Darlo Uncovered

Very enjoyable and informative meeting. DJ joined near the end for Q and A.
Very clear that we have an amazing asset in DJ who wants to commit long term and will be able to once he retires in circa. 18 months. He's got his wife well into the club too.
Also clear that our other board members do an amazing job and we've come on leaps and bounds in the last couple of years.
He's got Ray Simpson on the case to "Use his BBC contacts" and wants our 2nd round game televised as a reward to the fans.
The news of us raising the money is currently doing the rounds on Twitter and hopefully is one of these newsworthy stories that will see us on TV.
Other points:

Over 500k to get Blackwell Meadows NL ready, but we can access a big chunk of this in grants.
The most revenue we can raise at BM if we maximised everything is circa. 250k. This is not even profit and is not sustainable.
It's clear we need our own ground to be able to be competitive.
He feels we could be pushing to get back in the FL within 5 years.
The Sporting Village is dead as a council venture but not as a private venture and DJ said there are some 'Good people' involved in that. We are keeping involved in discussions.
We have some good clauses attached to Harvey Saunders and Justin Donowa.
DJ was instrumental in reminding other NLN chairman of their legal duties when taking a vote as to whether to start the season without a financial package. Clubs would be prepared to withdraw from the FA Cup and League without support. It is not legal to trade knowing you could well go bankrupt and DJ reminded the NL that this is what the body would be doing if getting their clubs to carry on without a package so in his words 'We have a bit of a loaded gun here'.
We stand to make around 60k so far from our cup run.
The club has made some appointment mistakes in the past couple of years but have learnt from them and our due diligence is now much stronger.
We have some insurance in place now for long term injuries which cost less than 5 figures. We do have to cover initial wages for a certain amount of time.

All in all a fascinating evening and thanks to all concerned who made it happen. For someone like myself who lives 150 miles away, and Chris in Texas who was also there, the Zoom facility is a great thing.

Yep really good AGM, very positive view on where we are heading and putting the right things in place with a longer ambition of full time, own ground & football league.

Obviously none of that is easy to achieve and we need to be financially stable before moving forward.

I thought i saw on the agenda that there was an item about use of surplus. Does that mean the club was in profit last year, or that the supporters' group was?

tdk1 wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 09, 2020 9:40 pm

I thought i saw on the agenda that there was an item about use of surplus. Does that mean the club was in profit last year, or that the supporters' group was?

DFCSG were in profit. Club accounts for 2019/2020 not due for another couple of months.

Vodka_Vic wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 09, 2020 9:35 pm

The most revenue we can raise at BM if we maximised everything is circa. 250k. This is not even profit and is not sustainable.
It's clear we need our own ground to be able to be competitive.
He feels we could be pushing to get back in the FL within 5 years.
The Sporting Village is dead as a council venture but not as a private venture and DJ said there are some 'Good people' involved in that. We are keeping involved in discussions.

I'm confused.

So we need our own ground or we need to play at a sporting hub owned by a third party where private investors will want their own ROI?

Sounds like a positive night. Congrats to those elected to the board and thank you to those finishing their time as board members. Interesting stuff coming from the DJ q&a as usual.

Without wanting to sound cynical or opportunist, both DRFC and DMP have heard from the RFU that rugby won't be happening until Spring time. They've both launched crowd funders to try any replace lost revenue from events etc which have been cancelled in light of Covid-19. Is there not further opportunity to to team up with one of these sides by buying into one of their grounds? Perhaps give ourselves an opportunity to negotiate favourable trading terms for an upfront payment which would support them through some tough Covid times.

Great that exiles could join in tonight - one of the big considerations when creating YOURCLUB was how we engage better with those owners who live many miles away. The voting for directors on the platform worked very well and much less admin for all involved too. Ultimately Covid meant that the whole event had to be online but hopefully the new normal will mean going forwards we can offer the best of both worlds.

super_les_mcjannet wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 09, 2020 9:42 pm

tdk1 wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 09, 2020 9:40 pm

I thought i saw on the agenda that there was an item about use of surplus. Does that mean the club was in profit last year, or that the supporters' group was?

DFCSG were in profit. Club accounts for 2019/2020 not due for another couple of months.

Sound, thank you. What kind of surplus was it? And what was the resolution for using it in the end?

Slightly concerned about dip in DFCSG membership but it is understandable given Covid & lack of matches where fans can go watch. Putting the AGM onto Zoom was welcome & enforced a well structured, business-like & efficient meeting. Only about 70 attendees including presenters so less than 10% of membership, however some of those attending were from outside the NE & suspect even outside UK. They were happy to be able to participate, so something worth considering for next year's AGM. The best bit was cameo from David Johnston answering questions and outlining the future of the club (Alun Armstrong had some "more important" interview on BBC - flimsy excuse).
Well done to all concerned for an informative AGM.

anyone confirm what was meant by 'bad appointments'? Or will this open a can of worms

lo36789 wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 09, 2020 10:09 pm

Vodka_Vic wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 09, 2020 9:35 pm

The most revenue we can raise at BM if we maximised everything is circa. 250k. This is not even profit and is not sustainable.
It's clear we need our own ground to be able to be competitive.
He feels we could be pushing to get back in the FL within 5 years.
The Sporting Village is dead as a council venture but not as a private venture and DJ said there are some 'Good people' involved in that. We are keeping involved in discussions.

I'm confused.

So we need our own ground or we need to play at a sporting hub owned by a third party where private investors will want their own ROI?

Looks like we're keeping our options open

JE93 wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 09, 2020 10:44 pm

Sounds like a positive night. Congrats to those elected to the board and thank you to those finishing their time as board members. Interesting stuff coming from the DJ q&a as usual.

