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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3cUYLYFwpQ

Paul Canoville visits Feethams - You tube, thoughts some of you might like to see this.

great to watch shaun, hope one day we get back home and do him proud.
horrible to see it the way it is.

Come on Shaun, take us home, would be great to get back there

Great stuff Shaun. Putting the "first black footy player" issue to one side (if I may), it's an absolute bloomin disgrace that Feethams should be left to this. We've all seen it's rapid decline and dismemberment over the nine years or so but it breaks my own heart every time I see video's and pictures like this. The young people of Darlington are missing out on part of their heritage. A heritage, which their mum's and dad's were brought up on by their mum's and dad's. For most of us, Feethams is our spiritual home. It is clearly waiting for someone, somewhere to get a grip of the current situation. It is surely destined for something other than houses. If houses were ever going to be built there, they'd be there now. Now is the most fantastic opportunity to get the ball rolling and give Feethams back to the football community. It's so obvious it hits you in the face, especially when you look at that clip.

She is waiting for Darlo FC to return .... as a community we need to make it happen somehow. After what we've all achieved lately, a return to Feethams should be achievable .... surely!

I'm not interested in buts, whyfores and doom merchants re: this post ... so don't waste your time on my count.

Could you not have turned your phone on silent to save you looking a bit ignorant while you were checking your messages when Paul was talking?!

Nice piece of film, Shaun, well done!

Watching it just now, and bearing in mind developments over the past few days, I'm becoming persuaded that the time to get behind this campaign is now and that to do so is in the interests of anybody who wants to see the club return to feethams.

Breaks your heart doesn't it - such a special place with a rich history: Brian Henderson, Craig Liddle, Ron Greener, Arthur Wharton, Kevan Smith, Marco Gabbiadini, etc, etc, all played on this turf. It's still there, still available...until houses are built on it.

And the Love Slug is right, I should have turned off my phone - that's actually what I was doing!

... well there's deffo a problem re: housing on the site. Financial and/or otherwise, there is a problem. I know one or two guys living locally and they don't want more houses in their back yard but reckon their house prices would increase if a footy ground was there instead of the "nature reserve/tin can ally" that is its current state.

Only a bit of banter Shaun

No problem Slug...you were right.

Do you think we've got a chance of saving Feethams shaun? I'm sure most want it to be saved for sporting purposes at least. It may cost too much for the club to rebuild (which would be my ideal solution), but I'd rather see a sports facility instead of a load of houses! Is there anything us fans can do to help out?

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Boycott greedy clubs!!

Only in a town like Darlington can a quality stadium like the Arena go to rack and ruin while nobody views it as an asset.

Only in a town like Darlington can the heritage of Feethams be dismissed and some unelected non footballing trust is allowed to sell the site where the worlds first black professional footballer played, for housing.

Meanwhile, Darlington Football Club has no money, and nowhere to play.

Where were the council when all of this was allowed to happen? Where are they now?

People can talk all day long about how the council has to look after the town, not the 2% that follow the club, but they OWE us. They owe us a new stadium. They haven't prevented 98% of people in the town, uninterested in football, from developing their properties and making money have they?

They best start finding the funds for our new ground.

They better not do a deal where the Arena is sold and the council gets all the money after the SS 2 million, and turn their backs on the club - this would not surprise me.

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http://twitter.com/Quakerz72

if there is a chance can we not recycle stuff from the arena if they decide to knock it down

That was my thought when Bill Dixon was on the radio the other day talking about relaxing covenants. Tesco get their shop, S&S get their cash and DBC get their sports hub.

What exactly is this "sports hub" supposed to be?

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http://twitter.com/Quakerz72

The sports hub is sporting facilities for the town, council owned no doubt. It will be football and rugby pitches. Its part of the scheme to replace facilities lost when Hundens Lane lost half its pitches and Teesside Uni built on the College pitches.

Absolutely spot on! Also the town of Darlington has potentially lost what identity it had left by allowing it's football club to be scratting around to try and maintain a future, starting off in someones back yard.
People do associate a town with it's football team, that's how it's identified. But as mentioned by Quakerz, it's a disgrace that the council has allowed this situation. I don't know what avenues Shaun Campbell is going down with regards to Feethams, but surely the sale of land by the cricket club to property developers wasn't totally legal? I'm not a legal eagle but how this was allowed to go though is still baffling to this day.
How can a covenent stating land must be used for sports in the town be pushed to one side in favour of housing? Someone having a darts board in their new garage shouldn't count!
Surely the council can't just let a football club rot away on the outskirts of town with no use whatsoever?
If the council won't allow us to get back to Feethams, then surely they should be able to relax the covenents on the land, allow Scott and Sizer to sell to Tesco's (if still interested) with a cut of the profits going back into a community stadium.
I don't buy into all the bollox the council come out with regarding a supermarket on the outskirts effecting trade in the town.
The town centre in Darlington is crap. 59 mobile phone shops, 2 pound shops and a House of Frazer is hardly going to see it's trade effected by a Tesco's.
Anyway time will tell, but hopefully a council representative will come forward and show some support for the club over the next few days, although somehow I doubt it.

Lets not forget the council value the town centre trade that highly they were all for Tesco building on the town hall site whilst they got nice new offices across the road!

Shaun, take us home to where we belong West Ver....sounds like a song,
seriousley Shaun, what can we do to help?

Great/sad clip, Shaun.

There was nowt like turning up at Feethams on the opening day of the season when the weather was good, walking round the cricket pitch as a game was going on and into the ground, standing on the South Terrace in the sun.

*dabs hanky under each eye*

Okay, here are my thoughts: There is no doubt that the energy, passion and enthusiasm that was triggered from Mid January to Mid February was real - You could touch it!

The support for the wonderful little club called 'Darlo' came not only from the people of Darlington, but from across the nation and indeed from across the world.

It is by far from impossible that this energy could be reignited to achieve the most fitting end possible to that memorable opening chapter of the story, a squaring of the circle and a return to Feethams.

We may be disappointed if we fail, but doomed if we never try - so what about it - are you up for it?

Doug and I are!

Shaun, really, I understand where you are coming from, but how likely is it? I thought there was no way back for us, full stop?

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http://twitter.com/Quakerz72

I think everyone (bar Darlo_Pete) would be behind any scheme to get back to Feethams. Whether it has any chance is another thing. Its got to be a better option than another "edge of town" ground. Theres even fewer public transport links to Blackwell than there is to the arena!

I think plenty will be up for it (including me!). We just need a plan of action, I suppose to put pressure on the council? You and Doug are certainly capable of drumming up media interest and support!

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Boycott greedy clubs!!

Seriously - if you want this to happen, then point everyone on uncovered to this post and ask them to comment so that I can gauge the 'feel' for it.

While there is open land at Feethams, there is a chance. As soon as a house is built there, we can forget it!

Shaun

One thing I never understood was how the Cricket Club came to own the land in the first place?
I thought the land was left to the town for sporting purposes and, while the cricket club dominated the trust, I don't know how they came to have ownership of the land?

That said, they do seem to have the legalities sorted so surely any return to Feethams would have to have their approval?

The trust own the land and the Cricket Club control the trust. Anything the trust does is likely to benefit the cricket club more than anything else.

i think were all up for it,theres no doubt about that.
cant believe its been 9 years already.

I'm up for it!

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This is pish.

I'm up for it too but it could be that Brian Johnson has things sewn up to make things very difficult for us to succeed.