All for shaun and his vision , we have to give this a go or all our memories and history will be gone.
I got gooose pimples just watching that video that is dfc if there is a chance we should move heaven and earth to come home.

FEETHAMS RETURN WILL NEVER EVER EVER EVER HAPPEN.

100% FACT.

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And on the day when Doug and Shaun were stood banging on the Arena doors, with a bag full of cash to keep the club going for the short term, we all believed the final nail had been hammered. The only time an obstacle is impossible is when you give up on the challenge, and that my friend is my belief, anything can happen as long as it is pushed

Dn1

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"Paris and the fall. The last months of the year and the end of the milenium. The city hold many memories for me...of cafes, of music, of love....and of death...."

100% fact.... So exactly what fact(s) is this?

Think this is the reason for Dougs post - you seem to know something bushead - but what exactly??

weve heard this 100% fact thing before aint we dc, look how that turned out, if anything is to happen the town needs to do something noe, pretty much the whole town would love Feethams back

Sent from my GT-I9100

If Mr BUSHEAD has some facts then he'd save us all alot of time and effort if he stated them instead of just saying what he has, which is otherwise quite pointless and a tad childish really.

Shaun, how did you go about getting access onto the actual Feethams pitch?

I am having a Mars advert sort of moment. If a group of fans got access for 24 hours say, hacked the overgrowth to pieces (no idea how long that would actually take!?), marked out a football pitch and played a game would that be a decent advert for getting back to Feethams?

Its just not going to happen, as the Council will never allow planning permission for a new ground at Feethams. The local residents don't want it either. All this is doing is acting as a distraction from finding somewhere for the new club to go in the Darlington area.

Agree 100%.

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Boycott greedy clubs!!

Might have mentioned before in this thread, but , who actualy owns the land? has it already been sold ? has planing permission already been granted? and if so why has it not been built on already? house builders dont usually hang about.

I know two local residents who don't want houses built Pete ... something has to give. Besides there is never going to be houses built there imo. If there was, they'de be there now.

At last some commonsense. All this thread does if give false hope to people that want a return to Feethams. Lets concentrate our efforts elsewhere.

Adding to my initial 100% for this in the wee small hours ....

1. It can't just be assumed that the council / residents will not back it or even give consideration to any proposals until the right questions are asked and a viable proposal is put in front of them.
2. Proposals must be based on concrete benefits to the community as well as the club(s) and nostalgia must be kept firmly out of the equation here as much as it means to generations of fans.
3. Such a move could surely garner further financial support / investment by fans and businesses that would stand to gain, e.g. those in the town centre as previously pointed out; more so than another 'out of town' development.
4. Parking would be a significant issue to address. Throughout most of its life, Feethams served a world where the car wasn't king. Things have changed, even in a decade.

I'd love to dream of once again walking down a cobbled Polam Lane (lived on Grange Road so rarely used the Cricket Ground entrance) .... but ......

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If I were a stick of rock, no prizes for what would be written all the way through .....

I'd throw me hat in the ring and pitchfork in the ground to do this.

If we move out of town, which is clearly going to happen, then I'm convinced the volunteer force we have would mobilise behind this.

Pete this is about a strength of feeling about our history. Many of us grew up there, saw classic games there and have enduring memories of going nuts in the tin shed when we scored, Prudhoe talking to the fans and changing ends at half time. It's what makes us Darlo fans. The place is in our DNA. Stop being Terminator with pubes and hair

It starts with the pitch levelling ceremony. We took some local reconnaisance begore the Barrow game that there's a tramp lives in the bushes now. Don't think it's bullshit either, there's tarpaulin in there.

Is there Big Society money available for this kind of thing? We are a community interest voluntary group arent we? Hate the Tories, but I'd imagine there's very few communities doing anything under the scheme. Maybe theyd snap our hands off at the sight of an application...

No I dont think the thread gives false hope. The whole feethams thing just needs clarifying once and for all. I'm sure most of us know we can't go back to feethams - but final answers would be good to have - and perhaps put as a sticky thread on this board?

how can any Darlo fan who has witnessed what we have, especially in the last few days, dismiss anything regarding our club so quickly?

I'm glad Bushead & Darlo_Pete had nothing to do with DFC1883, we'd be trying to sort out a phoenix club by now.

Feethams is where we belong, and this club knows what happens when we have the effort to try and achieve the seemingly impossible.

