sparey16 Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 Today it has been announced that the administrators at Darlington, have made redundent all the remaining playing staff and caretaker manager....things are not looking good for them at all. Quote Darlington's administrators have terminated the contracts of the club's interim manager Craig Liddle and the remaining playing staff. The move puts Saturday's home game with Fleetwood in doubt, with the Football Conference setting a deadline of Wednesday to decide if it goes ahead. BBC Sport Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 Well, it looks like the end of the road for Darlington after 128 years. They have postponed all forthcoming fixtures and made their entire staff redundant after going into administration for the third time in nine years last week. It's a damn shame, gotta feel sorry for their fans and the people of the town but before the inevitable posts about how much money Carlos Tevez earns for not even sitting on the bench, remember it wasnt him who decided to build a 25,000 seater stadium when in in league two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSufferingVilla Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 Sadly I think we will see many more historic clubs cease to exist in the next 2 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 Was listening to Talksport on the way home. They said just one week of Tevez's wages would be enough to save them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troglodyte Posted January 16, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted January 16, 2012 Balotelli to buy the club? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 the local reporter has been on, he blamed the stadium, said that an investor was looking to buy it off them and build eco homes on the land and would pay the running costs until the end of the season (will probably hold a bit of favour with the council) whilst the club look for a new home and might stay in existence whats his face from the pfa was then on and said that because theyve sacked everyone and will use kids the conference might view that as cheapening their league and throw them out anyway Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 Was listening to Talksport on the way home. They said just one week of Tevez's wages would be enough to save them. Thought they would. But the most important thing is Darlington are in trouble because they wrote cheques they couldnt cash. Again, they have a 25,000 seat stadium which they built when they were in the **** fourth division. It's not much different from me borrowing three million quid from a loan shark, using the cash to buy a swanky house in Mayfair then complaining bitterly about Carlos Tevez's wages when the bailiffs are breaking my kneecaps because I couldnt make the payments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LincsVilla Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 Put all their eggs in one basket, failed to get promoted and couldn't sustain the stadium. Reynolds really **** them up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 Was listening to Talksport on the way home. They said just one week of Tevez's wages would be enough to save them. Thought they would. But the most important thing is Darlington are in trouble because they wrote cheques they couldnt cash. Again, they have a 25,000 seat stadium which they built when they were in the **** fourth division. It's not much different from me borrowing three million quid from a loan shark, using the cash to buy a swanky house in Mayfair then complaining bitterly about Carlos Tevez's wages when the bailiffs are breaking my kneecaps because I couldnt make the payments. Oh yeah, i know all that and understand it fully. I just feel for their supporters. Really little they could do about it. After 128 years their club isn't going to exist no more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 Yeah, it happened to Nuneaton Borough (formed 1889) where I live a couple of years ago. They just reformed as Nuneaton Town, but they play in the same colours and at the same ground as Boro' did, they got relegated to the Southern League. Now they are playing in the Blue Square North, and are in the hunt for promotion to the Conference for the second consecutive season. It's almost as is nothing has changed. Darlington will be okay if there are enough people at the club who want to continue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 Its a shame but it is also a sign of modern day football. There is too much emphasis on 'sugar daddy's' and gambling on promotion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted January 17, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted January 17, 2012 There was a Villa fan on TalkSport who suggested that football is going the way of cinema. Back in the 50s, EVERYBODY went to the pictures at least once a week, maybe more. It was cheap, and you never had to go further than your local cinema, of which there were dozens in every town and city. Much like going to watch your local team for a few shillings every week. Since then, virtually all the local fleapits have gone bust, and cinema has been concentrated in a much smaller number of much bigger multiplexes, which are quite pricey - and most people only go occasionally as a treat. It seems likely that the Darlingtons of this world are the equivalent of the old local Roxys and Futurists, and will mostly cease to exist over the next 10-20 years - leaving the Premiership clubs (the Odeon multiplexes) as an occasional treat, with most people more often staying in and watching TV instead. Rang true to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted January 17, 2012 Moderator Share Posted January 17, 2012 The threat of football clubs going to the wall isn't new, its been around in the game as long as I've been a fan (25 years or so). Sure the amounts of money have increased, the circumstances of the clubs getting in trouble are more complexed and the gap between the rich and the poor is wider but the general issue remains the same. Clubs in the position of Darlington has nothing to do with the morally corrupt PL or the wages of the like of Tevez and everything to do with those who run the clubs. Bad owners bankrupt clubs and the fans pay the price and often pick up the pieces, its always been the same. The number of clubs that have gone to the wall remains tiny though compared to other companies that get themselves into these sort of problems and will remain so because of fans. That said there is some truth in the cinema analogy, football is destroying itself as a sport but while the fans remain the clubs will survive even if they no longer have a purpose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 I think it will go further than