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by Scott Thornberry - 12th June 2012

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Darlington FC 1883 Ltd will be hosting a press conference on Wednesday 13th June 2012 at Blackwell Grange, starting at 5pm.
Ex-manager David Hodgson will be joining DFC 1883 Chairman Denis Pinnegar and team manager Martin Gray to answer any questions the press may have on football matters, the CIC, the fund-raising and the plans for the future of the club.

 

 

 


The press conference will be followed by a fans forum, starting at 6.30, exclusively for the fans who have invested in Community Interest Company ( CIC). David, Denis and Martin will be taking questions from the fans and they will be joined by Tori Gill , Peter Ashmore and Ian Wilkinson who also sit on the board of DFC 1883 Ltd.
This event is the first in a series of events which will be exclusive to the members of the CIC.
Fans wishing to attend need to email questions@1883cic.org to reserve their place.
To join CIC please visit http://www.1883cic.org/?page_id=33

 

 

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divas - 12th June 2012 06:35:38

Scott can you amend the story to just have a quick link to join the CIC as some may wish to in order to attend?

princes town - 13th June 2012 13:56:27

i'm playing cricket sadly. Just wondered if there was anywhere I could send a question to Martin G about sunday morning football.

Tori_Gill - 13th June 2012 15:11:39

princes town wrote:i'm playing cricket sadly. Just wondered if there was anywhere I could send a question to Martin G about sunday morning football.
Let me know what the question is and I shall ask him.

princes town - 13th June 2012 15:33:14

i can actually make the event now as game cancelled.

Darlo.For.Life - 13th June 2012 20:28:08

http://djblogw.wordpress.com/2012/06/13 ... -forum-20/

quakersam - 13th June 2012 20:43:12

Good, informative night. Well done all. Martin spoke really well and explained a bit more about the youth system we're going to be running. I think he said we had U7,8,9,10,12,14,16 and 18's next season. All but 18's are playing TJFA. Under 18's will play in the Conference Youth League with Gateshead among others (play Wednesday afternoons). The one to watch is Connor Lowes. Think he said we had around 7 of last years Under 16's signed.
On shirt sponsors the EvoStik league have offered us a very decent package should we stay in the northern league, as they've told us its a disgrace what's happened and want to help which to be frank is a superb gesture

leedscol - 13th June 2012 20:51:09

Re "the share issue being dead..." can we now vent our spleen about lying toads?

djbobw - 13th June 2012 21:58:18

leedscol wrote:Re "the share issue being dead..." can we now vent our spleen about lying toads?
Well, as he doesn't want to talk to anyone about DFC I guess it does leave us to talk amongst ourselves... :twisted:

Info from tonights Forum: djblogw.wordpress.com

Tomp89 - 13th June 2012 22:23:27

So overall would people who attended say it was a useful excercise? From reading Djbob's blog there seems to be some positive things come out of it.

princes town - 13th June 2012 22:54:49

Tomp89 wrote:So overall would people who attended say it was a useful excercise? From reading Djbob's blog there seems to be some positive things come out of it.
Very positive including some interesting comments about 1of our contracted players. Martin G was quite praising of the NL saying it was easily on a par with the evostik. He expected very tough games next year. Patience is needed as the team gels together. Once again Martin came across as a very intelligent determined character. Really enjoyed the meeting and it was good to see 1/2 dissenting individuals at the last meeting much more positive. The board are clearly doing some great work.

MikeinBlack - 14th June 2012 07:55:19

Is it me, or was there absolutely no negatives in that at all? That must be a first for Darlo lol.
If McReady does sign higher up the leagues from us any fee, and pre-season friendly gate money etc will be a huge (and timely) boost to the club funds. I'm guessing as we are talking about a friendly as part of the deal that the club in question is a league one?
Evo-Stick wanting to sponsor us is a massive coup (if you like) almost like a Conference team being sponsored by the Football League! Not to mention a (possible) swipe at the FA by Evo-Stick for placing us so low, sort of states that Evo-Stick believe we belong with them and the FA are just being anal.
The extra car park is very sensible and could benefit Bish as a whole not just us on match days. Quite cheap too really.
Looks like a very similar deal regarding Bar sales etc that we had with Shildon, so that's good news too.
Now all we need is the FA to be understanding and for the players to gel quickly - I'll certainly be happy with winning 1-0 or drawing 0-0 if we finish top of the league!

