Poole Town Play Off Issue and Darlo

[quaker4life]

I think I said yesterday that it is possible we have already been refused entry and have already appealed

You think we have already been refused entry to something we have not qualified to enter for yet. The NL will not even have thought about us until the season finished we're not actually that important to them.

Don't forget the rest....

"discussions" and "as soon as a decision is taken by the league" seem to support my conspiracy theory!

I will take this as a simple attempt to twist my words in your own favour I don't think it is that implausible to think we may have already had some contact with the league about this already, the statement certainly seems to suggest so.

[Vodka_Vic]

Quite right. We don't want a PR disaster. Also, before today I was really excited about the rest of the season. Now I'm just feeling flat. If a hardcore fan like me feels like that, what are the floating fans going to be thinking. And please, I don't want any apologists coming on here denying my feelings and saying 'Get behind the club'. I'm still going to Alfreton and the FCUM game. In fact, I'm buying the mascot package for my son. But it doesn't stop me feeling flat.

[Darlo_Dan]

Quite right. We don't want a PR disaster. Also, before today I was really excited about the rest of the season. Now I'm just feeling flat. If a hardcore fan like me feels like that, what are the floating fans going to be thinking. And please, I don't want any apologists coming on here denying my feelings and saying 'Get behind the club'. I'm still going to Alfreton and the FCUM game. In fact, I'm buying the mascot package for my son. But it doesn't stop me feeling flat.

This is the problem. Some fans may think well i won't bother with a season ticket now as we can't get promotion next year as it stands. It's these floating fans we need to attract full time. This ground debacle does not help one bit.

I know we are fan owned, volunteer run etc for which we are grateful, but we are competing in a league with a team good enough to challenge for promotion - that is the best way of attracting fans. Being denied that chance because we are missing 220 seats is utterly deflating. It will be a huge PR disaster if we are not careful.

[dickdarlington]

Lets face it, we're not going to overturn an FA ruling. It's time to take stock and look where we are, not where we could be. This was never going to be easy. And this hasn't been our first stumbling block. Time to dig deep once more. Pitch needs doing too. We own the club. We need to fork out the cash.

Perhaps I'm being too positive about this. But looking back at Fylde last week, it shows quite how far away we are.

We could all rant and scream and demand blood, but what's that going to achieve. I'd sooner have a stable structure, who have learnt from mistakes, and have acted accordingly to stop it happening again.

How the club communicates things now is vital.

[al_quaker]

I'll be honest there are only two people who seem truly upset, so I'll assume most others will support the club regardless and will just see this as another hurdle to overcome as a collective.

FWIW I wouldn't judge season as worthless just because you don't win promotion funny enough I actually enjoy watching the team compete.

There's way more than two people upset, and if we aren't allowed to compete and do finish 5th, just wait for the reaction then....

I'm not going to stop supporting the club. I'm still going on Saturday. I'm just about to pay for my season ticket for next season. But I'm not going to sit and be content with everything the club does either. If we aren't allowed in the playoffs there's been a massive mistake somewhere, and people should be able to talk about that and be annoyed by it.

I wouldn't judge the season as worthless if we don't win promotion - even if we scrape into the playoffs and are allowed to compete the chances are we aren't going to get promoted. However, finishing top 5 and then not being able to compete in the playoffs would be a completely different proposition.

[Darlo_Dan]

How much is an extra 250 seat stand, plus whatever additional upgrades are needed for cat A?

[al_quaker]

How the club communicates things now is vital.

Well they haven't started very well over this issue

[spen666]

There has been talk of temporary seats being acceptable if there is planning permission in place for permanent seats ( assuming they had been in place by 31 March)

Can anyone point to a link for this as Grade A & B grading says its not acceptable.

[Robbie Painter]

There has been talk of temporary seats being acceptable if there is planning permission in place for permanent seats ( assuming they had been in place by 31 March)

Can anyone point to a link for this as Grade A & B grading says its not acceptable.

It used to be acceptable. See: http://www.thefa.com/Leagues/NationalLe ... uly08.ashx

Temporary structures are not acceptable for seating to gain promotion or to take part in the promotion play off matches, unless the club can show that it has obtained planning permission and has the detailed plans to construct a permanent covered seated stand, which may form part of the required total number of 500 seats.

This wording no longer appears in the current grading document instead it specifically states:

Temporary structures will not be accepted

[Spyman]

They both read the same to me, is additional requirements (mentioned in your second paragraph) are the 500 covered seats.

