funding must continue

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onewayup
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funding must continue

Post by onewayup » Thu May 04, 2017 1:02 pm

We must continue fund raising as it's not a forgone conclusion that the said investor's will follow through with whatever plans they have, we must give Martin Gray the best budget that we can raise as a fan owned club, Untill any deal is struck with whomever wishes to take a stake in the club and their plans are known, just keep raising as much as is possible ,we are Darlington fc and have excellent fans who love this club.

Neil Johnson
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Re: funding must continue

Post by Neil Johnson » Fri May 05, 2017 8:48 pm

Once any intended deal is revealed there will be a clearer picture for fans hesitant to invest in DFCSG, because if a deal is mishandled they & their shares may become totally worthless.

Any investors with the clubs best interest at heart wouldn't want to take the 51% golden share away from DFCSG.

Investors can still have a say on how their investments and returns are being handled, without having a boardroom veto or being in 100% control of the club.

Darlo_Pete
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Re: funding must continue

Post by Darlo_Pete » Fri May 05, 2017 9:10 pm

Your living in cloud cuckoo land, if you feel that any investor putting in substantial funds, wouldn't want at least 51% of the club.

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Mr_Tibbs
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Re: funding must continue

Post by Mr_Tibbs » Fri May 05, 2017 9:51 pm

Darlo_Pete wrote:Your living in cloud cuckoo land, if you feel that any investor putting in substantial funds, wouldn't want at least 51% of the club.
Most investors (e.g. the ones which MG was talking to) probably would want 51% but any such proposal would be defeated if it went to a vote so investors and the DFCSG need to get a little bit creative and find a way/ways to allow substantial investment without breaking the asset lock rule.

Or we stay as we are. In either case we still need to keep fundraising.

shawry
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Re: funding must continue

Post by shawry » Sat May 06, 2017 6:24 am

Mr_Tibbs wrote: Most investors (e.g. the ones which MG was talking to) probably would want 51% but any such proposal would be defeated if it went to a vote.
Would it be defeated in a vote? How many people actually chose fan owned, rather than having no other option.

Don t let's pretend we had any other options available to us, so a vote now may surprise a lot of people, especially as we seem to be running out of people to take up the leadership roles.






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Mr_Tibbs
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Re: funding must continue

Post by Mr_Tibbs » Sat May 06, 2017 8:52 am

shawry wrote:Would it be defeated in a vote?
I think so, yes. The way the rules are written makes it very difficult for a Community Benefit Society to change what they are. It wouldn't take much for a small number of members to block the vote and I've heard enough dissenting voices on here and on my Facebook pages to suggest that will be the case.

Some rules can be changed but the one rule which can't is the one about the asset lock so we'd need to collapse the CBS and convert it to another form of ownership.

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Allan Quatermain
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Re: funding must continue

Post by Allan Quatermain » Sat May 06, 2017 4:50 pm

Mr_Tibbs wrote:
shawry wrote:Would it be defeated in a vote?
I think so, yes. The way the rules are written makes it very difficult for a Community Benefit Society to change what they are. It wouldn't take much for a small number of members to block the vote and I've heard enough dissenting voices on here and on my Facebook pages to suggest that will be the case.

Some rules can be changed but the one rule which can't is the one about the asset lock so we'd need to collapse the CBS and convert it to another form of ownership.
But to get to that point, a motion needs to be tabled from the membership. If that happens, the vote needs to result in a 67% majority at the vote to pass it.
Alun's promise to the fans: “I’ll make sure I’ll bring players in that are value for money and I want players that want to play for Darlington Football Club, want to progress and move up the league and show the fans that passion.”

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Mr_Tibbs
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Re: funding must continue

Post by Mr_Tibbs » Mon May 08, 2017 6:18 am

Allan Quatermain wrote:
Mr_Tibbs wrote:
shawry wrote:Would it be defeated in a vote?
I think so, yes. The way the rules are written makes it very difficult for a Community Benefit Society to change what they are. It wouldn't take much for a small number of members to block the vote and I've heard enough dissenting voices on here and on my Facebook pages to suggest that will be the case.

