Ashington - new stand paid for by Sponsor

[Robbie Painter]

Good for them. Encouraging to see a local non league club attracting good backing.

However personally I'm sick of reading about other club's good fortune/strategy/planning re stadium/community developments whilst ours, paid for by our fans (again), are stalled.

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/business ... 20category

[TFDM]

Yeah fair play to them. However it wouldn't be Darlington FC without everything we do being a bloody uphill struggle.

I sometimes do feel as if some of our fans can be a bit 'glass half full' at times but we've been brilliant over the last few years. Every time we've been asked to back the club or get behind it we have done - weather that is towards the ground or funding some camera etc etc.

We've done all that and we're still not home. Its hard not to feel just a tad envious and at the same time pissed off that we've not had the breaks we need.

Such is life I guess. We've just got to keep going.

[JE93]

Maybe the council could be on the look out. the next big business that want's to come to Darlo welcome them with open arms as long as they put 3 Million into a community sports development project *cough Football Club *cough. Really wouldn't care playing at the 'Tesco' or 'EE' community stadium for the next 100 years if it could get us the ground we needed.

[Makka Pakka]

I'm a bit confused as to what they are funding. The article does start with "funding a grandstand", then goes onto say "funding the opening of a grandstand".

Is it that they are simply sponsoring the existing new stand and the sponsorship money has enabled them to apply the finishing touches?

[LLB]

Excellent looking stand but im confused as to how it will increase their ground capacity from 2k to 3k when it only seats 250...unless im reading article wrongly!

[spen666]

Excellent looking stand but im confused as to how it will increase their ground capacity from 2k to 3k when it only seats 250...unless im reading article wrongly!

{ had similar thoughts. Would need a lot of work to increase capacity to 3k I would have thought, a new terrace?

[dickdarlington]

As we are all aware, the capacity of a ground at this level isn't based solely on the number of people that can physically be spaced around the ground. The capacity is determined by a number of factors, such as number of turnstiles, exits, toilets, etc etc.

The new build includes more of the core infrastructure, and a solid club house (portacabins also come with certain restrictions). It is my understanding that the covered terrace that was where the new stand is, will be placed behind one of the goals. This will provide covered accommodation for 900 fans in three structures.

That's 150 more than HP, and we all agree that HP can hold at least 3K easily if it was allowed.

It's a good news story for North East footy, and I hope this encourages them to try to re-enter the pyriamid, as along with a small number of other clubs in the Northern League, they have the fan base to play much higher up.

[Neil_Heaneys_Pace]

Yeah fair play to them. However it wouldn't be Darlington FC without everything we do being a bloody uphill struggle.

I sometimes do feel as if some of our fans can be a bit 'glass half full' at times but we've been brilliant over the last few years. Every time we've been asked to back the club or get behind it we have done - weather that is towards the ground or funding some camera etc etc.

We've done all that and we're still not home. Its hard not to feel just a tad envious and at the same time pissed off that we've not had the breaks we need.

Such is life I guess. We've just got to keep going.

100% This. What we have done so far with the time and available resources is nothing short of legendary. Some times frustrating.

Its always important to remember where we were and how close we were to dieing out. We are still alive and kicking as a club which is the main thing flying through the leagues. we will eventually get home but it has to be in the right way so we never move again.

[Comfortably_numb]

We kind of had good luck when George sausage roll spitting Reynolds turned up. Sadly for us most clubs get around 10 years of mental spending before bonkers owners get bored or go broke. We got a couple of years.

I see Bristol city are spending 9 mil on a player. They have an owner worth 1.5 bil. He won't ho broke but will get bored and move on. Question is....after how long.