Gates

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quakersfan
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Re: Gates

Post by quakersfan » Wed Nov 20, 2019 10:10 am

The DFCSG need to crack on with a decision as they/we are the owners. If the plan is to get back to the league then the Arena is a sensible option as BM will take to much money to develop it to FL standard plus we only have 15 years left there on the license. If the ambition isn’t there then BM will suffice with a developed terrace at the open end with the money made from cup run. SV will go ahead with or without us so whoever decision it is get on with it and put it to a vote of the DFCSG. I’m sure they can get round the fixtures, playing on plastic is more problematic if we do get back to the FL.

Tonight should be much better organised than the Halifax game as this was the first game at BM, I would have thought both DFC/DRFC will have learnt lessons from that, I just hope they have enough outside catering as this is a key issue for fans standing in the cold.

MB86DFC
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Re: Gates

Post by MB86DFC » Wed Nov 20, 2019 10:21 am

I've gone back and forth on the arena vs Blackwell debate over and over again, but now I'm firmly in the anti-arena camp. Blackwell's biggest negative for me it the water-pipe restricting development. I don't mind the clubhouse along one side as I think Blackwell could be ok if a deep terrace could be built at the open end and the seating extended all along the by-line. That would give a capacity of around 5000 which would be ample. So what if a few floaters miss the once-every-5-years game where we could get more fans than that? For 99% of the games we play we need nowhere near 5000 capacity. I would love a stand like the away end at Walsall, or a bespoke new build stadium like Nene park, but what we have now plus terracing would be sufficient. How realistic is moving the water-pipe? If this is a possibility then I think building half the terracing with a view to extend later would be a good plan. Add another set of toilets and a match day bottle bar in the corner and we would be OK. Talk of getting back into the league is rightly ambitious, but we are years away form this. Look at the spending power of teams in the National League, Tranmere had a playing budget of £1.3 million to gain promotion back to league 2, there is no way we can compete with that, so unfortunately the football league is a long way away. We need to accept this level and the one above is where we will be.

The arena is knackered, it is a rusting hulk which needs significant maintenance and I'm glad we're not funding it. Essential repairs, ongoing maintenance and remodeling will cost a fortune and I can't imagine the council will pay for it all. Going into that ground each week would be soul-destroying. Yes the views would be better, shorter queues for a piss and perhaps some TV's in the concourse, but everything else would be worse. The arena would have no atmosphere, even on a big game day. At Walsall we saw what atmosphere 1200 fans in a reasonably sized stand can, if we could recreate something anywhere near that at Blackwell it would be fantastic.

Any sporting village will be years off, if it even happens at all, which means we must stagnate whilst waiting for it to happen. I say give up on the idea, commit to making Blackwell something like home and work on improving the relationship with the rugby club. The current off field management team we have are doing a fantastic job, so if they managed the renovations I would expect it to be done sustainably and well. This would remove uncertainty and allow a unified push onward.

lifetime darlo fan
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Re: Gates

Post by lifetime darlo fan » Wed Nov 20, 2019 10:28 am

As someone who is at the Arena 3 days a week I can assure the ignorant posters that the arena is alive and well. Its a thriving hub of activity most days with many business operating across the site.

Mowden have a large number of teams both male and female which use the training pitches as do schools. If anyone is ignorant of the fact Mowden are thriving then they need to open up there eyes.

If we were to go back there as a tenant it would potentially be a much better set up than at Blackwell and there is nothing wrong with being a tenant

darlo_baron
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Re: Gates

Post by darlo_baron » Wed Nov 20, 2019 10:42 am

In reality, an informed decision can't be made until the facts about both options are presented clearly.

For instance, if the relationship with DRFC is fractured or the pipe issue is insurmountable, then we probably need an alternative.

Likewise, if we return to the Arena without a plan that benefits us long-term it will be difficult to justify.