al_quaker - 14th June 2012 08:02:07

MikeinBlack wrote:Is it me, or was there absolutely no negatives in that at all? That must be a first for Darlo lol.
If McReady does sign higher up the leagues from us any fee, and pre-season friendly gate money etc will be a huge (and timely) boost to the club funds. I'm guessing as we are talking about a friendly as part of the deal that the club in question is a league one?
Evo-Stick wanting to sponsor us is a massive coup (if you like) almost like a Conference team being sponsored by the Football League! Not to mention a (possible) swipe at the FA by Evo-Stick for placing us so low, sort of states that Evo-Stick believe we belong with them and the FA are just being anal.
The extra car park is very sensible and could benefit Bish as a whole not just us on match days. Quite cheap too really.
Looks like a very similar deal regarding Bar sales etc that we had with Shildon, so that's good news too.
Now all we need is the FA to be understanding and for the players to gel quickly - I'll certainly be happy with winning 1-0 or drawing 0-0 if we finish top of the league!
Surely it's more like a conference team being sponsored by nPower? As Evostik are just the league sponsor.

Good to see the positivity that came out of last night. I'm starting to look forward to next season now, no matter what the outcome of the appeal.

QUAKERMAN2 - 14th June 2012 08:08:50

Was Dave Hodgson on the panel last night, if so what would his role most likely to be or is he just adding support to the efforts of 1883.Lot of time for Hodgy, would be great if he was involved with the club in some capacity on a permanent basis as we are without doubt moving in the right direction under MG and 1883.No more Houghtons and Singhs, god what a lovely feeling is that.

princes town - 14th June 2012 08:16:06

QUAKERMAN2 wrote:Was Dave Hodgson on the panel last night, if so what would his role most likely to be or is he just adding support to the efforts of 1883.Lot of time for Hodgy, would be great if he was involved with the club in some capacity on a permanent basis as we are without doubt moving in the right direction under MG and 1883.No more Houghtons and Singhs, god what a lovely feeling is that.
No he was hoping to hang on for the panel but he had to attend a 'South American teleconference'. i was left with the overriding impression that David is doing what he can do for the cause but clearly he is a busy man.

wellindarlo - 14th June 2012 08:25:42

Dennis said that Dave Hodgson had joined the "advisory panel" that is described in the 1883 constitution. Harvey Madden and Peter Barron are also on this. The panel is used for help and advice and also to ratify 1883 board decisions. He described this as "added power to our elbow".

edit - and Jenny Chapman

Quakerz - 14th June 2012 09:40:25

princes town wrote: Very positive including some interesting comments about 1of our contracted players.
Which was...?

Darlo.For.Life - 14th June 2012 09:54:38

Also which players are contracted and which aren't?

divas - 14th June 2012 09:59:35

Darlo.For.Life wrote:Also which players are contracted and which aren't?
I don't think that's the type of info Martin would want broadcasting for obvious reasons...

Quakerz - 14th June 2012 10:14:39

Why?

Once they're registered it'll be on the NL site anyway.

divas - 14th June 2012 10:23:04

Quakerz wrote:Why?

Once they're registered it'll be on the NL site anyway.
Didn't realise that was the case.

super_les_mcjannet - 14th June 2012 11:28:12

divas wrote:
Quakerz wrote:Why?

Once they're registered it'll be on the NL site anyway.
Didn't realise that was the case.
Yeah Northern League list contract and possibly even non contracted players on the web. To be honest Martin answered a good few questions, I wouldn't say he gave anything major away.

He seems to think Spenny are signing a lot of players on contracts largely to ensure we don't sign them.

He did say sometimes players work for people who run the club they play for as well and it is hard to sign these players as their employer is not supportive of said player leaving their club but still working for them. This was something he had experienced recently.

princes town - 14th June 2012 14:58:52

Quakerz wrote:
princes town wrote: Very positive including some interesting comments about 1of our contracted players.
Which was...?
John Mcready. Some interest apparently from a decent sized club (??). Gray is in negotiations with them and a friendly could be part of the deal.

divas - 14th June 2012 15:14:04

princes town wrote:
Quakerz wrote:
princes town wrote: Very positive including some interesting comments about 1of our contracted players.
Which was...?
John Mcready. Some interest apparently from a decent sized club (??). Gray is in negotiations with them and a friendly could be part of the deal.
Given we're looking at a friendly with York and they were rumoured to be interested in him i think we have our answer.

princes town - 14th June 2012 16:31:14

divas wrote:
princes town wrote:
Quakerz wrote:
princes town wrote: Very positive including some interesting comments about 1of our contracted players.
Which was...?
John Mcready. Some interest apparently from a decent sized club (??). Gray is in negotiations with them and a friendly could be part of the deal.
Given we're looking at a friendly with York and they were rumoured to be interested in him i think we have our answer.
No club was mentioned so that might be speculation although an interesting comment nonetheless

super_les_mcjannet - 17th June 2012 09:03:55

Not sure if this has been mentioned but for those who like the match programmes at each game, Denis said we are looking to continue with a 32 page colour programme. Looking at advertising to cover the costs of the programmes no idea on the ins and out of that, but good to hear that the quality should hopefully be the same.

