blackwell meadows work !!

[liddle_4_ever]

Pitch wise the Arena and BM is chalk and cheese. I played on BM pitch about 2 months ago. It was poor, very sandy, a few stones, grass was thin and patchy and it undulates noticeably (I will add it should have improved over the summer)
I played on the pitch at the Arena on Monday and it was the best pitch I've ever seen up close (this includes some of the biggest stadiums in Europe). The grass was so thick and lush that even moving the grass around I struggled to see the soil beneath. The only complaint I had was the grass was a bit long (presumably it was cut before the Sunderland game).


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[jjljks]

I expect that the Board etc will have considered most if not all options regarding the home of DFC. Mowden Park RFC have allowed us to use The Arena for a couple of friendlies so far, but let's not forget it has taken four years to get to this stage, so ground sharing at The Arena has never seriously been on the table, until maybe recently, and the pros and cons will have been considered I'm sure.
My preferred option (although there are no options up for debate other than between fans) would be to press for a ground share at the Arena until Blackwell Meadows is up to Conference National standard, maybe at the start of the 2017/2018 season.
We must hope that all goes to plan and we are not demoted through unacceptable ground status.

Lot of sense in what you say here. I think we should look to Mowden Park as alternate venue only for the few big matches which we may get due to Cup ties and/or when we get into the Conference then back into the Football League, thus avoiding the 'unacceptable ground status' in the unlikely event (according to the bookies) we gain immediate promotion this coming season.

However, in the meantime, fans need to get connected to the team and to generate an atmosphere which gives us an edge over some visiting teams. This never happens in the Arena, so we are much better off with a ground like Heritage Park. Given the lack of a fairy godmother, there is only one current site which can give us that in Darlington & this is Blackwell Meadows. We need to get behind both the team on the pitch and the brave souls at the top of our fans-owned club who are doing their best to keep the Quakers alive.

[Craig09]

Can anyone put me right here....

Ive heard this morning by a customer that we aint going to blackwell and thats its not going to come off even tho things have been signed for not that it matters.

He also mentioned that his son plays for mowden and that we will end up back at the arena and hes said its a definate.

Im puzzled as at the moment we do not have a ground to start the football season with and in my opinion the arena is the best place to be

[shawry]

I'd say that's rubbish as otherwise the club wouldn't be collecting the pledges

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[lo36789]

We are playing at Heritage Park so we do have a ground to start the season at.

Generally random members of the public are not more go to for reliable information.

The British Press make stuff up and their actually job is to inform people.

[jjljks]

Can anyone put me right here....

Ive heard this morning by a customer that we aint going to blackwell and thats its not going to come off even tho things have been signed for not that it matters.

He also mentioned that his son plays for mowden and that we will end up back at the arena and hes said its a definate.

Im puzzled as at the moment we do not have a ground to start the football season with and in my opinion the arena is the best place to be

The things that have been signed are contracts, so if we do not honour them then it will matter as breach of contract could see us being taken to court, which would then see some of the hard-won money raised being totally wasted on lawyers and if costs were awarded to DRUFC if/when we lost the case.

Give the Directors & MG some credit that there are contingency plans in place, should HP not be available for the first home game.

Whilst the Arena may be the best place in town, it isn't financially a sound solution for us as demonstrated by previous experience when we went out of existence as a club. Even Mowden Park are currently struggling to make it viable, even though they have had the benefit of some relaxation of the planning restrictions which were initially imposed on it and the millions in the bank from the sale of their old ground.

There are signs of things progressing at BM, for example the Council agreeing to help with the funding of making the car parking bigger. Yes it has all taken longer than we all anticipated, hence delays making it difficult to start physical work on the pitch and pushing it out of the initial schedule. Agreed this is not ideal and everyone wants to see something starting as the new season looms ahead, but just be patient and stick with supporting the team and club.

[Gow9900]

Mowden don't want us there, long or short term.