I look forward to seeing what DFCSG can tell us about both. Hopefully, not in the too distant future.
Craig Liddle is God!!

al_quaker
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Re: Gates

Post by al_quaker » Wed Nov 20, 2019 10:44 am

I'm as inpatient as the next person, but we have to trust those with the knowledge to work out the best way forwards (or should that be 'least worst') for the club. It has to be the correct move for the club in the long term. As awful as BM is to watch football at currently, it does what we need it do for now, so there's no need desperate need for anyone to come down on one side or the other without seeing the plans which are (presumably?) still being worked up by those in the club/DFCSG.

Of course, if we can carry on in the FA cup, we will soon be able to afford our own 25000 all seater stadium complete with escalators :lol:

joejaques
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Re: Gates

Post by joejaques » Wed Nov 20, 2019 10:56 am

al_quaker wrote:
Wed Nov 20, 2019 10:44 am
I'm as inpatient as the next person, but we have to trust those with the knowledge to work out the best way forwards (or should that be 'least worst') for the club. It has to be the correct move for the club in the long term. As awful as BM is to watch football at currently, it does what we need it do for now, so there's no need desperate need for anyone to come down on one side or the other without seeing the plans which are (presumably?) still being worked up by those in the club/DFCSG.

Of course, if we can carry on in the FA cup, we will soon be able to afford our own 25000 all seater stadium complete with escalators :lol:
As long as you don't mean "Hexcalaters" :roll:
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LoidLucan
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Re: Gates

Post by LoidLucan » Wed Nov 20, 2019 11:00 am

I'll bet Mowden now can't wait to get the financial burden of the Arena handed over to someone else. It's not sustainable as it stands despite any uses on site. They've had to take out large loans on an ongoing basis (including from Raj), they're playing in a league that includes several London sides as well as Plymouth and Canterbury and recently had crowds that were sub-700 (and that includes cheap tickets and all under-16s getting in free).

It makes for a depressing sight (and a stark reminder) looking at a video of them playing in front of a few hundred scattered behind the dug-outs with thousands and thousands of faded, empty seats all around and rusting metalwork. The scale of the stadium itself in its present form is inappropriate for their needs as a rugby club and also, I would say, for non-league football despite any "remodelling." For me there'd need to be some very large rabbits pulled out of hats for this to be made appealing as our long-term future.

H1987
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Re: Gates

Post by H1987 » Wed Nov 20, 2019 11:12 am

EDJOHNS wrote:
Wed Nov 20, 2019 9:55 am
Darlo_Pete wrote:
Wed Nov 20, 2019 9:23 am
divas wrote:
Wed Nov 20, 2019 8:31 am
H1987 wrote:
Tue Nov 19, 2019 11:34 pm
Yarblockos wrote:
Tue Nov 19, 2019 5:04 pm
Increasing capacity to 4000 is far from easy. You can only build on about 60% of the open end. A terrace would increase capacity but you'd lose the equivalent of four rows deep standing in front of it. So you are taking about a terrace of 1400 or so, which is not cheap at all. It would have to be two and a half times as deep as the tin shed terrace.
Yes, but remember we also didn't reassess when we added the extra seats. Not to mention it's definitely more like 70% than 60, the pipe sort of crosses at the edge of the box towards the main stand. You can easily build a terrace there. You can also extend the seats with at least another block. 4,000 is easily achievable.

The point is that whatever we do should be done so infrastructure can be moved if we decide we're going to move to a sporting village development down the line.

The Arena can get in the bin. The arena is a common factor in every financial crisis of recent years. It was an oversized financial burden that will eventually kill Mowden Park rugby club as well. Just give it a few years. It's a right tatty mess these days anyway. Just wait until it starts falling apart and they can't afford to fix it... bits start getting mothballed...

The only way it would ever be viable is if it was dramatically downsized. Which it won't be.
It’s certainly not that easy to get to 4000 as yarblockos points out. Even less so if you’re going to do it in a fashion that can be easily deconstructed and re-erected elsewhere.

