The Stadium That Killed Darlington FC
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- čas přidán 19. 07. 2021
- We take a brief look at the story behind Darlington's stadium move to the Darlington Arena, from Feethams, which caused severe problems for the club.
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Will do I will set a reminder
@@steverocker9728 those videos are in the link in the comment above & ready to watch
Best wishes for Darlington from a toon fan. North east needs more Football League clubs.
The north east has some of the best fans in the country. So passionate
If the demand wasn’t there from supporters it’s a bit crazy to almost treble your stadium capacity! Poor Darlington fans falling down so far
It seems that Darlington were the architects of their own downfall really
@@MillbrookFC totally
It’s just killing the club. Doesn’t seem like much long term thinking about finances was considered just about self-ego boosting by the incompetent board
@@teddymax2329 silly
Wigan built a huge stadium that was never close to full even in their PL days , but they had a viable plan-good youth/scouting set up /Wheelan able to back managers to build and keep squads together and (as with everyone bar Darlington-or Reynolds to be precise) the stadiums were build with a supporting infrastructure-buses/rail. parking. MK Dons is another well thought out superb stadium that makes a lot of non football cash. I honestly think if Darlington had the same plan as Wigan they would have done ok and built up some support through targeting the club to young/neutral supporters. They may have ended up being sold down the river like Wigan-but -like Wigan seem to be-they'd have proven themselves to genuine investors buying the club
And HITC Sevens have just uploaded this video…just in a lot more detail 😂😂😂😂
Ouch unlucky mate
@@ninjakeepla4362 😔😔😔😔
@@MillbrookFC happens to the best of us
Unlucky
Cheers mate
As a Tin Shed and Banktop Old Boy, Leaving Feethams was the worst thing the club did. It was stupid to think average gates would go up dramatically just because we had a bigger ground and it was a case of too much way way too soon.
The football league took a dim view of Darlington’s many postponed matches because of waterlogged pitches due to the River Skerne which flowed next to Feethams.
Feethams was lovely, and better for its improvements. Reynolds I can’t comment on decently. But he destroyed a club that was improving and on the up.
The EFL seems to be fairly unsympathetic to lower league clubs when they actually need help
It wasn't the river that caused the pitch to flood. When there was work on the east stand the natural drainage from the pitch to the river was blocked. This prevented the water from draining away.
1 time to try and help the flooded pitch problem the football club ordered tens of thousands of worms to try and help drainage. The worms were dumped onto the pitch ..... and drowned! Hahaha
@@MillbrookFC and that's the reason the premier league was formed. The clubs should not be counting on a corrupt league to"help" them
@@clarkeysam (
Well Done and Good Luck !!! from a Tranmere Rovers supporter
Nice, mate
@@MillbrookFC We all support different clubs... but as fans, we all want our clubs to be run well, and do well. I love my club and I recognise others love their clubs too ... at the end of the day, the only differnce we have is the club we support ... all the best!.
@@merseydave1 brilliant words mate. All the best for the new season
@@MillbrookFC Same to you ... al be looking out for you!.
@@merseydave1 up the Bluebirds 🔵🏴
great video thanks for sharing
Glad you enjoyed it mate
@@MillbrookFC loved it mate
@@lebarge6872 glad to hear mate
What a huge white elephant
100%
I'm surprised there was no mention of Darlington MP Rugby Club. The best chance of that stadium being put to use would be if the rugby team can rise to the Premiership.
I considered mentioning the rugby club becoming tenants but I just wanted to focus on Darlo FC. I heard the Arena is being used as a vaccine centre which is probably the best use it’s had in years
@@MillbrookFC yeah that's a good thing I guess. At least it's being used.
@@MillbrookFC the stadium was used every day of the week before COVID. There's multiple facilities there (I think there's 2 gyms, 3 bars, a nursery, etc) and the stadium is used for other events, conferences, meetings etc. Having the vaccination centre there is just another one, but to say it's the best used it's had in years isn't true.