Some rules can be changed but the one rule which can't is the one about the asset lock so we'd need to collapse the CBS and convert it to another form of ownership.
But to get to that point, a motion needs to be tabled from the membership. If that happens, the vote needs to result in a 67% majority at the vote to pass it.
No, in a vote to change the ownership model or to close the society down it's actually a 75% majority of the members voting at a General Meeting which needs 50% of the number of Full Members in the DFCSG (so, not including Junior Members) to be in attendance for it to be quorate.

To be honest I can see another way around that now, aside from attracting investment which satisfies the rule about the asset lock, but I think it'd be a bit sneaky and very likely not in the spirit of the law so it might get contested. :silent:

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Mr_Tibbs
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Re: funding must continue

Post by Mr_Tibbs » Mon May 08, 2017 7:05 am

Allan Quatermain wrote:But to get to that point, a motion needs to be tabled from the membership.
Ahh... I slightly misunderstood. As I'm reading it, the board can propose resolutions and call a General Meeting. Members also have the power to force the board to do that, but would probably to be board-driven in this case.

Neil Johnson
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Re: funding must continue

Post by Neil Johnson » Mon May 08, 2017 1:21 pm

Darlo_Pete wrote:Your living in cloud cuckoo land, if you feel that any investor putting in substantial funds, wouldn't want at least 51% of the club.
51% outside ownership means 100% dictatorship, as the fans have witnessed over decades of despair.

The club boards have been far better over the last 5 years, so why would fans want to return to decades of the best players being sold, marginalisation of fans, no proper accounts, missing income, financial administrations etc.

There is major fundraising needed, but only in the short term NOT forever. The clearer the way ahead is on club ownership the faster the ground can be made ready for Football League standard.

Acceptable Outside Investment could possibly be in the form of building loans maybe in a special share form that has more guarantee of timely pay-backs.

I hope there is a middle ground that is acceptable to all parties.

onewayup
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Re: funding must continue

Post by onewayup » Mon May 08, 2017 3:22 pm

There is always a way forward as long as everyone involved is truly after the best interest of Darlington f.c,. Maybe a secured bond from investors should they get cold feet.

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Re: funding must continue

Post by onewayup » Thu May 11, 2017 8:14 pm

Now let's get the money into these funds that stalled with talk of investors wanting in.
Come on we need to get them going back up again.

Quakerz
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Re: funding must continue

Post by Quakerz » Thu May 11, 2017 8:15 pm

onewayup wrote:Now let's get the money into these funds that stalled with talk of investors wanting in.
Come on we need to get them going back up again.
THIS.
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shawry
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Re: funding must continue

Post by shawry » Thu May 11, 2017 8:19 pm

The problem I'm having is our fan base is too big to survive without help for the volunteers/board

It's this area that worries me more about our ability to survive at this level.

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Quakerz
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Re: funding must continue

Post by Quakerz » Thu May 11, 2017 8:22 pm

We definitely need a couple of fans to step up to the board.
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HarrytheQuaker
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Re: funding must continue

Post by HarrytheQuaker » Thu May 11, 2017 8:25 pm

We are not bottomless pits , surely we can't keep going to the well all the time as something will have to give sooner or later....I agree with you Shawry about surviving at this level and before anyone says we did this season but IF the management team leave then the budget will be slashed and we will lose most of our players... It's a bit worrying TBH..

Quakerz
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Re: funding must continue

Post by Quakerz » Thu May 11, 2017 8:32 pm

HarrytheQuaker wrote:We are not bottomless pits , surely we can't keep going to the well all the time as something will have to give sooner or later....I agree with you Shawry about surviving at this level and before anyone says we did this season but IF the management team leave then the budget will be slashed and we will lose most of our players... It's a bit worrying TBH..
You're talking worst case scenarios there Harry.

For a start, we have already actually boosted the proposed budget cut by a third.

I'm not sure why you are claiming that IF the management team leave THEN the budget will be slashed either?