Whilst the Arena is awful now I believe there are some grand plans and a lot of investment put aside to do a full refresh and partial remodel. It won’t solve the problem of it still being too big but it will make it a more pleasant place for now at least. The whole reason for the SV concept and surrounding infrastructure is to make the arena sustainable
I believe you are right about the Arena being remodelled & modernised. I also have heard from somebody at Darlington MP that they will now us to play there on Saturday afternoons.
I have always said it would be a darn site cheaper to downsize the Arena rather than start again. Selling say 15,000 seats to start would not earn a lot, but would earn some money. Sure we would find more salable stuff to help the rebuild, and at least it would not all have to be done at once so can be staged as we could manage it. (I am saying we as in the club being some part of not necessarily all).
Demolishing parts of it safely would cost a fortune i’m afraid. It’s simply a lost cause.

H1987
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Re: Gates

Post by H1987 » Wed Nov 20, 2019 11:14 am

LoidLucan wrote:
Wed Nov 20, 2019 9:47 am
Playing non-league football on a plastic pitch at a giant empty stadium where we previously went under, sounds really tempting.
Exactly :clap: not to mention the other times we narrowly escaped.

Imperfect Blackwell over this any day of the week.

Gow9900
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Re: Gates

Post by Gow9900 » Wed Nov 20, 2019 12:14 pm

Anyone recall the amount of money it would cost to redirect the water pipe so that we could then look to put permanent stands up? I'm sure it was mentioned that it would be about £1m, could be wrong.

Then even if we decided to do it we would have to get permission from our landlords to do so and also the water company, we would then have to raise a huge amount of money to get the work done. We have to move away from awful, cheap little stands, we seem to have a make do and mend mentality, but at the same time people talk about progression, promotions and the football league.

I'd imagine if the Arena option came up Johnston and the rest of the board would only consider it if it was financially viable for us, there is no way any plans going back there would involve us being solely responsible for the bills and upkeep of the stadium. A sports village would have commercial involvement with businesses paying rates, facilities that were open 7 days a week and involve the whole complex paying for itself.

Roll on the plans being released, and hopefully when the plans are announced people can take the time to read them, look at the benefits of it, take time to think about it and make an informed decision rather than 'it's the Arena, no chance'.

All speculation and rumour at the moment anyways, time will tell.

JasonDeVos
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Re: Gates

Post by JasonDeVos » Wed Nov 20, 2019 12:35 pm

H1987 wrote:
Wed Nov 20, 2019 11:14 am
LoidLucan wrote:
Wed Nov 20, 2019 9:47 am
Playing non-league football on a plastic pitch at a giant empty stadium where we previously went under, sounds really tempting.
Exactly :clap: not to mention the other times we narrowly escaped.

Imperfect Blackwell over this any day of the week.
Well said

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dfc4me
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Re: Gates

Post by dfc4me » Wed Nov 20, 2019 12:50 pm

I’m sure a while ago DJ said there would be no more money spent on BM until we get a much improved deal with the rugby club. Our current deal only has about 15 years left and I for one am not convinced the rugby club will extend it, especially if their debts have been cleared, which would leave us homeless again.

Yarblockos
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Re: Gates

Post by Yarblockos » Wed Nov 20, 2019 2:28 pm

MB86DFC wrote:
Wed Nov 20, 2019 10:21 am
I've gone back and forth on the arena vs Blackwell debate over and over again, but now I'm firmly in the anti-arena camp. Blackwell's biggest negative for me it the water-pipe restricting development. I don't mind the clubhouse along one side as I think Blackwell could be ok if a deep terrace could be built at the open end and the seating extended all along the by-line. That would give a capacity of around 5000 which would be ample. So what if a few floaters miss the once-every-5-years game where we could get more fans than that? For 99% of the games we play we need nowhere near 5000 capacity. I would love a stand like the away end at Walsall, or a bespoke new build stadium like Nene park, but what we have now plus terracing would be sufficient. How realistic is moving the water-pipe? If this is a possibility then I think building half the terracing with a view to extend later would be a good plan. Add another set of toilets and a match day bottle bar in the corner and we would be OK. Talk of getting back into the league is rightly ambitious, but we are years away form this. Look at the spending power of teams in the National League, Tranmere had a playing budget of £1.3 million to gain promotion back to league 2, there is no way we can compete with that, so unfortunately the football league is a long way away. We need to accept this level and the one above is where we will be.