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Wherever I may roam, Darlo is my home

if you're gonna treat me like a kid, i prefer my ass being slapped with a steel ruler

Or merge it with the already stickied thread started by Shaun? Nice to have all discussion on this important topic in one place if possible.

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If I were a stick of rock, no prizes for what would be written all the way through .....

Whoa... hang on a minute, where the fuck did that come from? Aside from the fact that I did have something to do with DFC1883 - what was wrong with what I said?

Done and done.

I'd love to return to Feethams and I believe it would be good for the town itself too, so we certainly need to look into it.
If it doesn't happen and we end up in the sports hub at Blackwell Meadows then all well and good, but at least we can say we tried?

A recent tweet from Tori:

"Feethams. The esh group wanted £1.7 million + planning permission + thousands to make it fit for purpose = not even an option. #justsaying"

I'm all for this idea.

The football club needs to be at the heart of the community, and as has been seen at the Arena (in previous years not just the last couple) people aren't willing/able to make it to an out of town site.

How we could make it work at Blackwell where the parking and public transport links are worse than the Neasham Road site? There is nowhere near Blackwell to get a few hundred cars parked safely, and the buses will stop at the South Park corner. Plus, with the way the buses run in Darlington it would mean taking two buses to get there from virtually everywhere in town.

I agree that parking at Feethams could be an issue, but I don't believe this was ever a great problem when it used to be our home.

Is there enough room on the site to position the pitch at an angle to where it was, and use the new stand behind the goal as the new pavilion for the cricket club? Anyone that has been to Headingly will know how this could work.

Can't think of anywhere else in town that could be utilised as a new ground for Darlington.

Tori says she has emailed Jenny chapman to confirm the Esh Group situation "before people start wasting their time".

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If I were a stick of rock, no prizes for what would be written all the way through .....

I like most dream of a return to Feethams, and would support at least looking into it.

Foremost it must be for our benefit culturally and financially before we proceeded even if it is possible.

Land in the town centre is at a premium as Divas has mentioned previously. Historically any new ground has been built on the outskirts of a town and the town has grown around it. Recently only new town/city centre grounds which have been built in the centre have been on brownfield sites...Darlington doesn't have many of these available (only to the South of the college and uni on the east side of the railway).

If we can get an equal share in the land, and not have to pay rent to the cricket club/trust and planning permission can be sought it would be a wonderful thing.

However, I do worry that people would expect it to be rebuilt exactly as it was. Any rebuild should be done with the modern day in mind. Yes have the Tin Shed as a terrace under the roof. But to capitalise on space you need to be having a terrace along the west side and possibly seats at the polam lane end with the facilities and offices etc behind...ala Torquay. The other thing that worries me is that people are going to expect the ground to be built straight away to league criteria. IF this is possible, the only way forward would be to built it organically, one step at a time.

I'm all for this being investigated further, but if the practicalities don't stack up, we should once and for all leave the old girl be, and look for the bright new future we're all striving to achieve.

If you've not seen these photos before they are very much worth a look. Some clever shots and I can almost smell the Zizzler's pork pies & Bovril ....

http://s870.photobucket.com/albums/ab26 ... o%20Stand/

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If I were a stick of rock, no prizes for what would be written all the way through .....

How much is it going to cost for a ground elsewhere?

Even if the club can't go back to Feethams, I still would rather see some sort of community sporting facility there than a load of houses.

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Boycott greedy clubs!!

Mad fer it Shaun. Make it happen lads

Just out of interest what is Tori's remit for 1883? How reliable is this 'not even an option' ? Is it fact or opinion? if it is being given as a fact then I think this info would come as more than just a tweet!
Let's keep trying to get back home!

Blooomin tweets ... this world is bloomin tweet mad. Tori .... this is far too important than to just tweet a bloody tweet about it ....

I'm all for a return to Feethams. I don't see how houses could be built on a piece of land that was set aside for sporting purposes, specifically cricket and athletics. To my mind it contravenes the articles of the deed of foundation. The main reason we are in this position is that the cricket club were calling the shots - a case of the tail wagging the dog.

Similar to others, I dream of going back to Feethams. I would back the plan but I don't want the issue to take over the massive amount of work required still to get the club back on its feet and back up a few divisions.

If the idea can be worked on with 1883 that would be great but speed is the key here, we can't sit around not developing the blackwell meadows plan just in case the council back the Feethams idea. We need the plan to get back to Darlington in place to keep momentum in the club.

The council need to be engaged and play a leading role which from what we all know will be the biggest block in the whole plan. Honesty from the council is required, will they back this or not.