The budget has already been slashed. Because like usual, we overspent last season.
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shawry
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Re: funding must continue

Post by shawry » Thu May 11, 2017 8:33 pm

HarrytheQuaker wrote:We are not bottomless pits , surely we can't keep going to the well all the time as something will have to give sooner or later....I agree with you Shawry about surviving at this level and before anyone says we did this season but IF the management team leave then the budget will be slashed and we will lose most of our players... It's a bit worrying TBH..
Most of our fund raising is for the seats etc.

This isn't an ongoing requirement so at some point it should be much easier to survive.

I would offer the 500 club an ongoing yearly extension at an earlybird price, this could be forever, or until we get the ground up to standard. This should cover part of the shortfall.

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Re: funding must continue

Post by JE93 » Thu May 11, 2017 8:39 pm

Think there needs to be a big push next season on off field revenues.

Get stands sponsored, full sponsorship of the tin shed, seated stand and the open end of BM (pin some sponsorship boards to the fence they will be on YouTube every time a goal is scored at that end).

Get a back of shirt sponsor for above the players numbers, get a training kit sponsor.

Offer the businesses who donate £1k or more to DFC community shares a space in the programme for the full season xxxxx. Ltd (with a logo) helps to fund darlington fc.

I'm glad Singh has gone. But others are right now is the time to show just what an incredible group of fans we are at every level of the club.

al_quaker
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Re: funding must continue

Post by al_quaker » Thu May 11, 2017 8:43 pm

JE93 wrote:Think there needs to be a big push next season on off field revenues.

Get stands sponsored, full sponsorship of the tin shed, seated stand and the open end of BM (pin some sponsorship boards to the fence they will be on YouTube every time a goal is scored at that end).

Get a back of shirt sponsor for above the players numbers, get a training kit sponsor.

Offer the businesses who donate £1k or more to DFC community shares a space in the programme for the full season xxxxx. Ltd (with a logo) helps to fund darlington fc.

I'm glad Singh has gone. But others are right now is the time to show just what an incredible group of fans we are at every level of the club.
Indeed - I was a bit disappointed with the sponsorship at BM. After years of being told "businesses were waiting for us to get back to Darlo", it was pretty empty. Hopefully they were all waiting for a full season. I went to Spennymoor for their playoff final - sponsorship boards everywhere.

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Re: funding must continue

Post by shawry » Thu May 11, 2017 8:46 pm

al_quaker wrote:
JE93 wrote:Think there needs to be a big push next season on off field revenues.

Get stands sponsored, full sponsorship of the tin shed, seated stand and the open end of BM (pin some sponsorship boards to the fence they will be on YouTube every time a goal is scored at that end).

Get a back of shirt sponsor for above the players numbers, get a training kit sponsor.

Offer the businesses who donate £1k or more to DFC community shares a space in the programme for the full season xxxxx. Ltd (with a logo) helps to fund darlington fc.

I'm glad Singh has gone. But others are right now is the time to show just what an incredible group of fans we are at every level of the club.
Indeed - I was a bit disappointed with the sponsorship at BM. After years of being told "businesses were waiting for us to get back to Darlo", it was pretty empty. Hopefully they were all waiting for a full season. I went to Spennymoor for their playoff final - sponsorship boards everywhere.
This is what I said when we played @ spenny they seem to have a board wherever they think they can squeeze one in.

So as much as some of our fans slate them for getting money from brad, they certainly appear to maximise their opportunities better than we do.



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al_quaker
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Re: funding must continue

Post by al_quaker » Thu May 11, 2017 8:50 pm

shawry wrote: This is what I said when we played @ spenny they seem to have a board wherever they think they can squeeze one in.

So as much as some of our fans slate them for getting money from brad, they certainly appear to maximise their opportunities better than we do.
Absolutely. Are ours too expensive? Are businesses still wary after our previous troubles? Is it simply something which takes years to build up?

We managed to get a major national company to sponsor our shirts, so we are obviously attractive and doing something right.