The arena is knackered, it is a rusting hulk which needs significant maintenance and I'm glad we're not funding it. Essential repairs, ongoing maintenance and remodeling will cost a fortune and I can't imagine the council will pay for it all. Going into that ground each week would be soul-destroying. Yes the views would be better, shorter queues for a piss and perhaps some TV's in the concourse, but everything else would be worse. The arena would have no atmosphere, even on a big game day. At Walsall we saw what atmosphere 1200 fans in a reasonably sized stand can, if we could recreate something anywhere near that at Blackwell it would be fantastic.

Any sporting village will be years off, if it even happens at all, which means we must stagnate whilst waiting for it to happen. I say give up on the idea, commit to making Blackwell something like home and work on improving the relationship with the rugby club. The current off field management team we have are doing a fantastic job, so if they managed the renovations I would expect it to be done sustainably and well. This would remove uncertainty and allow a unified push onward.
5,000 would be ample but its far from simple. You can't put seats all the way down the pitch side because of the water pipe, and a terrace can only be build on around 60% of the open end so that would never make the capacity up to 5,000.

Also, some people make the Arena sound like it is so knackered it is too dangerous to enter.

H1987
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Re: Gates

Post by H1987 » Wed Nov 20, 2019 2:50 pm

Gow9900 wrote:
Wed Nov 20, 2019 12:14 pm
Anyone recall the amount of money it would cost to redirect the water pipe so that we could then look to put permanent stands up? I'm sure it was mentioned that it would be about £1m, could be wrong.

Then even if we decided to do it we would have to get permission from our landlords to do so and also the water company, we would then have to raise a huge amount of money to get the work done. We have to move away from awful, cheap little stands, we seem to have a make do and mend mentality, but at the same time people talk about progression, promotions and the football league.

I'd imagine if the Arena option came up Johnston and the rest of the board would only consider it if it was financially viable for us, there is no way any plans going back there would involve us being solely responsible for the bills and upkeep of the stadium. A sports village would have commercial involvement with businesses paying rates, facilities that were open 7 days a week and involve the whole complex paying for itself.

Roll on the plans being released, and hopefully when the plans are announced people can take the time to read them, look at the benefits of it, take time to think about it and make an informed decision rather than 'it's the Arena, no chance'.

All speculation and rumour at the moment anyways, time will tell.
If i'm being brutally, brutally honest about it... 'it's the Arena, no chance' absolutely sums up my feelings on it.

Beyond, as discussed up above, a serious downsizing and significant remodelling... I do not, under any circumstances want to see us playing in a stadium above 10k capacity on a permanent basis. I'd vote against it if it's put to the supporters under just about any conceivable situation, and I wouldn't be the only one... i absolutely hate the place. I always resented it for taking Feethams away from us, i barely have any positive memories of going there, and i hated the average game where there was a tiny crowd rattling around in it. I hated the walk there as well. The location is worse than Blackwell - which isn't as good as Feethams, obviously, but part of the matchday for me is a beer and a wander from the town. It's not just beer, people can go for lunch, for coffee, use our town centre, and have a fairly nice, flat walk to the ground in 15-20 minutes.

I don't accept that 4,000 isn't achievable easily at Blackwell. There's clearly room for about another 150 seats just by extending the seated stand further. There's also clearly the ability to build a 1,000 terrace at the open end, even with the pipe. It just needs to be a few rows deeper than the tinshed. We're not even talking massively so, literally making it 14 steps as opposed to 9, which was the height of the original tinshed anyway - whatever it is, there's plenty of space to build it an appropriate size, it just requires someone to do the maths to figure out what we need in the design process. It could even be built in manageable stages. We were led to believe the existing stands at Blackwell could be moved to another location in future if required, so why would another terrace not be? A 4,000 capacity stadium, with about 750 seats is absolutely spot on for our needs. Even in the league above, i'm not sure we'd fill it beyond a game with Pools. Building another stand also means we can segregate properly, and accommodate proper away followings.

