Work at Blackwell Meadows

[Ingleby]

We should play Spenny in a friendly to say thanks for their help at the end of last season. Just hope the new sponsor isn't Sports Direct!

Fuck that. We've already given them a team.

[bga]

Not all bad news though. Another major sponsor to be announced, and the sun's shining.

I can't see any bad news at all- a slight delay whilst finalities on funding bodies are sorted- nothing unusual about that. it was never envisaged Darlo would be starting season at Blackwell Meadows, so no harm done with a delay.

The promise of 2 big friendlies and a new major sponsor as well.

I would say its a good news announcement

Spen the bad news is work has NOT YET started and is therefore weeks behind schedule. It will only be good news WHEN work starts at last.

As an aside does anyone notice like I do, that News on the official club site (hardly) ever seem to appear in date order so to speak? e.g. The statement today is the 5th article down on the home page or is this to do with my computer?

[e4sby]

My guess would be the need for both funding bodies to have legal agreements in place before any work can commence. If I recall correctly the two clubs were receiving funding from two different sources, a clear recipe for delay.

I think this is pretty much spot on.

Good news on the additional sponsorship too.

Only criticism being that the announcement should've come a little earlier.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Sidarlo]

Not all bad news though. Another major sponsor to be announced, and the sun's shining.

I can't see any bad news at all- a slight delay whilst finalities on funding bodies are sorted- nothing unusual about that. it was never envisaged Darlo would be starting season at Blackwell Meadows, so no harm done with a delay.

The promise of 2 big friendlies and a new major sponsor as well.

I would say its a good news announcement

Spen the bad news is work has NOT YET started and is therefore weeks behind schedule. It will only be good news WHEN work starts at last.

As an aside does anyone notice like I do, that News on the official club site (hardly) ever seem to appear in date order so to speak? e.g. The statement today is the 5th article down on the home page or is this to do with my computer?

The first three articles are stuck to the top of the page. Then it goes in date order

[darlodog]

Not all bad news though. Another major sponsor to be announced, and the sun's shining.

I can't see any bad news at all- a slight delay whilst finalities on funding bodies are sorted- nothing unusual about that. it was never envisaged Darlo would be starting season at Blackwell Meadows, so no harm done with a delay.

The promise of 2 big friendlies and a new major sponsor as well.

I would say its a good news announcement

Spen the bad news is work has NOT YET started and is therefore weeks behind schedule. It will only be good news WHEN work starts at last.

As an aside does anyone notice like I do, that News on the official club site (hardly) ever seem to appear in date order so to speak? e.g. The statement today is the 5th article down on the home page or is this to do with my computer?

A bit ingenuous there. All these people are volunteers with day jobs and we don't have the luxury of a Dave Mills a retired individual who could give all his time and who stepped down through ill health.

The last few months we now have gained a major sponsor the likes we thought we would ever have another key sponsor to be shortly announced and a return to Darlo the most important thing. Life's good being a Darlo fan.

[bga]

Not all bad news though. Another major sponsor to be announced, and the sun's shining.

I can't see any bad news at all- a slight delay whilst finalities on funding bodies are sorted- nothing unusual about that. it was never envisaged Darlo would be starting season at Blackwell Meadows, so no harm done with a delay.

The promise of 2 big friendlies and a new major sponsor as well.

I would say its a good news announcement

Spen the bad news is work has NOT YET started and is therefore weeks behind schedule. It will only be good news WHEN work starts at last.

As an aside does anyone notice like I do, that News on the official club site (hardly) ever seem to appear in date order so to speak? e.g. The statement today is the 5th article down on the home page or is this to do with my computer?

A bit ingenuous there. All these people are volunteers with day jobs and we don't have the luxury of a Dave Mills a retired individual who could give all his time and who stepped down through ill health.

The last few months we now have gained a major sponsor the likes we thought we would ever have another key sponsor to be shortly announced and a return to Darlo the most important thing. Life's good being a Darlo fan.

I wasn't being critical just wanted to know if there was any adjustment I could make to settings on my computer! I think the website is generally excellent.

[don'tbuythesun]

Bga same on mine! Usually seems to be in date order. Sorry we've not managed to meet up always last minute or visiting people on the way.

[RUMPLESTILTSKIN]

The "football share" isn't (as far as I know) actually a real thing. It's a FA made up thing. So they could surely remove it all together without any comeback.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A made up thing it maybe but whoever has it assigned to him controls the club, when he no longer controls the club he should hand it over or have it agreed in the sale of the club. IT IS LEGALLY BINDING whether it is real or imaginary. The current owner OWNS IT until he lets it go, one way or the other.It is accepted in the football world and in the courts.