Best of luck Darlington, from Crystal Palace fans 🙏👍
💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻
👍
Palace have got a super star with Michael Olise treasure him, to be fair I think he only went there because of Patrick Viera I think he is one of his heroes
@@steverocker9728 I totally agree!👍♥️💙♥️💙🦅
Good coverage of this sas story,The guy who owned it was diddly to say least brought club down amazing stadium look premier league standard should of kept old ground and built it by buy talent
Good luck to all your fans and let this be a lesson to every club I have some good memories of seeing you play Reading and one day hope to see you again as you rose like the Phoenix through the pyramid
Well said mate. Good luck to Darlo and Reading this season
I have great memories of Aldershot Vs Reading circa 1989. My mates and I were about 13. We ambushed your train at Aldershot station where we hurled half bricks, bottles and eggs. Happy days.
Such a shame what happened to the club but to be balanced many fans were backing the move saying things like "We'll be in the Premier League in 5 years". Perhaps everyone just got carried away....
I think if your owner is building a huge stadium then fans might get carried away with dreaming. Shame for Darlo that it all went down hill
that Darlington arena looks like a slightly smaller version of the stadium of light in Sunderland......just lacking the upper tier on one side.
Yeah definitely. Especially when the Stadium of Light had just opened and didn’t have the second tier expansion
Ye looks crap
@@paulrawsthorne5963 Stadium of Light is a decent ground
I heard they want a return to the ground temporarily but fans aren’t entirely happy & so they should be. What a mess they were a decade ago
i can see why Darlo fans wouldn't want a return. shambles
Owners greed and the lure of money eventually ruins and decays everything. Their old stadium was a symbol of their identity ! We gave that problem here in America also. Also just look at AS Roma. They were to get a new stadium with bells and whistles. Thank god it no longer will be built out in the middle of nowhere Leave it in the stadio olimpico.
A good understanding owner who knows what fans want is becoming very rare nowadays. Stadiums are a big symbol of a football club
Stupid decision, although you could argue the supporters are now in a better position than 20 years ago, with a club they have a stake in and playing at a feasible venue...
I agree, the supporters having control of their club is a great turnout for Darlo although I’m sure some of them wish they were still in L2
All the best to Darlington from a Fulham supporter.
Nice
nice video
Thanks
I think the owner George Reynolds set his ambitions too high for the club. His intentions were good, but he got too carried away with his visions for the club. Bigger stadiums are good if the location is easy to get to as I believe there are poor access roads around the stadium and if they had a huge fan base to support the argument for a bigger stadium. They should have stayed where they were and upgraded their old ground and invested the money spent the money for the new stadium back into the squad. I think maybe they could still be in the football league somewhere. If they did that.
You’re right there mate spot on
He just got carried away but I also think it was ego boosting for him to get this stadium built
Shouldn't that be 'The George Reynolds That Killed Darlington FC'? Good luck to you all, would love to see Darlo back in the Football League.
Very true
Few comments:
Darlington FC has never gone bust.
The fans didn't set up a phoenix club, the bought the original club, and then paid off the debts.
Darlington fans have donated nearly £2,000,000 since taking over the club!
Dedicated fans
So why the name change?
@@dinsdaleblue there's a thing which the FA call "the golden share". This is the right to play football in the English pyramid as a team's name. When you're in the Football League this is held centrally by the FL but outside the Football League this is held elsewhere, usually by the owners of the club.
When Darlington FC went into administration the Administrator takes over the running of the club and controls the assets. This "golden share" should have been part of the assets of the club which transfered to control of the Administrator, but Raj Singh (our owner at the time, and current owner of Hartlepool United) argued that it was his asset. It was worth nothing to him but he tried to use it as leverage to blackmail the fans to pay for it. There was an agreement reached for the "golden share" to be signed over but instead of turning up to the meeting Raj flew to India. We got a time extention from the FA for this to be complete, another meeting was arranged to complete the transfer of the golden share, but again he flew to India instead of turning up. It was clear that he had no intention of signing over the golden share but we were left with either register to play under a different name, or have a season without football while we try and sort out the paperwork with Raj. Darlington 1883 was chosen to remind everyone that we were the same club that was formed in 1883.
@@clarkeysam Thank you for your response. It certainly is a grey area. Raj Singh sounds like someone you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. Wait, hang on....