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[Darlo_Dan]

How much will it cost to upgrade the ground next year?

It can't be underestimated the massive PR impact this will have, not forgetting the impact on playing squad/management and any possible future signings. It will very much feel like a backwards step, especially to the floating fans

[spen666]

There has been talk of temporary seats being acceptable if there is planning permission in place for permanent seats ( assuming they had been in place by 31 March)

Can anyone point to a link for this as Grade A & B grading says its not acceptable.

It used to be acceptable. See: http://www.thefa.com/Leagues/NationalLe ... uly08.ashx

This wording no longer appears in the current grading document.

Thanks Robbie, so its not just my poor googling. I came up with the wording seemed to have been changed

[al_quaker]

How much will it cost to upgrade the ground next year?

There is to be a plan published for the next stage of the club's development published soon, as per a recent DFCSG email. I would guess that it would be published around the time of the fans forum later this month, although this is purely a guess on my part.

[Darlo1235]

If both clubs Poole and us work together we might have a chance to over turn the rule. What about north ferriby they were allow in the play offs and to get promoted with a capacity under 3000.

[Vodka_Vic]

The apologists have already started. What a mindless statement to say that you don't support the club if you're upset about this. No doubt the players and MG will know too and although they'll come out and say 'Business as usual' then it's got to be on their mind until we know one way or another.

Another thing that really pisses me off is that this would likely only be for one of the 3 matches if we did make the play-offs, so the more you analyse this rule then the more pointless it appears. It is discriminatory against up and coming clubs like ourselves and discriminatory against clubs in the play-offs as if you are champions then it appears you need a lesser ground grading. As Spen says, this appears our best hope.

Anyone know if a one-off game at the Arena would be acceptable if we were to finish in the Top 5?

[spen666]

....

Another thing that really pisses me off is that this would likely only be for one of the 3 matches if we did make the play-offs, so the more you analyse this rule then the more pointless it appears. It is discriminatory against up and coming clubs like ourselves and discriminatory against clubs in the play-offs as if you are champions then it appears you need a lesser ground grading. ....

vic, you are mistaken. The rule applies to Champions and to getting into play offs

To qualify for promotion to the Football Conference Premier Division by winning the respective
NORTH/SOUTH Championship and for the club to participate in the promotion play off matches, the
ground must achieve a Category “B” Grading together with 500 seats under cover by 1st April in each
season. These seats may be in two locations.

[QUAKERMAN2]

Was thinking the same Adam, the Arena would be perfect and I would think Mowden Park would accommodate us.Still cannot believe the seating situation was not discussed when the NL came to look around to grade us.Crazy!

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[lo36789]

Anyone know if a one-off game at the Arena would be acceptable if we were to finish in the Top 5?

The way it is written it is for anyone to attain promotion the Conference - so no is the simple answer.

It's not about that one off game being played with the right number of seats the Conference have found a way round the full obligation to attain ground grading by the end of your first season at Step 1.

There are actually a number of other requirements but the minimum requirement for actually competing in any fixture at Step 1 from a seating perspective is slightly greater than the grading for Conference North.

If you actually boil it down, what they are basically saying is you need to be able to provide at least 100 seats each for home and away fans when segregated.

The apologists have already started. What a mindless statement to say that you don't support the club if you're upset about this.

Support as in offer support - not point fingers - not play a blame game - say "what can I do to help".

[Quakerz]

I don't think this should come as a shock to any of us, it was probably apparent to many of us already that BM was not up to Conference criteria and like I've said before I questioned whether or not it was even up to Conference North standard.

You are a fool if you questioned whether the ground is up to Conf North standard. It is up to standard, end of. If it wasn't, we wouldn't have got the grading! There is no grey area.

[Darlo1235]

North ferriby was accepted in the play offs and they still have a capacity off 2,700. What's that all about?

[CrazyDarlo]

North ferriby was accepted in the play offs and they still have a capacity off 2,700. What's that all about?

My question.

[dfc4me]

Everyone is blaming the board but is it possible they knew about the problem and thought they had it covered only to discover they had been given duff info by someone when it was too late to do anything.

[Vodka_Vic]

Lo, who is actually pointing any fingers at anyone?

If I found out that someone from,the club had dropped a bollock would I be upset? Yes

Would I blame anyone? No, as I understand we are a volunteer club and that mistakes will happen.