There may be a few that want us there as it is now becoming apparent to them that a stadium like that costs absolute fortunes to run, but it would take a majority vote for us to go back. And if we did, it would have to be short term. Going back there without a multi millionaire backer prepared to chuck insane money at us would finally finish us off. The rumour mill in town is mad, I've heard so many different stories from people, from taxi drivers, people on here, Twitter, Facebook, people in pubs that never go to watch us but apparently know everything.

At this current time, the situation is this as far as I see it:

- plans in place, contracts signed.
- club has collected most of the pledged money, as well as having several grants in place from the FA and the stadium improvement grant people.
- we have agreed to start at Bishop until Blackwell is ready. Bishops pitch has been re-done so we have moved some fixtures around etc at the start of the season to compensate for this.

I'll just wait to see what happens. Being a Darlo fan makes you automatically apprehensive, we've been through that much s*** it's totally understandable, but let's just wait and see. Things are moving forward slowly, obviously a lot slower than we want, but this time last year things had ground to a complete standstill due to that Paul Upshall cowboy and his £30 million sports hub pipedream.

[liddle_4_ever]

I believe Mowden's loss was related to the playing budget not the Arena.
It was only their second season in National League 1 (equivalent to League 1 in the football league), finishing 6th on both occasions (highest in their history) despite an unbelievable amount of injuries to the backs (there was so many backs injured from the 1st and 2nd team squads that the 2nds turned up to a game with 15 forwards and an 18 year old back who'd never played adult rugby before!).

This season could well be very difficult for Mowden, numerous players have moved on to bigger clubs in the Championship and Premiership. This should reduce Mowden's wage bill but will also likely reduce the quality of the squad.


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[HarryCharltonsCat]

I believe Mowden's loss was related to the playing budget not the Arena.
It was only their second season in National League 1 (equivalent to League 1 in the football league), finishing 6th on both occasions (highest in their history) despite an unbelievable amount of injuries to the backs (there was so many backs injured from the 1st and 2nd team squads that the 2nds turned up to a game with 15 forwards and an 18 year old back who'd never played adult rugby before!).

This season could well be very difficult for Mowden, numerous players have moved on to bigger clubs in the Championship and Premiership. This should reduce Mowden's wage bill but will also likely reduce the quality of the squad.


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Reduced quality of team, reduced crowds, vicious circle.

[jjljks]

Mowden don't want us there, long or short term.

There may be a few that want us there as it is now becoming apparent to them that a stadium like that costs absolute fortunes to run, but it would take a majority vote for us to go back. And if we did, it would have to be short term. Going back there without a multi millionaire backer prepared to chuck insane money at us would finally finish us off. The rumour mill in town is mad, I've heard so many different stories from people, from taxi drivers, people on here, Twitter, Facebook, people in pubs that never go to watch us but apparently know everything.

At this current time, the situation is this as far as I see it:

- plans in place, contracts signed.
- club has collected most of the pledged money, as well as having several grants in place from the FA and the stadium improvement grant people.
- we have agreed to start at Bishop until Blackwell is ready. Bishops pitch has been re-done so we have moved some fixtures around etc at the start of the season to compensate for this.

I'll just wait to see what happens. Being a Darlo fan makes you automatically apprehensive, we've been through that much s*** it's totally understandable, but let's just wait and see. Things are moving forward slowly, obviously a lot slower than we want, but this time last year things had ground to a complete standstill due to that Paul Upshall cowboy and his £30 million sports hub pipedream.

Quite right - and how could I have forgotten about that spanner in the works? Probably just a gift or first signs of dementia.....

[joejaques]

Mowden don't want us there, long or short term.

There may be a few that want us there as it is now becoming apparent to them that a stadium like that costs absolute fortunes to run, but it would take a majority vote for us to go back. And if we did, it would have to be short term. Going back there without a multi millionaire backer prepared to chuck insane money at us would finally finish us off. The rumour mill in town is mad, I've heard so many different stories from people, from taxi drivers, people on here, Twitter, Facebook, people in pubs that never go to watch us but apparently know everything.

At this current time, the situation is this as far as I see it:

- plans in place, contracts signed.
- club has collected most of the pledged money, as well as having several grants in place from the FA and the stadium improvement grant people.
- we have agreed to start at Bishop until Blackwell is ready. Bishops pitch has been re-done so we have moved some fixtures around etc at the start of the season to compensate for this.

