how Feethams was sold to a housing developer. If it remained, it is without doubt we would have been back to our proper home.

[Old Git]

Sounds a bit like a Fat Josh rant to me.

[EDJOHNS]

The bigger issue was how Feethams was sold to a housing developer. If it remained, it is without doubt we would have been back to our proper home.

No, we really would not.
By the time we left the cricket club were doing everything they could to obstruct the football club. Even going to the lengths of locking the gates the evening a concert had been arranged in the East stand.
Even had we stayed at Feethams instead of moving to the Arena we would never have been allowed to rebuild the ground and it was dilapidated before we left. Just what it would be like now, 20 years later is unthinkable to those of us who go back to its glory days.
As for moving back, again, once they had got us out there is no way the cricket club would ever have allowed us back.
Does anyone think the cricket club did not have that power? If so where did the money go from the sale? That answers the question.

[50 years]

It is true the cricket club wanted us out, and the trustees of the land from my memory were 3 cricket board members, the mayor and MP, so football club had no clout. One thing that did puzzle me was that I understood at the time that the 5 a side building next to the ground was owned by the football club including the land it stood on, (I may be wrong of course as often am), but wonder if true whether it was something that was forgotten about?

[theoriginalfatcat]

By the time we left the cricket club were doing everything they could to obstruct the football club. Even going to the lengths of locking the gates the evening a concert had been arranged in the East stand.

I'm pretty sure this was Sean Lock - I had my eye on this gig but didn't go. I seem to remember cricket club spoilt this event.

[EDJOHNS]

By the time we left the cricket club were doing everything they could to obstruct the football club. Even going to the lengths of locking the gates the evening a concert had been arranged in the East stand.

I'm pretty sure this was Sean Lock - I had my eye on this gig but didn't go. I seem to remember cricket club spoilt this event.

That name rings a bell. Steve Harland worked long and hard sorting the night and the first he knew there was a problem was when he turned up and could not get in!!!

[shildonlad]

That guy sure sounds deluded and probably not even a fan of a rival club, just some local naysayer. I recall when darlington were playing in bishop listening to a few local misserys in town saying the move back to the town will never happen. They were clearly proved wrong