Would I have looked to point the fingers 10 years ago when we had chief execs on grossly over-inflated wages? Yes

No doubt when people get back from work (I'm not at work today) then there'll be more 'upset' people. People like myself, who is a member of the supporters trust, and people who have 'Supported' the club financially over the last few years.

Two issues I'd like clarifying are:
1. When fundraising stopped. I was ready to invest when the shares fundraising ended and many people said they didn't get the chance to invest but would like to have done. Had it been extended then we could have maybe raised enough to,be eligible for the play-offs.

2. Related to the above. Was it actually made explicit that we would need to raise enough money to get 500 seats in order to be eligible for promotion to the National League at the time? If not, this may have affected fundraising. Someone else has raised this point on Twitter.

[Quakerz]

Just look at Monday's opponents FCUM - with a much larger fan base than us it has taken them much longer as they've had to build from scratch like us and prioritise getting the infrastructure in place.

We have, as a collective group, obsessed about promotion after promotion but the infrastructure is now more important.

It's time for a change.

I don't have a problem to be honest with being here in the conference north for the next 2-5 years in order to properly fund improvements to the ground at an affordable and sustainable pace.

The hardest part up to now was always going to be getting out of the Northern League and properly back into the pyramid - it was imperative we did that as quick as possible before we ended up stuck in that league for years to come behind the bottleneck of money backed clubs who didn't want to go up. We did that, and IMO after that there wasn't such a rush to progress, the priority was getting back to Darlo.

I actually think we've came too far too quickly. If we somehow won the play offs we would be hopelessly ill equipped to deal with playing mainly full time moneybag$ outfits next season and we'd be getting bent over and bummed every week. Couple that with a HUGE urgency to raise a tonne of money for ground improvements asap and we'd be in crisis. Crowds would soon drop to 1,000 every week if we're getting pumped 5-0 every week. And we will get pumped 5-0 every week. That would have dire effects on club finances before we ever really got properly established back in Darlo.

I know I'm in a minority but a few seasons in the Nat N - as long as we're fighting at the right end of the table - could be the best outcome.

We WILL get back into the Conference at some point anyway, and we WILL have a Conference standard ground at some point.

[Yarblockos]

North ferriby was accepted in the play offs and they still have a capacity off 2,700. What's that all about?

Well, they do have 501 seats

[Yarblockos]

Lo, who is actually pointing any fingers at anyone?

If I found out that someone from,the club had dropped a bollock would I be upset? Yes

Would I blame anyone? No, as I understand we are a volunteer club and that mistakes will happen.

Yes, we are volunteers and mistakes happen. I would, however, exepct this person to resign or the person with overall responsibility for this to resign. I would no longer trust them to run our football club. We want volunteers but we don't want incompetent ones.

[al_quaker]

Just look at Monday's opponents FCUM - with a much larger fan base than us it has taken them much longer as they've had to build from scratch like us and prioritise getting the infrastructure in place.

We have, as a collective group, obsessed about promotion after promotion but the infrastructure is now more important.

It's time for a change.

I don't have a problem to be honest with being here in the conference north for the next 2-5 years in order to properly fund improvements to the ground at an affordable and sustainable pace.

The hardest part up to now was always going to be getting out of the Northern League and properly back into the pyramid - it was imperative we did that as quick as possible before we ended up stuck in that league for years to come behind the bottleneck of money backed clubs who didn't want to go up. We did that, and IMO after that there wasn't such a rush to progress, the priority was getting back to Darlo.

I actually think we've came too far too quickly. If we somehow won the play offs we would be hopelessly ill equipped to deal with playing mainly full time moneybag$ outfits next season and we'd be getting bent over and bummed every week. Couple that with a HUGE urgency to raise a tonne of money for ground improvements asap and we'd be in crisis. Crowds would soon drop to 1,000 every week if we're getting pumped 5-0 every week. And we will get pumped 5-0 every week. That would have dire effects on club finances before we ever really got properly established back in Darlo.

I know I'm in a minority but a few seasons in the Nat N - as long as we're fighting at the right end of the table - could be the best outcome.

We WILL get back into the Conference at some point anyway, and we WILL have a Conference standard ground at some point.

I actually agree that finishing 5th, competing in the playoffs, but not being promoted would ultimately be the best thing long term for the club. Even finish 6th would be decent long term, although we wouldn't get the income boost of being in the playoffs.