Without wanting to sound cynical or opportunist, both DRFC and DMP have heard from the RFU that rugby won't be happening until Spring time. They've both launched crowd funders to try any replace lost revenue from events etc which have been cancelled in light of Covid-19. Is there not further opportunity to to team up with one of these sides by buying into one of their grounds? Perhaps give ourselves an opportunity to negotiate favourable trading terms for an upfront payment which would support them through some tough Covid times.

This sounds reasonable to me, and if done at Blackwell would overcome both lower profits and any barriers to redeveloping the clubhouse side (if we could negotiate an arrangement and consult to add a stand on this side which incorporates the clubhouse, of course). That seems far more practical to me than to have to fund an entire new stadium ourselves, which doesn't seem realistic in the short term.

Either way, I am happy that there is an estimated cost to get the ground ready for the next level. I do believe we can get there in the next few years, but I don't share DJs optimism of the football league anytime soon. The ground is a big part of that concern, but it's a big leap to get to a professional side and also fund the team playing at national level again. The fans have dug deep for our FA Cup journeys this year, but even the National League is filled with journeys of that size, including midweek fixtures. It's a big, big ask. If we can be sustainable in the level above, in the short-medium turn, i'd be delighted.

D_F_C wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 10, 2020 7:07 pm

anyone confirm what was meant by 'bad appointments'? Or will this open a can of worms

I think it's abundantly clear he means Tommy Wright... he was just being polite enough not to say it. We regressed horribly under him. There's no two ways about it.

I'm not an insider in any way shape or form, but I'm not sure that's who he means, or at least he might mean other people too.

tdk1 wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 10, 2020 7:45 pm

I'm not an insider in any way shape or form, but I'm not sure that's who he means, or at least he might mean other people too.

Fair enough, I assumed it was referring to on-field matters.

tdk1 wrote:I'm not an insider in any way shape or form, but I'm not sure that's who he means, or at least he might mean other people too.

I took it to mean off-the-field appointments rather than TW.

jjljks wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 10, 2020 7:47 am

Slightly concerned about dip in DFCSG membership but it is understandable given Covid & lack of matches where fans can go watch. Putting the AGM onto Zoom was welcome & enforced a well structured, business-like & efficient meeting. Only about 70 attendees including presenters so less than 10% of membership, however some of those attending were from outside the NE & suspect even outside UK. They were happy to be able to participate, so something worth considering for next year's AGM. The best bit was cameo from David Johnston answering questions and outlining the future of the club (Alun Armstrong had some "more important" interview on BBC - flimsy excuse).
Well done to all concerned for an informative AGM.

Just to temper the point about Owners/DFCSG membership slightly - we've had just under 100 *new* Owners sign up via YC since it's launch at the start of October, which is a huge positive and before we've even put a proper 'Ownership marketing plan' in place.

We have over 100 renewals to sort, the bulk of which (a) pay with cash and (b) mainly renew at games, so you can work out the logistics challenge there.

Once the bulk of those are sorted (it's being worked on, clearly), we'll have improved Ownership in the short-term since YC's launch. We'll kick on from there and I see no reason as to why we can't be at a 1,000+ at some point in the near term.

That's the plan, anyway.

Hope that clarifies a wee bit.

beatroute66 wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 11, 2020 9:29 am

jjljks wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 10, 2020 7:47 am

Slightly concerned about dip in DFCSG membership but it is understandable given Covid & lack of matches where fans can go watch. Putting the AGM onto Zoom was welcome & enforced a well structured, business-like & efficient meeting. Only about 70 attendees including presenters so less than 10% of membership, however some of those attending were from outside the NE & suspect even outside UK. They were happy to be able to participate, so something worth considering for next year's AGM. The best bit was cameo from David Johnston answering questions and outlining the future of the club (Alun Armstrong had some "more important" interview on BBC - flimsy excuse).
Well done to all concerned for an informative AGM.

Just to temper the point about Owners/DFCSG membership slightly - we've had just under 100 *new* Owners sign up via YC since it's launch at the start of October, which is a huge positive and before we've even put a proper 'Ownership marketing plan' in place.

We have over 100 renewals to sort, the bulk of which (a) pay with cash and (b) mainly renew at games, so you can work out the logistics challenge there.

Once the bulk of those are sorted (it's being worked on, clearly), we'll have improved Ownership in the short-term since YC's launch. We'll kick on from there and I see no reason as to why we can't be at a 1,000+ at some point in the near term.

That's the plan, anyway.

Hope that clarifies a wee bit.

Thanks, good to know we are not resting on our laurels

Interestingly, I've seen that the rugby club is currently fundraising as they're struggling financially (it says due to Covid). Clearly, they're not making that much money from us being there. Don't know how Mowden are doing but I can't imagine it's great either.

H1987 wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 11, 2020 12:36 pm

Interestingly, I've seen that the rugby club is currently fundraising as they're struggling financially (it says due to Covid). Clearly, they're not making that much money from us being there. Don't know how Mowden are doing but I can't imagine it's great either.

Mowden are also doing their own fundraising to try and meet the shortfall from lack of income from the usual sources.

Darlogramps wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 10, 2020 7:59 pm

tdk1 wrote:I'm not an insider in any way shape or form, but I'm not sure that's who he means, or at least he might mean other people too.

I took it to mean off-the-field appointments rather than TW.

Yes not sure he meant TW, TW was asked to sell players and brought a serious amount of funds in so credit to him at the time. I reckon he meant the commercial appointment but even that when you look around BW there’s a huge amounts of boards which will reap a canny amount when firms hopefully renew. All in all it sounded a very positive AGM.