[liddle_4_ever]

The "football share" isn't (as far as I know) actually a real thing. It's a FA made up thing. So they could surely remove it all together without any comeback.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

A made up thing it maybe but whoever has it assigned to him controls the club, when he no longer controls the club he should hand it over or have it agreed in the sale of the club. IT IS LEGALLY BINDING whether it is real or imaginary. The current owner OWNS IT until he lets it go, one way or the other.It is accepted in the football world and in the courts.

So why is the golden share held by the FA / Football league if you're in L2 or above but held but he chairman outside of league football?

Also as far as I can recall all correspondence when referring to the golden share always says they hold it, not own it.

[m62exile]

I tried this once with no success but I'll try again . You have to exit administration via a CVA if you want to retain the "football share". Singh was the major creditor but was not prepared to agree to a CVA, so the football share was irrelevant and we were therefore classed as a new club.

[Darlogramps]

I tried this once with no success but I'll try again . You have to exit administration via a CVA if you want to retain the "football share". Singh was the major creditor but was not prepared to agree to a CVA, so the football share was irrelevant and we were therefore classed as a new club.

You had no success because you're wrong.

The football share is separate from the CVA and we'd still have needed to get hold of it. Normally it's transferred across as part of the deal to transfer ownership of the club, and the CVA is part of that.

But because it is separate, you can in theory come out of administration without a CVA but later get hold of the share.

I'd need to look it up, but I'm certain this happened with Salisbury City. They were once kicked out of the Conference, down to Step 3 level for not agreeing a CVA.

But they were playing under the existing Salisbury City name and not forcibly relegated to step 5, which would suggest they got hold of the share.

(This was before they got involved with a dodgy Moroccan and went out of business three years ago).

Logic would dictate that if you can't negotiate a CVA with the agreement of a major creditor, then they're also unlikely to agree to hand over the share.

But it's not a written rule that you must have a CVA in order to get the share. Rules around CVAs tend to differ depending on the league and level you're at.

[Quakerz]

The rules changed after Salisbury.

Clubs were able to exit administration without CVAs and retain their name and league standing (although with heavier and heavier points deductions in the case of Leeds, Bournemouth, Luton), though in non league it also involved being demoted as well, or being kicked out of the conference structure altogether - ie to step 3.

What happened in the season before we went into administration is that the FA amended their rules to state that any club who exited administration without a CVA would be now classed as a new club and could not re-enter the pyramid higher than step 5.

This turned out to be very harsh on us considering clubs that actually went bust and started again as phoenix clubs with a clean slate (Halifax, Chester, Telford) were all allowed to start again at step 4! Basically the rule that applied to us, wasn't the rule when they went under.

So we were faced with a situation where we saved the club, bought assets, exited administration taking football debts on - but were told we were a new club by the FA and made to change our name, and they had their rulebook to back them up.

Had this happened a season before we would have ended up in the Evostik Premier and still be considered as the same club if we had the golden share.

The golden share actually wouldn't have made any difference at the time when we hit the skids though because the rules had already been changed to make it irrelevant. In my opinion, the football share has always been a red herring in our particular case, and we were stuffed anyway.

What made it so difficult for fans to cope with was that we didn't go bust, but the FA treated us as that was the case according to their shiny new rule, and now we are known as just another club that went bust.

Even some of our own fans look back to the time that "we went bust".

This is why our name Darlington 1883 (even though we picked it, because we had to) is so despised by many Darlington fans - it reminds us of the indignity of people thinking we went bust and started a new club.

No, we are "classed" as a new club.

No phoenix club starts with 300k+ of debt taken on from a dead and totally unconnected other club.

[m62exile]

The rules changed after Salisbury.

Clubs were able to exit administration without CVAs and retain their name and league standing (although with heavier and heavier points deductions in the case of Leeds, Bournemouth, Luton), though in non league it also involved being demoted as well, or being kicked out of the conference structure altogether - ie to step 3.

What happened in the season before we went into administration is that the FA amended their rules to state that any club who exited administration without a CVA would be now classed as a new club and could not re-enter the pyramid higher than step 5.

This turned out to be very harsh on us considering clubs that actually went bust and started again as phoenix clubs with a clean slate (Halifax, Chester, Telford) were all allowed to start again at step 4! Basically the rule that applied to us, wasn't the rule when they went under.

So we were faced with a situation where we saved the club, bought assets, exited administration taking football debts on - but were told we were a new club by the FA and made to change our name, and they had their rulebook to back them up.