However, can you imagine the negative publicity we would receive if we weren't allowed to compete in the playoffs? It would be the "same old Darlo" from the people of the town we are desperately trying to win over, the same people who associate the club with administrations and crackpot chairmen would see yet more drama around the club. It could set us back a long way in terms of good will with the town in general, and we don't have much to play with as it is. Not to mention the lack of trust that many regular fans would then have with the club.

[Vodka_Vic]

Quakerz, you do talk a lot of sense. It's just that sporting-wise there's a big difference between being denied promotion because Kidderminster are just too good and being denied by a crappy pointless rule. As a club we always seem to get shafted in non-sporting ways and I would feel for this amazing group of players who are desperate to at least have a shot at promotion.

[feethams]

Just look at Monday's opponents FCUM - with a much larger fan base than us it has taken them much longer as they've had to build from scratch like us and prioritise getting the infrastructure in place.

We have, as a collective group, obsessed about promotion after promotion but the infrastructure is now more important.

It's time for a change.

I don't have a problem to be honest with being here in the conference north for the next 2-5 years in order to properly fund improvements to the ground at an affordable and sustainable pace.

The hardest part up to now was always going to be getting out of the Northern League and properly back into the pyramid - it was imperative we did that as quick as possible before we ended up stuck in that league for years to come behind the bottleneck of money backed clubs who didn't want to go up. We did that, and IMO after that there wasn't such a rush to progress, the priority was getting back to Darlo.

I actually think we've came too far too quickly. If we somehow won the play offs we would be hopelessly ill equipped to deal with playing mainly full time moneybag$ outfits next season and we'd be getting bent over and bummed every week. Couple that with a HUGE urgency to raise a tonne of money for ground improvements asap and we'd be in crisis. Crowds would soon drop to 1,000 every week if we're getting pumped 5-0 every week. And we will get pumped 5-0 every week. That would have dire effects on club finances before we ever really got properly established back in Darlo.

I know I'm in a minority but a few seasons in the Nat N - as long as we're fighting at the right end of the table - could be the best outcome.

We WILL get back into the Conference at some point anyway, and we WILL have a Conference standard ground at some point.

Agree with this 100%.

[Vodka_Vic]

Just look at Monday's opponents FCUM - with a much larger fan base than us it has taken them much longer as they've had to build from scratch like us and prioritise getting the infrastructure in place.

We have, as a collective group, obsessed about promotion after promotion but the infrastructure is now more important.

It's time for a change.

I don't have a problem to be honest with being here in the conference north for the next 2-5 years in order to properly fund improvements to the ground at an affordable and sustainable pace.

The hardest part up to now was always going to be getting out of the Northern League and properly back into the pyramid - it was imperative we did that as quick as possible before we ended up stuck in that league for years to come behind the bottleneck of money backed clubs who didn't want to go up. We did that, and IMO after that there wasn't such a rush to progress, the priority was getting back to Darlo.

I actually think we've came too far too quickly. If we somehow won the play offs we would be hopelessly ill equipped to deal with playing mainly full time moneybag$ outfits next season and we'd be getting bent over and bummed every week. Couple that with a HUGE urgency to raise a tonne of money for ground improvements asap and we'd be in crisis. Crowds would soon drop to 1,000 every week if we're getting pumped 5-0 every week. And we will get pumped 5-0 every week. That would have dire effects on club finances before we ever really got properly established back in Darlo.

I know I'm in a minority but a few seasons in the Nat N - as long as we're fighting at the right end of the table - could be the best outcome.

We WILL get back into the Conference at some point anyway, and we WILL have a Conference standard ground at some point.

I actually agree that finishing 5th, competing in the playoffs, but not being promoted would ultimately be the best thing long term for the club. Even finish 6th would be decent long term, although we wouldn't get the income boost of being in the playoffs.

However, can you imagine the negative publicity we would receive if we weren't allowed to compete in the playoffs? It would be the "same old Darlo" from the people of the town we are desperately trying to win over, the same people who associate the club with administrations and crackpot chairmen would see yet more drama around the club. It could set us back a long way in terms of good will with the town in general, and we don't have much to play with as it is. Not to mention the lack of trust that many regular fans would then have with the club.

Al, the great public are already all over this thread on Facebook saying the very same thing and generally laughing at us. As a supporter, that hurts.