divas - 17th June 2012 09:08:42

Strong team of writers back for the programme. Ray, Andrew et al who used to produce it before it was taken over by Martin Walker's crew last season. Should also be available at a decent price.

quakersam - 17th June 2012 09:29:42

Need to sell 40% of advertising space to break even, everything on top of that is profit

super_les_mcjannet - 17th June 2012 09:51:00

quakersam wrote:Need to sell 40% of advertising space to break even, everything on top of that is profit
Didn't catch that bit fully, although I did hear the 40%. Wonder how many we would print generally per game, I guess it may depend on how many we sold last season - a percentage of that in accordance with presumed/planned gates.

I do like a good match programme - sad I know.

divas - 17th June 2012 20:37:30

Plan is to print 400 per game which I've expressed concerns about. We only sold that many when we had crowds of around 2000. I'd think around 200 on a consistent basis with maybe 300 or so for the first game. That said due to the way printing costs work it's only £20 more to get 400 rather than 300 - will that be £20 wasted though? IMO yes.

Not sure where the 40% advertising has come from as we won't be selling programmes at a loss so as long as we order the right amounts we'd break even anyway.

super_les_mcjannet - 17th June 2012 20:48:29

divas wrote:Plan is to print 400 per game which I've expressed concerns about. We only sold that many when we had crowds of around 2000. I'd think around 200 on a consistent basis with maybe 300 or so for the first game. That said due to the way printing costs work it's only £20 more to get 400 rather than 300 - will that be £20 wasted though? IMO yes.

Not sure where the 40% advertising has come from as we won't be selling programmes at a loss so as long as we order the right amounts we'd break even anyway.
I presume the assumption is that we will sell a similar amount as those that buy are the ones who will turn up in Bishop, I guess we can do this at the start but may need looking at depending on sale volumes. I would personally guess at a drop in programme purchases.

As Quakersam says, Denis mentioned something about 40% advertising and it will cover costs, I didn't catch the full sentence to be honest.

The_Ponderer - 17th June 2012 21:52:38

Re Programmes:
I was at the Kettering home game last season but didn't manage to snap up a programme.
A nice little earner might be to print off a few more of these and sell them to Darlo fans at normal price - any which are not sold could be flogged on Ebay.
Last game at a stadium = Collector's items!!!

mikkyx - 17th June 2012 22:47:39

Could we sell an electronic subscription to the programme? Use one of those fancy PDF viewer Flash thingies (unusually technical speak for me, that)?

Hilly - 17th June 2012 23:00:36

mikkyx wrote:Could we sell an electronic subscription to the programme? Use one of those fancy PDF viewer Flash thingies (unusually technical speak for me, that)?
I know the online shop has a 'download' option that we could utilise. So if we can get a PDF of the programme we can deal with selling them that way.

I think the online shop can be quite a big money spinner if used correctly and for the sake of making a PDF it should be good at keep exiles in the loop.

super_les_mcjannet - 18th June 2012 20:21:02

Hilly wrote:
mikkyx wrote:Could we sell an electronic subscription to the programme? Use one of those fancy PDF viewer Flash thingies (unusually technical speak for me, that)?
I know the online shop has a 'download' option that we could utilise. So if we can get a PDF of the programme we can deal with selling them that way.

I think the online shop can be quite a big money spinner if used correctly and for the sake of making a PDF it should be good at keep exiles in the loop.
I think it would be a great idea, although would it have any effect on the paper version sales. Could it increase sales therefore increase possible advertising. Is it worth putting to 1883, Hilly in terms of the shop sales etc are you able to approach 1883.

Hilly - 18th June 2012 21:22:48

super_les_mcjannet wrote:
Hilly wrote:
mikkyx wrote:Could we sell an electronic subscription to the programme? Use one of those fancy PDF viewer Flash thingies (unusually technical speak for me, that)?
I know the online shop has a 'download' option that we could utilise. So if we can get a PDF of the programme we can deal with selling them that way.

I think the online shop can be quite a big money spinner if used correctly and for the sake of making a PDF it should be good at keep exiles in the loop.
I think it would be a great idea, although would it have any effect on the paper version sales. Could it increase sales therefore increase possible advertising. Is it worth putting to 1883, Hilly in terms of the shop sales etc are you able to approach 1883.
There are a few points that I'm going to jot down in an email tomorrow so I'll definately mention this.

I think as long as we're clever about it i.e. the paper version being available first from Saturday, then the PDF version will be made available on the Monday - it shouldn't harm sales too much. But I'm open to any other suggestions.