I know the club are trying to leverage a good deal with the rugby club, and discussions are going on the background, but we need to be realistic with what we want for the club going forward. I don't ever want to see us playing in a soulless bowl ever again. Blackwell is nowhere near as bad as some seem to make out, and some of the hatred does seem to come from some kind of childish grudge against the rugby club. I know it is imperfect, but we aren't going to get a custom built stadium just built for us. It's better than the arena, by an absolute mile. I don't really care if it means some of the Wembley day trippers can't fit in occasionally (and lets face it, it's very occasional right now).

It comes down to where we would like to see the club in ten years time realistically. For me, that is at Blackwell, with an improved relationship with the rugby club, with a 4,000 capacity stadium, with crowds over 2k, in the conference national. That is realistic. Imperfect but sustainable existence in an appropriate sized ground? Yes please.

Mister e
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Re: Gates

Post by Mister e » Wed Nov 20, 2019 3:07 pm

Maybe the rugby club would be a more attractive proposition for the future if they stopped pulling stunts like partitioning two thirds of the bar off after the Boston United game or pulling the shutters down at 5 25 after the Bradford park avenue game even though we apparently rent the ground until six o clock. Can you blame us for getting the impression we're not wanted. Also apparently pulled the same stunt on Nuneatons players last season up in corporate when the game finished late because of injury. Also one of our volunteers was apparently bawled out just for wanting to receive a delivery for the club shop on a non match day.in my opinion the sooner We're out of Blackwell the better.we should have taken mortgage out on a piece of land and built from there like Leamington for example.

H1987
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Re: Gates

Post by H1987 » Wed Nov 20, 2019 3:23 pm

Yarblockos wrote:
Wed Nov 20, 2019 2:28 pm
MB86DFC wrote:
Wed Nov 20, 2019 10:21 am
I've gone back and forth on the arena vs Blackwell debate over and over again, but now I'm firmly in the anti-arena camp. Blackwell's biggest negative for me it the water-pipe restricting development. I don't mind the clubhouse along one side as I think Blackwell could be ok if a deep terrace could be built at the open end and the seating extended all along the by-line. That would give a capacity of around 5000 which would be ample. So what if a few floaters miss the once-every-5-years game where we could get more fans than that? For 99% of the games we play we need nowhere near 5000 capacity. I would love a stand like the away end at Walsall, or a bespoke new build stadium like Nene park, but what we have now plus terracing would be sufficient. How realistic is moving the water-pipe? If this is a possibility then I think building half the terracing with a view to extend later would be a good plan. Add another set of toilets and a match day bottle bar in the corner and we would be OK. Talk of getting back into the league is rightly ambitious, but we are years away form this. Look at the spending power of teams in the National League, Tranmere had a playing budget of £1.3 million to gain promotion back to league 2, there is no way we can compete with that, so unfortunately the football league is a long way away. We need to accept this level and the one above is where we will be.

The arena is knackered, it is a rusting hulk which needs significant maintenance and I'm glad we're not funding it. Essential repairs, ongoing maintenance and remodeling will cost a fortune and I can't imagine the council will pay for it all. Going into that ground each week would be soul-destroying. Yes the views would be better, shorter queues for a piss and perhaps some TV's in the concourse, but everything else would be worse. The arena would have no atmosphere, even on a big game day. At Walsall we saw what atmosphere 1200 fans in a reasonably sized stand can, if we could recreate something anywhere near that at Blackwell it would be fantastic.

Any sporting village will be years off, if it even happens at all, which means we must stagnate whilst waiting for it to happen. I say give up on the idea, commit to making Blackwell something like home and work on improving the relationship with the rugby club. The current off field management team we have are doing a fantastic job, so if they managed the renovations I would expect it to be done sustainably and well. This would remove uncertainty and allow a unified push onward.
5,000 would be ample but its far from simple. You can't put seats all the way down the pitch side because of the water pipe, and a terrace can only be build on around 60% of the open end so that would never make the capacity up to 5,000.

