Darlo Uncovered

Must admit, I'm not keen on the tone of some of Brad Groves' comments in today's Echo.

The article says he's pumped in "huge amounts" of his own money into Spenny and he adds:

“If we make it to the National League, the aim will be to finish above Hartlepool and Gateshead and make ourselves the fourth highest club in the North-East,” said Groves.

“We want to continue growing in Spennymoor, and we’ve got plans for a big redevelopment that will include new stands, new terracing and more work on the pitch. We also want to branch out our community work and continue growing our academy with BTECs.

“But we also want to attract wider support. Because of Darlington’s demise – and I take no pleasure at all from what’s happened there – County Durham does not have a Football League side.

“We want to be the biggest football club in County Durham. I’m an Easington lad, and I look around where I was brought up and think, ‘If we were playing in the Football League, just think of the support you could attract to Spennymoor’.”

I just think to dismiss what's happened here as just "Darlington's demise" and "We'll be the biggest" is a bit disrepectful about everything that's happened at Darlo. The tremendous fund-raising and the march through the leagues with no-one's money but our own and no hand-outs. Taking a club that had nothing and building it back up through fan power. Quite honestly I don't know why he had to bring Darlo into it on the eve of their big game and saying how vital it is that they are the No.1 club in County Durham.

Groves says if they go up they'll stay part-time and then re-assess if it wasn't working. He says they'll have to do 14 overnight trips and part-timers should be able to handle that.

He adds: "Whatever happens this weekend, we’re in a position where we’ll be turning over £1m-a-year next season. Hopefully, for the first time, the club will be self-sufficient and it won’t need any investment from me."

How long has he been saying that for now.... it just won't happen. In fact he'll need to keep adding hugely to the seven-figure sum should they be promoted.

On the eve of the biggest game in their history and talking about us, don’t quite understand it but who really cares.

We have had a demise in the fact 10/11 years ago we were a full time professional club in the football league getting double the crowds we do now and were pushing for promotion to League One. But we also know it was built on sand, and looking at football these days and the state of the majority of football clubs finances we were only doing what most other clubs do, but it’ll catch up with you eventually. Being reliant on one person money is fun when the going is good when money is being chucked about and impressive signings are being made, but you are also at the risk of that one person deciding for whatever reason they no longer want to pump their own personal fortune into a football club with a very, very small chance of getting anything back.

We have a lot to be proud of, we’ve achieved colossal amounts since the demotion in 2012, what other people think is irrelevant. They’ll do what they do, personally I couldn’t care less.

Haven’t read it but I’m not really too bothered about them. Wouldn’t mind if they go up, actually think Jason Ainsley seems an alright fella to me.

Hard to think of them as rivals although I do enjoy the away games at their place.

True fact: I just realised I have never met a Spennymoor fan live. I’ve racked my brains and don’t even think I know of one.


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Would love to know how they will turn over £1m next season on crowds of 650-700 if they stay in our league and where is the finance coming from to build 2 new stands, terracing and a new pitch if he has stopped pumping his money into them .Pretty disrespectful comments about us, he has gone way down in my opinion, could their brilliant supporters raise £50k in less than a week ....I think not somehow.Come on Chorley and do the business tomorrow

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I think he might be a little optimistic if he thinks they can break even on an average of 860 fans per game.
If they do go up my guess is their average crowd will actually drop... No Darlington, no Blyth and no York City..I know pools will take a few but no more than we did.
Also, they have had a successful team this year. If they struggle next season their fans will drop off, similar to us this last couple of seasons.
Just my opinion though..

Jealous guys!!!!!!!

My opinion wrote:I think he might be a little optimistic if he thinks they can break even on an average of 860 fans per game.
If they do go up my guess is their average crowd will actually drop... No Darlington, no Blyth and no York City..I know pools will take a few but no more than we did.
Also, they have had a successful team this year. If they struggle next season their fans will drop off, similar to us this last couple of seasons.
Just my opinion though..

Totally agree.Wonder how many free buses Groves is laying on to get them across to Chorley.