I'll just wait to see what happens. Being a Darlo fan makes you automatically apprehensive, we've been through that much s*** it's totally understandable, but let's just wait and see. Things are moving forward slowly, obviously a lot slower than we want, but this time last year things had ground to a complete standstill due to that Paul Upshall cowboy and his £30 million sports hub pipedream.

Quite right - and how could I have forgotten about that spanner in the works? Probably just a gift or first signs of dementia.....

Not alcoholic amnesia then?

[Darlo1235]

It will probably be expensive something maybe for the future but for the tinshed could be good for safe standing.

[Darlo_Pete]

How much do Mowden charge to watch a home game? Sadly I'm not surprised that work still hasn't commenced on BM. Sounds like compromises will have to be made, which is far from ideal.

[don'tbuythesun]

Mr Currie......August 8th

[Comfortably_numb]

Mr Currie......August 8th

lol

[liddle_4_ever]

How much do Mowden charge to watch a home game? Sadly I'm not surprised that work still hasn't commenced on BM. Sounds like compromises will have to be made, which is far from ideal.

I think it's around £10 for an adult.


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[Darlogramps]

Can anyone put me right here....

Ive heard this morning by a customer that we aint going to blackwell and thats its not going to come off even tho things have been signed for not that it matters.

He also mentioned that his son plays for mowden and that we will end up back at the arena and hes said its a definate.

So this was a complete load of rubbish. Who was this mystery customer who's going around spreading misinformation (either maliciously or just because they're an idiot)? Did this mystery customer even exist?

Also rubbish was the original post:

Just heard off someone that Richardson`s who were doing the work have pulled out don`t know how true this is but could be a big set back

Just confirms what most of us already knew. That if someone comes on here claiming to have "heard" something, it's usually a load of bollocks.

If only some people would think twice before putting up the first thing they claim to have heard/popped into their head.

[eddie-rowles]

Hodgy cannot surely be still on his bike, must be bloody saddle sore now! Lets have the back to darlo 2015 picture on main web page with 2016 inserted instead? Is it possible guys?

[jjljks]

Will be glad to see the first spade go into the turf and noted that we are now targeting end of 2016 for the first game there. Just to give you a sense of reality, have a read of the struggles that FC United of Manchester had to go through to build their cracking new stadium, check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadhurst_Park

[Darlo_Pete]

Can't wait for the work to start on Monday.

[HarrytheQuaker]

Can't wait for the work to start on Monday.

Bet it don't

[Quakers1883]

Why? what's happened?

[Darlofan97]

Work to start today as per the Northern Echo's article & Club Statement 2 weeks ago.

Any idea on where we are with this?

[dickdarlington]

Just been for a neb. Some portacabins near the clubhouse. A surveying camera, and some men in high vis coats unloading metal barrier fencing. Looks promising.

[bga]

Just been for a neb. Some portacabins near the clubhouse. A surveying camera, and some men in high vis coats unloading metal barrier fencing. Looks promising.

Sure this aren't Poolie fans on a wind up mission?

[dickdarlington]

Nah, can't have been poolies. They were working.

Looked at the pitch whilst I was down there. Now it's been cut, it looks a lot less bumpy than with longer grass. But it also looks quite bare in parts. But it does look like they're reseeding it.

Would someone please advise how you upload photos from a phone please?

[don'tbuythesun]

Some red faces on here today! Mr Currie and others work has actually started and on the date we were given. Hang your heads in shame.

[uncovered]

Nah, can't have been poolies. They were working.

Looked at the pitch whilst I was down there. Now it's been cut, it looks a lot less bumpy than with longer grass. But it also looks quite bare in parts. But it does look like they're reseeding it.

Would someone please advise how you upload photos from a phone please?

If you download the tapatalk app on your phone then you can click on the mountain looking button to the right of the camera icon and upload.

[Darlogramps]

Can't wait for the work to start on Monday.

Bet it don't

Sooooooooo.......