Darlo Uncovered

Nice day for it, should be a good turn out.

It's meant to rain this morning & clear up just before kick-off, so not quite sure what you mean by 'nice day for it'? Hopefully a crowd of near to 2500.

There is a bit of conflict between the BBC weather that shows the rain clearing by 3pm & their website which shows light rain from 2pm onwards.

This is the stage for Thommo to smash home his 100th goal. May be useful if he could grab a hat-trick and Reid score his debut goal as well

jjljks wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 26, 2019 9:04 am

This is the stage for Thommo to smash home his 100th goal. May be useful if he could grab a hat-trick and Reid score his debut goal as well

Yes he deserves this and a big crowd to applaud him. Even though he's played at a lower Stephen would be a contender for my 'best of' post 1990 team.

The stage is perfect for Thommo to get his 100th and even better to get the record.There will be a big crowd today, should be over 2000 excluding the Pride army of fans coming in their numbers, but more important to get the 3 points and start looking towards the top 7.
Looking forward to seeing how AA has us set up now Reid is the added option and wonder if Connell returns in goal,but will be surprised if any changes are made to the York starting 11.Should be a cracking atmosphere.....cannot wait.


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I bet Chandler gets a hot reception from the Darlo fans.

Darlo_Pete wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 26, 2019 8:42 am

It's meant to rain this morning & clear up just before kick-off, so not quite sure what you mean by 'nice day for it'? Hopefully a crowd of near to 2500.

Why do people come out with such overly optimistic and unrealistic pap? It's not hard to see that, yet again, our home crowds have dwindled back to the 1,200 mark - where's all the rest coming from?

Spennymoor will bring 300 as long as there are free buses on. There will of course be a few more home fans due to Boxing Day, maybe 1500-1600. There are no buses running today unlike there used to be years ago - so that's going to have an impact on out of town supporters who make up a significant percentage of our support.

I reckon 1,800-1,900 which on the face of it would be a shitt crowd given the size of our club, and comparing it to other traditionally similar sized clubs such as Chester and Hereford, but, that's where we are at right now.

2,500, do me a favour!

QUAKERMAN2 wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 26, 2019 9:54 am

The stage is perfect for Thommo to get his 100th and even better to get the record.There will be a big crowd today, should be over 2000 excluding the Pride army of fans coming in their numbers

So a crowd of at least 2,300 then?

What are you basing 2,000+ home fans on?

Sad fact, our core support is a shadow of what it was in the 2000s. In fact, in the last season at Bishop, when we moved to BM midway - the crowds at Bishop in that first half of the season were higher than we get now. We have been deserted.

We are a club who's fanbase is in terminal decline, but people are holding on to the past when predicting crowds. That was then, this is now.

The amount of stick I've had off apologists this season when I've complained on twitter about certain crowds, show that many are happy to accept a declining fanbase. Rather than saying "I agree, what can we do about it?" they've said stuff like "You're talking shite!", and "that crowd was good compared to the average in this league!" WTF has the NLN average got to do with anything?

We are traditionally the 2nd biggest club in this league after York, IMO slightly bigger than Chester and Hereford looking at historical crowds. Ignoring the fact that their crowds piss all over ours now, is a cop out by the apologists.

Humbug.

Oh dear somebody didn’t get what they wanted from Santa !
Never have so many toys been thrown out of the pram !

Old Git wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 26, 2019 11:11 am

Oh dear somebody didn’t get what they wanted from Santa !
Never have so many toys been thrown out of the pram !

Realism often comes across as toy throwing.

If we get over 2,000 home fans today that would be a significant increase on our usual home crowds, and I'd be happier than happy.

Sadly I don't think we have it in us any more.

All about opinions Ghost, still think we will be close to 2000 excluding who the Pride bring so let’s wait and see.Will be dissappointing if we end up with circa 2000 in total.


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Ghost_Of_1883 wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 26, 2019 10:50 am

QUAKERMAN2 wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 26, 2019 9:54 am

The stage is perfect for Thommo to get his 100th and even better to get the record.There will be a big crowd today, should be over 2000 excluding the Pride army of fans coming in their numbers

So a crowd of at least 2,300 then?

What are you basing 2,000+ home fans on?

Sad fact, our core support is a shadow of what it was in the 2000s. In fact, in the last season at Bishop, when we moved to BM midway - the crowds at Bishop in that first half of the season were higher than we get now. We have been deserted.