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Yeah. When i read the report, I too thought that Brad was a little jealous of the Darlington support and their willingness to help to THEIR club financially

Boring local govt. stuff aside, if he’s classing Darlington as being in Co. Durham, by the same definition, so is Sunderland. Good luck in overtaking them.


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Best of luck staying anywhere near competitive in the national league premier with a part time squad

Sounds a lot like what Reynolds used to say, build a stadium and we will attract 5k from Boro, 5k from Sunderland and 5k from Newcastle.
We all know what happened to that idea, people don't swap allegiances just because someone is chucking money at a little club from County Durham.

QUAKERMAN2 wrote: ↑

Sat May 11, 2019 8:49 am

My opinion wrote:I think he might be a little optimistic if he thinks they can break even on an average of 860 fans per game.
If they do go up my guess is their average crowd will actually drop... No Darlington, no Blyth and no York City..I know pools will take a few but no more than we did.
Also, they have had a successful team this year. If they struggle next season their fans will drop off, similar to us this last couple of seasons.
Just my opinion though..

Totally agree.Wonder how many free buses Groves is laying on to get them across to Chorley.

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Probably need 6 or 7 (minibuses, that is!)

Pie in the sky. The numbers just don't stack up. Turning over a million pounds a year? They might make some money from the academy, but gate receipts? No. The Moors Tavern? Unless it's Cordon Bleu charging 100 pounds a head and has a capacity of 300 diners and is full every day, no either.

Just a question. When Spennymoor ultimately go tits up because they have huge wages and crowds of 800, do we still have to give it the old "shame for it to happen to such a proud old club" bollocks?

Same question for fylde, Harrogate etc.

I always had respect for Brad Groves dear me how on earth does he think what he's saying in the echo is right, he's lost the respect from me for his audacity in what he's said regarding our fan owned club ,Brad your demise won't take long if your team manage to go up ,you helped us when we were had a problem, now you denigrate us just so wrong.not so long ago that you were saying that you cannot keep putting in your own cash that the supporters need to help out ,now all change it will come back and bite your arse be sure of that

I do tend to agree. It seems very odd that he would even want to mention us, apart from to make a comparison.

Vodka_Vic wrote: ↑

Sat May 11, 2019 10:13 am

Pie in the sky. The numbers just don't stack up. Turning over a million pounds a year? They might make some money from the academy, but gate receipts? No. The Moors Tavern? Unless it's Cordon Bleu charging 100 pounds a head and has a capacity of 300 diners and is full every day, no either.

The million pounds will be made greatly from sponsorship income. I wonder how much of that sponsorship income comes from companies that Brad owns? Even if he claims to be no longer putting money in, he might still be indirectly putting money in.

A million quid is roughly double the turnover that we generate!

If they're self sustaining based on sponsorship income then good for them but of course sponsors can come and go like anyone else.

Regarding his comments about Darlo, yes it's fair to say he's disrespected what we have achieved since 2012 (3 promotions, building a ground to NLN standard as well), but I don't think it was particularly intentional. He's simply used our "demise" (meaning we're no longer a league club) to compare with his own club and bull them up.

One thing has become clear, he wants to get all the way to the league.

Cheers for the insight Q. So a bit of semantics used here.

shildonlad wrote:Best of luck staying anywhere near competitive in the national league premier with a part time squad

With the right signings, it is possible to stay Part-Time in the National League and compete, not sure if they are full time now, but Dover managed to have a few good seasons managing to push into the top half a few years back and I am think Sutton United are Part Time too

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As I’ve said before I hate all of this part time / full time thing. It’s not black and white.

Wow. Sounds like Mr Groves has pumped himself up just a little too much and is starting to fly too high.

I don't mind if they get promotion - to me it will be slightly funny to see them poodle around on their wet sloped pitch against some big time Conference clubs - in fact about as funny as us facing up to the same situation, except we would have a better pitch, a more sustainable business model and more fans.

I think Mr Groves is getting a little carried away, there's been plenty of others who have tried this route and more often than not it ends in tears.

I think Groves knew exactly what he was saying. It means a great deal to him to say: "We are the biggest club in County Durham" and if he was going to raise Darlo at all he would know how that would be received if his reference was to: "Darlo's demise" when, in fact we have made major strides in the last few years.