Had this happened a season before we would have ended up in the Evostik Premier and still be considered as the same club if we had the golden share.

The golden share actually wouldn't have made any difference at the time when we hit the skids though because the rules had already been changed to make it irrelevant. In my opinion, the football share has always been a red herring in our particular case, and we were stuffed anyway.

What made it so difficult for fans to cope with was that we didn't go bust, but the FA treated us as that was the case according to their shiny new rule, and now we are known as just another club that went bust.

Even some of our own fans look back to the time that "we went bust".

This is why our name Darlington 1883 (even though we picked it, because we had to) is so despised by many Darlington fans - it reminds us of the indignity of people thinking we went bust and started a new club.

No, we are "classed" as a new club.

No phoenix club starts with 300k+ of debt taken on from a dead and totally unconnected other club.

Exactly right.

[JE93]

The rules changed after Salisbury.

Clubs were able to exit administration without CVAs and retain their name and league standing (although with heavier and heavier points deductions in the case of Leeds, Bournemouth, Luton), though in non league it also involved being demoted as well, or being kicked out of the conference structure altogether - ie to step 3.

What happened in the season before we went into administration is that the FA amended their rules to state that any club who exited administration without a CVA would be now classed as a new club and could not re-enter the pyramid higher than step 5.

This turned out to be very harsh on us considering clubs that actually went bust and started again as phoenix clubs with a clean slate (Halifax, Chester, Telford) were all allowed to start again at step 4! Basically the rule that applied to us, wasn't the rule when they went under.

So we were faced with a situation where we saved the club, bought assets, exited administration taking football debts on - but were told we were a new club by the FA and made to change our name, and they had their rulebook to back them up.

Had this happened a season before we would have ended up in the Evostik Premier and still be considered as the same club if we had the golden share.

The golden share actually wouldn't have made any difference at the time when we hit the skids though because the rules had already been changed to make it irrelevant. In my opinion, the football share has always been a red herring in our particular case, and we were stuffed anyway.

What made it so difficult for fans to cope with was that we didn't go bust, but the FA treated us as that was the case according to their shiny new rule, and now we are known as just another club that went bust.

Even some of our own fans look back to the time that "we went bust".

This is why our name Darlington 1883 (even though we picked it, because we had to) is so despised by many Darlington fans - it reminds us of the indignity of people thinking we went bust and started a new club.

No, we are "classed" as a new club.

No phoenix club starts with 300k+ of debt taken on from a dead and totally unconnected other club.

Very well written Quakerz. We were unfortunate. But from this we have had 4 of the best seasons following darlo that any can remember. The club is ours. We are free from a legacy of debt and miss management.

Also important to remember that we don't just get hit with rule changes we benefit from them too. We would have lost 10 points last season if the rules regarding player registration breaches had not been changed over the summer.

[Quakerz]

I agree on both of your points.

Yes we have benefited from recent rule changes - ie ineligible player.

Yes we've had 4 great seasons, and TBH what happened hasn't overall been a bad thing.

But we still have the stigma of being recognised as a phoenix club when we aren't one. That's what has always rankled with me.

Hopefully we can revert back to Darlington next season because there has been precedents set with clubs doing the same after 5 years. That will help us claim our true identity although there will still be some who will say we went bust.

[Darlo_Pete]

Looking forward to work starting on BM by Tuesday, as per the clubs statement on the 7-6-16, which is attached below.

http://darlingtonfootballclub.co.uk/bla ... ws-update/

[MCFCDarlo3]

Looking forward to work starting on BM by Tuesday, as per the clubs statement on the 7-6-16, which is attached below.

http://darlingtonfootballclub.co.uk/bla ... ws-update/

Hint of sarcasm there Pete?

Think the club is trying its best as people have said but maybe expectation needs to be managed a little better.

[Darlo_Pete]

Looking forward to work starting on BM by Tuesday, as per the clubs statement on the 7-6-16, which is attached below.

http://darlingtonfootballclub.co.uk/bla ... ws-update/

Hint of sarcasm there Pete?

Think the club is trying its best as people have said but maybe expectation needs to be managed a little better.

I'm just going on what the club said in it's last statement. If the situation has changed since their last statement, then surely fans should be told?

[JE93]

I tell you what Pete let's get a full time PR person on board? Then they can do meaningless updates everyday when there is no real information to give. Will only cost 25-30k which we can just pluck from thin air?

Do you not comprehend that these people are doing all they can to get the legalities of this deal sorted? As well as the deal.for a major new sponsor and 2 money spinning friendlies for the start of the season? Do you not think this might not take up most of their time instead of dealing with press releases?