We are a club who's fanbase is in terminal decline, but people are holding on to the past when predicting crowds. That was then, this is now.

The amount of stick I've had off apologists this season when I've complained on twitter about certain crowds, show that many are happy to accept a declining fanbase. Rather than saying "I agree, what can we do about it?" they've said stuff like "You're talking shite!", and "that crowd was good compared to the average in this league!" WTF has the NLN average got to do with anything?

We are traditionally the 2nd biggest club in this league after York, IMO slightly bigger than Chester and Hereford looking at historical crowds. Ignoring the fact that their crowds piss all over ours now, is a cop out by the apologists.

Humbug.

I largely agree that our crowds aren't increasing and have generally decreased, although look like they might be slightly up this year compared to last.

The biggest challenge we had on our years back up the leagues we were out of Darlo, Hereford, Chester were both in their home towns, so when the winning stops they still have football on the doorstep. We done the opposite, won mostly over at Bishop come back to Darlo and not only after half a season of winning we the started losing more often. Let's not forget the seat saga and the effect this also had after earning a shot at the playoffs we couldn't even in play in them.

One positive is that a lot of younger people come to the games again, we have the 12-16 bracket building again which largely went missing in Bishop.

I expect about 1,800/1,900 today including the 250/300 Spenny fans.

Ghost is right, just stating facts.

Our crowds these days are utterly appalling, barring the really big games when everyone wants a slice of the action.

I wouldn’t confuse being utterly pissed off and frustrated with our constantly poor gates and that fact they massively hinder us as a club, with throwing toys out of the pram.

I’d be very surprised if we get 2,000 today. I’d expect 17/1800 max

Yes I’m with ghost - 1800ish today I’m expecting. Obviously I hope I’m dramatically underestimating things, but generally our crowds are disappointing and it’s a concern

super_les_mcjannet wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 26, 2019 11:33 am

I largely agree that our crowds aren't increasing and have generally decreased, although look like they might be slightly up this year compared to last.

But they aren't really slightly up Les, don't be fooled by the average which has plenty of time to lower by the end of the season.

Bank holiday Monday crowd was less than last season, and generally like for like gates have been down on last season, which were in turn down on the season before.

I estimate we're losing 100 fans per season. Of course a good 2nd half of the season might arrest this slide and renew some interest from the town, but we can't bank on it.

Gow9900 wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 26, 2019 11:38 am

Ghost is right, just stating facts.

Our crowds these days are utterly appalling, barring the really big games when everyone wants a slice of the action.

I wouldn’t confuse being utterly pissed off and frustrated with our constantly poor gates and that fact they massively hinder us as a club, with throwing toys out of the pram.

I’d be very surprised if we get 2,000 today. I’d expect 17/1800 max

I remember the very disappointing Bank Holiday crowd, wasn't it around 1,500 or something? (ie barely above our last season average). Wall to wall sunshine, 26 or so degrees c, you couldn't have hoped for a better day for it. I mentioned how shite the crowd was on twitter and got widely pummelled for it. The apologists came out with all sorts of excuses, and some even abused me for what I said.

I’d be amazed if we didn’t get 2,000 fans in total. Many exiled fans back home will give us a good boost plus there’s always a good few neutrals that attend these fixtures against local teams

Jesus I remember when we used to get a real uplift in crowds on Boxing Day. One year, we were averaging around 3,000 that season I think - 7,028 seemingly turned up out of nowhere, and for no apparent reason, on Boxing Day to see us play Rochdale - a huge uplift in the attendance.

Of course in typical Darlo fashion, Rochdale absolutely played us off the park and strolled to an easy 3-0 win.

Ghost_Of_1883 wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 26, 2019 10:37 am

Darlo_Pete wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 26, 2019 8:42 am

It's meant to rain this morning & clear up just before kick-off, so not quite sure what you mean by 'nice day for it'? Hopefully a crowd of near to 2500.

Why do people come out with such overly optimistic and unrealistic pap? It's not hard to see that, yet again, our home crowds have dwindled back to the 1,200 mark - where's all the rest coming from?

Spennymoor will bring 300 as long as there are free buses on. There will of course be a few more home fans due to Boxing Day, maybe 1500-1600. There are no buses running today unlike there used to be years ago - so that's going to have an impact on out of town supporters who make up a significant percentage of our support.