He has been saying for years that Spenny are on the verge of sustainability without the need for his cash but it hasn't and never will happen. They are where they are because he's ploughed a fortune into it and he will need to continue to do that going forward or they will drop like a stone. I don't know why he's embarrassed about that and constantly predicting the club will pay its own way in the world. Let's be honest, the bingo at the Moors Tavern doesn't even scratch the surface

For one Spenny/Darlo game a few years back I was accompanied up to their ground by a well groomed ferret wearing a sparkly gold collar - not sure if it paid to get in though...

The demise he refers to is in our no longer being a league club, and County Durham not therefore having one. That is true. He even says he takes no pleasure in it. Why every statement anyone makes nowadays has to be seen to offend somebody baffles me.

HarryCharltonsCat wrote: ↑

Sat May 11, 2019 12:07 pm

The demise he refers to is in our no longer being a league club, and County Durham not therefore having one. That is true. He even says he takes no pleasure in it. Why every statement anyone makes nowadays has to be seen to offend somebody baffles me.

Exactly, the only thing wrong with that statement is the fact he reckons he’s not subsidising the club

loan_star wrote:Sounds a lot like what Reynolds used to say, build a stadium and we will attract 5k from Boro, 5k from Sunderland and 5k from Newcastle.

It's still staggering that this is genuinely how Reynolds worked out the Arena's capacity. I remember seeing the interview where he explained it and being open-mouthed.

There was nothing to back it up, no justification. If you exclude the Wembley trips, how many times had we even got beyond a 10,000 attendance in the 30 years previously?

You can trace so many of our problems in the past 15 years back to this catastrophically ill-thought out decision.

He just kept saying: "i love proving people wrong. I've been doing it all my life."

Then reality kicked in.

HarryCharltonsCat wrote:The demise he refers to is in our no longer being a league club, and County Durham not therefore having one. That is true. He even says he takes no pleasure in it. Why every statement anyone makes nowadays has to be seen to offend somebody baffles me.

But he conveniently omitted Sunderland!


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Good afternoon all,

This is a 100% genuine post, which I've been asked to put here by Brad Groves. I'm Adam Brown, Head of PR & Media at Spennymoor Town.

Brad has been in touch with the Northern Echo this morning to voice his disappointment in the quote about "Darlington's Demise". His complaint centered around the fact he didn't use this phrase in the conversation and it suggests an opinion he doesn't hold. This morning's conversation has led to Scott Wilson's replies to his own Tweet of the article to this effect.

He's asked me to pass on the following:

"Firstly, I'd like to make clear that the work Darlington fans do for their club is superb and I have the utmost admiration for both the club and its support. Darlington has been helpful to Spennymoor on more than one occasion and I have expressed my gratitude for this.

"I spoke to Scott on the phone yesterday and we discussed many things in relation to where I want to take Spennymoor and, in turn where that would put the club in the world of North East football. It's resulted in a good article that gets across our plans effectively.

"However, at no point did we focus on Darlington and at no point did I use the phrase "Darlington's demise". I don't know whether this is a misunderstanding at the paper or a bit of friendly sport from the Northern Echo that has come out wrong in print, but it is absolutely not my view of the club.

"Once again, I'd like to commend Darlington's supporters on the hard work they do for the good of their club and each other. I'm not someone who is afraid of upsetting people if I feel it justified or necessary, but I felt compelled to say something today as I didn't like how that part of the article read. So please take this message as it is intended - to clear this up. I've enjoyed some great sport with the Darlington fans I know down the years and most of it very good-natured. Long may this continue.

"All the best for next season."

Quaker85 wrote: ↑

Sat May 11, 2019 12:58 pm

HarryCharltonsCat wrote:The demise he refers to is in our no longer being a league club, and County Durham not therefore having one. That is true. He even says he takes no pleasure in it. Why every statement anyone makes nowadays has to be seen to offend somebody baffles me.

But he conveniently omitted Sunderland!


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Sunderland hasn't been in Co. Durham since the 1974 County boundary changes