And on the topic of press releases. Do you not think they take effort and time to write, review and get into the public? And that the board must think about reputation and prospects when it's giving updates. How negative and unprofessional does it look if it is constantly churning out press releases to say we've missed our initial deadline?

I dispair foe our great volunteers and board members sometimes I really do. And before anyone raises the well I have money in this etc etc etc.. so do I and many others who are patiently and supportively allowing people to get on with their jobs inside the club.

[lo36789]

Looking forward to work starting on BM by Tuesday, as per the clubs statement on the 7-6-16, which is attached below.

http://darlingtonfootballclub.co.uk/bla ... ws-update/

Hint of sarcasm there Pete?

Think the club is trying its best as people have said but maybe expectation needs to be managed a little better.

I'm just going on what the club said in it's last statement. If the situation has changed since their last statement, then surely fans should be told?

Pete there is a fine line. The club is not operating one massive project delivery forum every time that is an update.

Have you nothing else to entertain your mind - it can't be that hard to keep it occupied given the bandwith.

[Darlo_Pete]

The development at BM is crucial for the club and fans just want to be kept in the loop. The majority of fans have no idea what is causing the delays. All we have is the statements we get from the club, remember fans have bought ST based on us returning to Darlo. Clearly we will not start the season at BM, but if work doesn't start soon on the new pitch, then the pitch will not be ready this season. I only go on about this, because I love the club and want to see it flourish, just like everybody else.

I appreciate that many people are doing great work for the club and that there is obviously some serious problem, which is holding up the development of BM.

[lo36789]

They have provided a new estimate of timelines to start very recently. If there is a slight slippage then there is a slight slippage. A slight slippage does not warrant an update.

If something has happened which means there is a material change in start date then I would agree that an announcement is necessary.

Your posts do not come across as genuine concern for the club getting home. They come across as points scoring and childish. You are sat there in the corner with your arms crossed saying you won't come out to play unless you get to wear your favourite hat.

[RUMPLESTILTSKIN]

Looking forward to work starting on BM by Tuesday, as per the clubs statement on the 7-6-16, which is attached below.

http://darlingtonfootballclub.co.uk/bla ... ws-update/

Hint of sarcasm there Pete?

Think the club is trying its best as people have said but maybe expectation needs to be managed a little better.

I'm just going on what the club said in it's last statement. If the situation has changed since their last statement, then surely fans should be told?

Read it again, it says they "expect" the work to start NOT that it will.

[Neil Johnson]

Where will DRUFC play when the "essential" & "drainage" works are being carried out on the pitch?

I suppose DRUFC will be having games in July-Aug, so would NOW have to shift pitches for DFC to obtain access.

The trouble we have is that if the club hints where the hold-ups are, the blame game / insults go into full swing on the Internet.

It's frustrating for all fans, but it must be far more worse for the DFC volunteers involved.

[MikeinBlack2]

As long as all is in place on 31st March 17, as if it isn't we will be demoted at the end of the season as our ground (or Bishop's) won't be suitable for National League North football. Nine months until then, let's hope all is good in the house!

[Mr_Tibbs]

An update will be provided following a meeting taking place on Friday evening between the DFCSG and Darlington Football Club Directors in which they will discuss the current situation in regards to the move to Blackwell Meadows and the subsequent collection of pledges made to facilitate the move.

[footifan]

Where will DRUFC play when the "essential" & "drainage" works are being carried out on the pitch?

I suppose DRUFC will be having games in July-Aug, so would NOW have to shift pitches for DFC to obtain access.

The trouble we have is that if the club hints where the hold-ups are, the blame game / insults go into full swing on the Internet.

It's frustrating for all fans, but it must be far more worse for the DFC volunteers involved.

WHY, would DRUFC need the pitch in July / Aug ?
They do not usually start their league season until Sept.
The pitch improvements are also for their benefit as well as DFC's, surely one of the other pitches could be used if preseason rugby friendlies have to be held at Blackwell.

The situation is not ideal but I am sure that DFC officials are doing their best to get us back to Darlo as quickly as they can.
The snipes & moans will not get us there any quicker

[Darlo_Pete]

Hopefully it'll be good news on Friday and we can move forward. However if there is still an issue or issues after the meeting, then we will be told what the problems are?

[footifan]

Hopefully it'll be good news on Friday and we can move forward. However if there is still an issue or issues after the meeting, then we will be told what the problems are?

Oh I am sure they will give you a call Pete, they would not move forward without checking with you in every detail....

[jjljks]

My spies tell me there was evidence that the grass had been cut, at least it is a start!