that. Darlington is roughly 40 miles from Newcastle, 30 miles from Sunderland, 20 miles from Middlesbrough. They have traditionally had a league team of their own, but I will bet you a pound to a penny that the best supported clubs in Darlington are Manchester United (120 miles away) and Liverpool (150 miles away) . When Sky do their traditional pre season advertising campaign they tend to put a lot of billboards up on busy roads and at railway stations. Round here (Warwickshire) it tends to be Villa who get the lions share of the advertising, though Blues, Wolves and Albion get their share too. Coventry seem to have fallen off the radar, but I digress. Last summer I was down in Devon and Cornwall in late July and all the billboards down there were of Manchester United and Liverpool, clubs which are 250-300 miles away. So not only are people staying in and watching the sport on TV, they are watching an increasingly smaller number of clubs. To those people with kids, just look at the bags and scarf's you see at the school gates every morning when you do the school run. I'll bet there are a ton of Chelsea ones there now regardless of where you live and I'll bet those Chelsea fans would have supported a more local side had they been born twenty years ago. It must be frustrating for clubs when what they see as their catchment areas are full of armchair supporters of the most successful teams in the country. Obviously it doesnt help if they decide to build a 25,000 seater stadium that they cannot possibly hope to pay for or if they appoint the manager of their local rivals who has a track record of getting relegated and is famous for playing awful football, but even for smaller clubs who avoid doing such stupid things it is an uphill battle these days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 ...or if they appoint the manager of their local rivals who has a track record of getting relegated and is famous for playing awful football Thats a recipe for disaster Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mantis Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 I think it will go further than that. Darlington is roughly 40 miles from Newcastle, 30 miles from Sunderland, 20 miles from Middlesbrough. They have traditionally had a league team of their own, but I will bet you a pound to a penny that the best supported clubs in Darlington are Manchester United (120 miles away) and Liverpool (150 miles away) . When Sky do their traditional pre season advertising campaign they tend to put a lot of billboards up on busy roads and at railway stations. Round here (Warwickshire) it tends to be Villa who get the lions share of the advertising, though Blues, Wolves and Albion get their share too. Coventry seem to have fallen off the radar, but I digress. Last summer I was down in Devon and Cornwall in late July and all the billboards down there were of Manchester United and Liverpool, clubs which are 250-300 miles away. So not only are people staying in and watching the sport on TV, they are watching an increasingly smaller number of clubs. To those people with kids, just look at the bags and scarf's you see at the school gates every morning when you do the school run. I'll bet there are a ton of Chelsea ones there now regardless of where you live and I'll bet those Chelsea fans would have supported a more local side had they been born twenty years ago. It must be frustrating for clubs when what they see as their catchment areas are full of armchair supporters of the most successful teams in the country. Obviously it doesnt help if they decide to build a 25,000 seater stadium that they cannot possibly hope to pay for or if they appoint the manager of their local rivals who has a track record of getting relegated and is famous for playing awful football, but even for smaller clubs who avoid doing such stupid things it is an uphill battle these days. Agree with all of this. I live in the South East and while there are plenty of fans of the clubs that are relatively near (Spurs, Chelsea, West Ham, Arsenal etc) Man United fans still probably make up the single biggest chunk of football "supporters". Disgusting really. Then again I support Villa and I'm not even from Birmingham, but that's ok because Villa are shit these days and I go to as many games as I can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFC-Prideofbrum Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Kids will only support local teams if their parents are big supporters or take them to games. Otherwise, they'll always end up supporting the best teams, it's not their fault mind. I'm sure aged 4-8 when I imagine most kids actually start to support a team, they'd rather watch Silva, Aguero, Balotelli / Rooney, Hernandez, Nani etc..all scoring and winning rather than watch Villa lose every other week with Hutton, Warnock, Heskey feating all too regularly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted January 18, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted January 18, 2012 The "kids 'supporting' non-local clubs" thing is totally a product of the fact that football now is more of a "watch it on TV" than a "go to the match" phenomenon. What do we expect when it's so expensive to get into a game (let alone buy a ST) and cheap/free to watch football on the telly? So "supporting" now just means "having a favourite", as in the rest of the leisure/entertainment industry. You like watching The Mighty Boosh, The Sugarbabes and Arsenal. Where's the difference? And in a multicultural global village, where your parents maybe come from a different country, your Facebook friends may be on different continents, and your local shopping mall has the same corporate stores as every other shopping mall on the planet, who has any sense of local tradition? I spent the first 18 years of my life in Birmingham and the next 40 in Leeds; being a Villa fan is one of the few ways I can assert my Brummie roots - but most people don't even care about that stuff any more. They're more likely to define themselves by the brand names on their clothes. And "Manchester United" is a brand name. "Darlington F.C." isn't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted January 18, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted January 18, 2012 A group of fans turned up at the last minute and gave the Administrator £50k to keep the club afloat for 2 more weeks according to Twitter. Players had already been told the club was gone. Fans turned up about 1pm and money had to be in the bank by 3pm to avoid liquidation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norton65ca Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 Those folks are the truest kind of fans. Fair play to 'em, that's so cool. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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