If only every big little club could have the exceptional experience Wrexham have recently been fortunate to have.The North Americans have saved us,and will take us to places higher than division 2...been a shite 20 yrs.Wish Darlo luck,and enjoyed feethams in the 80s and you being frequent visitors to the racecourse back then.You lot..be positive..believe...and you will get there.Love and peace from N.Wales footy friends 😉
Nice mate. How do you think Wrexham will get on this season? I hope you do great, it will be brilliant for Welsh football 🏴🏴🏴
@@MillbrookFC Gonna be awesome mate.Fourteen years of nothing.The worms turned and the sky is the limit 👌..HOPEFULLY 😀.
@@garyt6747 I’m very excited for Wrexham. Hopefully they Racecourse is given a bit of help too, especially the Kop
Still scratching my head over that one. Would love to know the back story behind it. Best of luck, you deserve some good times. SAFC.
Very good video , are good stadiums
Thanks mate glad you liked it
@@MillbrookFC Bro do you like anime ?
@@A1fr102 no it’s not for me. I can see you like it though
@@MillbrookFC Yes
@@MillbrookFC Do you like millwall fans ?
Best of luck darlo from drfc
💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻💪🏻
I’d love to know what Darlington fans still think of this situation
Same
@@jeniffer9248 wow 😂😂 Singh must be absolutely despised in Darlington. Help destroy the help even more then later jump ship to their arch rivals
@@jeniffer9248 I think Darlo should stick with Blackwell Meadows and slowly build themselves up again like they seem to be doing
Darlo fan here, I wasn't fan of darlo when George or Raj was in charge but lot darlo fans see this as a dark time, if you ask most darlo what stadium was best, most will say feethams, but most fans don't hate the arena, most fans see the arena as our best way out of the non league if we share with the Morton Park rugby club as we don't have funds build our own stadium and Blackwell isn't made to be a football league stadium there only so much we can do until we reach a limit
@@jameskerridge5034 that’s interesting to hear. Do you think Darlo can afford to be a tenant at the Arena anymore? You’re right that Blackwell doesn’t have much potential for the club to get back to where they were a decade ago
they bit off more than they can chew with that 25K seater ground - should have increased Feethams to no more than 15K
I’m not a Darlo fan so I don’t know much of what happened but I don’t see why they didn’t just redeveloped Feethams. They did that in 1997 so they could’ve just continued the redevelopment even more. But at the turn of the millennium it seems like most clubs were just opting to move out of the city to cheap land and build these bowl stadiums we see so much now
@@MillbrookFCI read a lot into football grounds and knew about Darlington - yes, was a bad move....Some of the grounds have no character to them(league and non league)!
@@deansinger299 it’s really refreshing when grounds are built nowadays that are unique and have character. Most look the same
The money spent on that stadium should have been spent on the squad and a redevelopment of feethams look at Brentford they done things the right way gone all the way from the conference to the promised land of the premier league if George Reynolds had spent that money wisely ie on the squad and the gradual redevelopment of feethams then build a new stadium if you reach the premiership and you know your going to get the crowds to fill it every week this could have been Darlington in the premier league 😥 anyway good look for Brentford for the new season in the premier league it's what footballs all about and shows it can be done
@@darylkemp1257 100% mate good comment. Hindsight is wonderful really but what on earth was that Darlo board thinking
I'm a Owner of the club 😎🤘
Nice. How much do fans pitch in to become owners of the club? Like is it a membership system?
It's a monthly feed, only about £3 a month or something similar haha
@@colinuk1984 wow that’s great. Do you have a website link at all for it?
@@MillbrookFC its google Darlington football club. Or Darlo uncovered for info
@@colinuk1984 thanks mate
crazy story
i know
Sick to death of seeing this happen to clubs in England. I'm a big believer in, if it ain't broken, don't fix it. Nothing wrong with the old grounds. The problem with the new stadia, Ethiad Arena, the Emirates Stadium, the new Tottenham stadium, etc, is that they are all the same, boring, wide band lawnmower pitches with generic box next goalpost sets, they are soulless vanity projects with no charachter at all. Greed comes into it. Supporters should be running the clubs like they do in Germany
I agree that the stadiums are all the same I think that’s what makes the lower leagues refreshing as most of them are still unique in their own way.