Maximising our commercial revenue would take some of the pressure off of the fans

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Re: funding must continue

Post by Quakerz » Thu May 11, 2017 8:51 pm

JE93 wrote:Think there needs to be a big push next season on off field revenues.

Get stands sponsored, full sponsorship of the tin shed, seated stand and the open end of BM (pin some sponsorship boards to the fence they will be on YouTube every time a goal is scored at that end).

Get a back of shirt sponsor for above the players numbers, get a training kit sponsor.

Offer the businesses who donate £1k or more to DFC community shares a space in the programme for the full season xxxxx. Ltd (with a logo) helps to fund darlington fc.

I'm glad Singh has gone. But others are right now is the time to show just what an incredible group of fans we are at every level of the club.
All great ideas, but there is no one to do it!
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al_quaker
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Re: funding must continue

Post by al_quaker » Thu May 11, 2017 8:53 pm

Quakerz wrote: All great ideas, but there is no one to do it!
I thought we had a commercial officer?

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Re: funding must continue

Post by meadowlark » Thu May 11, 2017 8:58 pm

I think there was mention at the last fans forum that the board were in talks with a potential sponsor for the stand (not sure if it was the existing one or the new one that we require). I hope discusdions are continuing.

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Re: funding must continue

Post by Darlo_Pete » Thu May 11, 2017 10:41 pm

How much does it cost to sponsor a advertising hoarding at BM? Robbo should know, as his company has one at BM.

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Re: funding must continue

Post by m62exile » Thu May 11, 2017 10:54 pm

Quakerz wrote:
JE93 wrote:Think there needs to be a big push next season on off field revenues.

Get stands sponsored, full sponsorship of the tin shed, seated stand and the open end of BM (pin some sponsorship boards to the fence they will be on YouTube every time a goal is scored at that end).

Get a back of shirt sponsor for above the players numbers, get a training kit sponsor.

Offer the businesses who donate £1k or more to DFC community shares a space in the programme for the full season xxxxx. Ltd (with a logo) helps to fund darlington fc.

I'm glad Singh has gone. But others are right now is the time to show just what an incredible group of fans we are at every level of the club.
All great ideas, but there is no one to do it!
Lads - Quakerz has hit the nail on the head. All very nice ideas, wonderful. They all need the football club to go and sell the damn things. Businesses aren't going to rock up and offer it up.

Let me give you an example. DarloPete, longstanding committed fan as he is asks above how much a board costs. That's two clicks away! So if he can't work it out how do we expect local businesses too? The answer is here by the way.

http://darlingtonfootballclub.co.uk/wp- ... /proof.pdf

Until we get some manpower off the pitch we will not be making anywhere near the progress we need to. Everything takes skilled people significant time to accomplish, and we don't have enough of them.

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Re: funding must continue

Post by DFCSC_1 » Fri May 12, 2017 6:29 am

al_quaker wrote:
Quakerz wrote: All great ideas, but there is no one to do it!
I thought we had a commercial officer?
But he's only a volunteer , I believe. Same as everyone else. Until we employ someone full/part time we'll find it difficult to maximise commercial opportunities.

al_quaker
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Re: funding must continue

Post by al_quaker » Fri May 12, 2017 9:03 am

DFCSC_1 wrote:
al_quaker wrote:
Quakerz wrote: All great ideas, but there is no one to do it!
I thought we had a commercial officer?
But he's only a volunteer , I believe. Same as everyone else. Until we employ someone full/part time we'll find it difficult to maximise commercial opportunities.
Indeed - certainly wasn't a dig, more of a question as to if we still had one!

All the more reason I think we need one of these:: http://www.fc-utd.co.uk/2013_uploads/FC ... 202017.pdf

Clearly defined roles, clear hierarchy, and easy to see where vacancies exist.

And yes, I think we need to start looking towards employing a couple of staff P/T to help run the club - even if it means losing a bit of the playing budget

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dfc4me
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Re: funding must continue

Post by dfc4me » Fri May 12, 2017 9:07 am

Instead of funding someone to run the club p/t from the playing budget could we fund it from the coaching budget. Do we really need all the coaching staff that we have?

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