Also, some people make the Arena sound like it is so knackered it is too dangerous to enter.
these areas in black (in the link below) could easily be used to expand the capacity of the ground by only 700. Easily. There's plenty of room.

https://cdn3.imggmi.com/uploads/2019/11 ... f-full.png

The original schematics are still here (below link) - i just doodled on them roughly

http://www.darlofc.co.uk/images/darling ... -plans.pdf

You can see the maths involved on the original diagrams, and where we can and can't build. Look, i'm obviously not an architect, but based on this, clearly 4,000 is attainable. 5,000 is problematic without addressing the pipe - *or* altering what we've already built. But, we don't need 5,000 to play in the league above. We need 5,000 for the football league. You could clearly do 5,000 also, but at great expense, involving tearing down what is already there. Thing is, we don't need 5,000. 4,000 is absolutely fine for where we are, and where we are likely to be in the near future. For us to need 5,000, something very dramatic will have happened to this club.

Yarblockos
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Re: Gates

Post by Yarblockos » Wed Nov 20, 2019 4:03 pm

H1987 wrote:
Wed Nov 20, 2019 3:23 pm
these areas in black (in the link below) could easily be used to expand the capacity of the ground by only 700. Easily. There's plenty of room.

https://cdn3.imggmi.com/uploads/2019/11 ... f-full.png

The original schematics are still here (below link) - i just doodled on them roughly

http://www.darlofc.co.uk/images/darling ... -plans.pdf

You can see the maths involved on the original diagrams, and where we can and can't build. Look, i'm obviously not an architect, but based on this, clearly 4,000 is attainable. 5,000 is problematic without addressing the pipe - *or* altering what we've already built. But, we don't need 5,000 to play in the league above. We need 5,000 for the football league. You could clearly do 5,000 also, but at great expense, involving tearing down what is already there. Thing is, we don't need 5,000. 4,000 is absolutely fine for where we are, and where we are likely to be in the near future. For us to need 5,000, something very dramatic will have happened to this club.
Yes, to get up 5,000 would require tearing down what is there and would also require some miraculous upturn in finances. Whether you like it or loathe it, the Arena provides us with an increased capacity without requiring a miracle.

H1987
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Re: Gates

Post by H1987 » Thu Nov 21, 2019 12:28 am

Yarblockos wrote:
Wed Nov 20, 2019 4:03 pm
H1987 wrote:
Wed Nov 20, 2019 3:23 pm
these areas in black (in the link below) could easily be used to expand the capacity of the ground by only 700. Easily. There's plenty of room.

https://cdn3.imggmi.com/uploads/2019/11 ... f-full.png

The original schematics are still here (below link) - i just doodled on them roughly

http://www.darlofc.co.uk/images/darling ... -plans.pdf

You can see the maths involved on the original diagrams, and where we can and can't build. Look, i'm obviously not an architect, but based on this, clearly 4,000 is attainable. 5,000 is problematic without addressing the pipe - *or* altering what we've already built. But, we don't need 5,000 to play in the league above. We need 5,000 for the football league. You could clearly do 5,000 also, but at great expense, involving tearing down what is already there. Thing is, we don't need 5,000. 4,000 is absolutely fine for where we are, and where we are likely to be in the near future. For us to need 5,000, something very dramatic will have happened to this club.
Yes, to get up 5,000 would require tearing down what is there and would also require some miraculous upturn in finances. Whether you like it or loathe it, the Arena provides us with an increased capacity without requiring a miracle.
Apart from the miracle of not going bust?

H1987
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Re: Gates

Post by H1987 » Thu Nov 21, 2019 9:29 am

Interestingly, in his post match interview, AA talks about 'looking at developing this place'. Presumably he is privy to such discussions, and it's not something just pulled out of thin air.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lawUMepCtU

LoidLucan
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Re: Gates

Post by LoidLucan » Thu Nov 21, 2019 9:43 am

Would it have been an occasion like last night, with a fever-pitch atmosphere, had it been at the Arena with maybe 20,000 empty seats all around on a plastic pitch? Would TV actually have been interested in the tie at a giant, mainly empty, soulless bowl? Whatever the shortcomings BM was completely appropriate for it, the Arena is most definitely not.

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