I reckon 1,800-1,900 which on the face of it would be a shitt crowd given the size of our club, and comparing it to other traditionally similar sized clubs such as Chester and Hereford, but, that's where we are at right now.

2,500, do me a favour!

Well as you know Q I live in a fairly small village & I personally know of 9 people who are going today that don't normally go to home games. So if that is replicated in Darlo, we'll definitely have towards 2500. I'm up in hospitality today for the first time, a present from one of my lads, so looking forward to seeing how good it is.

divas wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 26, 2019 11:56 am

I’d be amazed if we didn’t get 2,000 fans in total. Many exiled fans back home will give us a good boost plus there’s always a good few neutrals that attend these fixtures against local teams

Yeah but 2,000 in total is nothing to shout about if there are for example 300 away fans.

2,000 home fans, that would be more like it and a significant increase.

Even when we played York we barely scraped 2,000 with 600 away fans. 1,400 home fans for an attractive game against the league leaders at the time. 2 years ago the York crowd was around 2400, last year around 2200, this year around 2000. Pattern there?

Last season crowds slumped to the 1200 mark pretty quickly, because we were utter turd. This season, well we're back down to 1200 again, except we are doing better and playing better football.

Our fan base is dying on it's arse. What are we going to do? Other than console ourselves that our crowds are good compared to the NLN average?

Ghost_Of_1883 wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 26, 2019 11:46 am

super_les_mcjannet wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 26, 2019 11:33 am

I largely agree that our crowds aren't increasing and have generally decreased, although look like they might be slightly up this year compared to last.

But they aren't really slightly up Les, don't be fooled by the average which has plenty of time to lower by the end of the season.

Bank holiday Monday crowd was less than last season, and generally like for like gates have been down on last season, which were in turn down on the season before.

I estimate we're losing 100 fans per season. Of course a good 2nd half of the season might arrest this slide and renew some interest from the town, but we can't bank on it.

I think we will end up slightly higher than 1,367 which we hit last year.

Our last 9 games of last season we averaged 1,262 and that included our 2nd highest crowd v Spennymoor which was 1,664. We are currently on 1,470 and I don't see a big drop off this season in those final games, we have stability in the management and team and could even have some late playoff hope if we perform to levels we should be.

However I do think we will drop from our current average, I reckon down to 1,400 by the end of the season. Which arrests the decline of previous seasons.

Ghost_Of_1883 wrote: Our fan base is dying on it's arse. What are we going to do? Other than console ourselves that our crowds are good compared to the NLN average?

A real problem we have is BM can’t really handle crowds getting towards 2000 and beyond. BM doesn’t offer great sight lines at the best of times, but anything getting towards a decent crowd and there’s people who have restricted views in one way or another. Rock and a hard place really. We really need to sort out where our long term future lies so the facilities to give people a decent view can be planned out.

super_les_mcjannet wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 26, 2019 12:10 pm

Ghost_Of_1883 wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 26, 2019 11:46 am

super_les_mcjannet wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 26, 2019 11:33 am

I largely agree that our crowds aren't increasing and have generally decreased, although look like they might be slightly up this year compared to last.

But they aren't really slightly up Les, don't be fooled by the average which has plenty of time to lower by the end of the season.

Bank holiday Monday crowd was less than last season, and generally like for like gates have been down on last season, which were in turn down on the season before.

I estimate we're losing 100 fans per season. Of course a good 2nd half of the season might arrest this slide and renew some interest from the town, but we can't bank on it.

I think we will end up slightly higher than 1,367 which we hit last year.

Our last 9 games of last season we averaged 1,262 and that included our 2nd highest crowd v Spennymoor which was 1,664. We are currently on 1,470 and I don't see a big drop off this season in those final games, we have stability in the management and team and could even have some late playoff hope if we perform to levels we should be.

However I do think we will drop from our current average, I reckon down to 1,400 by the end of the season. Which arrests the decline of previous seasons.

Yes I agree with all of that, I think our form will be better in the 2nd half of this season than it was last season, so that should keep crowds a bit higher than the 2nd half of last season.

However it could be argued that happening would only be masking the underlying season by season decline.

We do need a good 2nd half of the season and ideally a couple of good seasons afterwards to turn that decline around and get fans back and back into the habit.

al_quaker wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 26, 2019 12:22 pm

Ghost_Of_1883 wrote: Our fan base is dying on it's arse. What are we going to do? Other than console ourselves that our crowds are good compared to the NLN average?