It would also be great to see the 50+1 rule in the UK although it would probably hurt the big clubs financially so they would use their power and veto the change
Nice vid Reynolds was a crook a nasty guy and killed us off with his ridiculous ideas and leaving us in millions of debt who knows where we could of been now if this weren’t to happen also Darlo never actually died they were still the same club hopefully back up to the fl soon but as a fan owned club it’s hard !
Thanks mate glad you liked it. Hopefully we see you back in the EFL in a few years with more stability
@@MillbrookFC yeah will take a while as our ground now isn’t considered good enough for the conference and being fan owned is difficult but we’ve raised over 2 million since 2012 and raise 130k for boost the budget etc
@@jamiethompson9519 so if you got promoted this season, what stadium would Darlo play at in the national league?
Don’t let it happen again #SavePlainmoor
What is wrong with having big dreams when you have the money to back it up.OK it was a step too far but George looked after his workers at Direct Worktops and who knows it might have worked.The other Reynolds at Wrexham will bugger off when he gets sick and success dwindles.
New stadiums are a con for owners to give building contracts to their pals.
I agree
@@MillbrookFC Three sides standing terraces and one main stand seated for dignataries .Simple .That's all proper fans require or want.
@@ewanmacfarlane9195 can’t see stuff like that happening for a while until they change the law on standing at football. But safe standing is a model their trying just not with a terrace
Good point. Former Prime Minister Maggie Thatcher's husband (Dennis) owned the firm (PEL) along with Sir Bert Millichip which had the contract to do up all the stadiums with new seats after Hillsborough 89 disaster. A few men got very very rich after Hillsborough. Rupert Murdoch owned the satelite in space but had nothing worth showing. Lord Alan Sugar had the satelite receiver dishes stored in his lock up and Sir Bert Millichip was the FA Boss who called all the shots. So put all three men together and you've got yourself a right little earner. Hillsborough was NO accident.
@@maratonlegendelenemirei3352 the thing is with Murdoch or sugar I expect a bit of sharp practice and dodgy deals its expected .But from the politicians who stand in judgement of everything and everybody its disgusting. Would make your hair stand on end if we knew 100th of what goes on.
Best of wishes to the fans of Darlington. I support Vitesse Arnhem. We are fucked at this moment.
What’s your thoughts on their stadium move? Was it a crazy decision?
A bit stupid from the chairman George Reynolds
@@gamingnike8141 I can understand a club wanting to modernise the stadium but such a drastic increase seems crazy. Darlington had financial difficulties not long before that either
The chairman did want a modern stadium for them but he shouldn't have done, especially when they couldn't afford it
@@thomasscott1013 yeah it just seemed like a really stupid idea. Darlington fans are passionate but their supporters base surely isn’t big enough to fill it out. Plus George Reynolds had a criminal past (just to add)
Ridiculous
most pointless stadium move?? they just developed their stadium and then change. so weird and not smart from the board
I don’t know many people that believe it was a good move
Good luck Quakers
I agree
What video would you like to see next?
luton town rise from non league to championship in a few seasons
The fallout with wimbledon n afc wimbledon or man u and united of manchester
@@cardjunkie interesting idea
@@chrislufc67 sounds good
The demise of Third Lanark/Cathkin Park would be interesting
We Hartlepool fans were laughing into our beer as we watched our deadliest rivals tumble into extinction - then we got Raj Singh as owner of our club!
Haha
Haha I guess karma got you. Was Singh a big part of your relegation to the national league?
@@MillbrookFC yeah he was. Wanted his money back
@@colinuk1984 people like him shouldn’t be in football
Darlo died in 2012
They’re very much alive
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It'd be nice if you did some actual research on what happened to us in 2012.
We were not killed, we did not fold, we were just demoted by the the FA because of our former chairman.
We are not a phoenix club, when fans bought the club we took on the history and the debt (which we paid off).
🙃🙃🙃
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Another expensive boring bowl
The same as most other new stadiums in the country
Is it mandatory for football videos to have the most god-awful music tracks applied to them?
of course
This soundtrack ruins this video. It's awful and adds nothing.
Thanks for the feedback, Rob
A bit like the career criminal Mr Reynolds, may he rot in hell.
@@dinsdaleblue 😂😂