A real problem we have is BM can’t really handle crowds getting towards 2000 and beyond. BM doesn’t offer great sight lines at the best of times, but anything getting towards a decent crowd and there’s people who have restricted views in one way or another. Rock and a hard place really. We really need to sort out where our long term future lies so the facilities to give people a decent view can be planned out.

Think that will be sorted out sooner or later, everyone can get the bus down Neasham Road again.

I think a crowd of around 2000 today would be about what I expect. Agree gates overall a bit disappointing but I don’t think you can say they are in terminal decline.

When you go to a lot of clubs at our level or away fans come to BM, a large portion of their fans are getting on & they don't have many youngsters. On the other hand we have lots of youngsters or young adults in our crowds. That will only go to help us in future & we are far from a club in terminal decline.

super_les_mcjannet wrote:

al_quaker wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 26, 2019 12:22 pm

Ghost_Of_1883 wrote: Our fan base is dying on it's arse. What are we going to do? Other than console ourselves that our crowds are good compared to the NLN average?

A real problem we have is BM can’t really handle crowds getting towards 2000 and beyond. BM doesn’t offer great sight lines at the best of times, but anything getting towards a decent crowd and there’s people who have restricted views in one way or another. Rock and a hard place really. We really need to sort out where our long term future lies so the facilities to give people a decent view can be planned out.

Think that will be sorted out sooner or later, everyone can get the bus down Neasham Road again.

Quite possibly - although that opens up another can of worms!

I suppose when there’s no good options, we have to work out what is the least bad option..

super_les_mcjannet wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 26, 2019 12:26 pm

al_quaker wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 26, 2019 12:22 pm

Ghost_Of_1883 wrote: Our fan base is dying on it's arse. What are we going to do? Other than console ourselves that our crowds are good compared to the NLN average?

A real problem we have is BM can’t really handle crowds getting towards 2000 and beyond. BM doesn’t offer great sight lines at the best of times, but anything getting towards a decent crowd and there’s people who have restricted views in one way or another. Rock and a hard place really. We really need to sort out where our long term future lies so the facilities to give people a decent view can be planned out.

Think that will be sorted out sooner or later, everyone can get the bus down Neasham Road again.

Well, we will no doubt have many complaining about 1200-1500 rattling around in a "giant soulless white elephant" and I get it (solution, only open the main stand unless we're averaging more than 3,000) - but, at least there will be no problems getting a good view.

Further pros - less money to spend on the ground unless we eventually build our own ground on site. Bigger bar. More parking space. Ability to handle a big match crowd of more than 3,000 (ie cup match, play off match, title match etc)
Cons - everyone laughing at us for going back. The realisation that we've just wasted hundreds of thousands of pounds bulding up BM. Less atmosphere and never a half/ three quarters full ground ever again.

Not a fan of the Arena but it might be the best solution to our problems if we can negotiate a decent deal with DMP. Where else is there in the town that suits our needs and ambitions moving forward? A successful rugby and football club housed under one roof makes a lot of sense really. Different fan bases don’t have to be enemies but could have a successful relationship and be mutually beneficial if done right.

Old Git wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 26, 2019 12:53 pm

Not a fan of the Arena but it might be the best solution to our problems if we can negotiate a decent deal with DMP. Where else is there in the town that suits our needs and ambitions moving forward? A successful rugby and football club housed under one roof makes a lot of sense really. Different fan bases don’t have to be enemies but could have a successful relationship and be mutually beneficial if done right.

The problem is that we all thought that about BM but it seems like the football club and rugby club just can't get along as we need them to.

The lack of a proper sign saying we play at BM is an obvious symptom of a strained relationship. There is just no feasible reason why the main sign doesn't say "Home of Darlington Rugby & Football Clubs" other than the Rugby club simply won't allow it. We'd obviously offer to pay for any alterations.

I suspect they feel like we just want to take over their place and want to protect their identity, but this is obviously going to cause friction.

Would a relationship with DMPRFC be any better? Would we not face the same identity issues?

Also, something that's been mentioned in the past is this...what if DMP simply can't make the stadium work in the long run? Despite all of the extra income streams, the SV, etc etc, the sums don't add up?

Where would we play then?

As long as there is ideally no 4g pitch and the two clubs can get along, and as long as there is something in it for us as well (otherwise, why move?), as long as we have security and no chance of the stadium falling into other hands, as long as we have good assurances about everything we need - then...you know the rest.

Dial A.