THE STADIUM THAT DESTROYED A FOOTBALL CLUB

this video is about a football stadium that bankrupted a football club we see it all too often in the modern era with clubs going bust and having to start again from a lot lower divisions and it isn't usually due to like one stadium yes it's usually down to bad ownership or player transfers or player wages but very rarely is it down to the fact that a team is sort of built or bought or at least or whatever a new stadium usually new stadiums are a sign of progress for clubs but not for darlington so darlington let me give you a little bit of context about them as a football club and bear this in mind as we sort of go through the videos of where they were as a club and where they are now we're taking you to their more modern home in a bit but we'll be checking out their sort of abandoned stadium if you could even call it that just a housing estate now sadly they're a pretty big club here in the northeast of england their highest ever finish was 15th in the second division and that was in the mid-1920s in 1911 and 1958 they got to the last 16 of the fa cup in the latter uh tournament that i just told you about 1958 they actually beat chelsea 4-1 on the way there they even reached the league cup quarterfinals in 1968. they were third division winners in 1925 and fourth division winners in 1991. they won the old northern league in the 1800s numerous times that was an old um sort of i think it was i was at the football alliance i'm thinking there was like the northern league the football alliance the football league these were all sort of compete in leagues at the time but the northern league was quite big back in the 1800s and darlington won that a number of times and like i say keep all these achievements in mind during this video there's a cricket club behind me that is very relevant to the story of darlington as well but look as we make our way round here to this new housing estate now whenever i see new housing estates like this on old stadium sites you know you just know this is where it used to be so the stadium location was interesting in that the football stadium i believe was here which is right behind me now this new housing estate and as you can see the cricket ground is here as well lovely looking cricket ground actually um but it was unique in that during the game during when you were like turning up and wanting to come to the game i think you had to walk around the cricket pitch which meant that there was so much space like around the ground even at half time there was space to walk around the cricket pitch if your team was shooting the other way so i think in the first half the darlington fans and the away fans would obviously be on different sides and in the second half they'd both walk around other ways um different ways around the cricket pitch to um to change ends to go and like be closer to their team whatever see them score in that end darlington played on where i'm standing right now since their inception as a club in 1883. and yeah the football ground was sadly demolished but the cricket ground still is in place now i can't see anything to say that the football stadium was once here this is what i find really sad about when stadiums go there's not legacy projects like there is a sort of arsenal or man city um i've been to loads of like locations like this even middlesbrough there's airsome park road and a few different like telltale signs i think one of the like roads on one of the new build and stuff like that i'm not seeing anything around here just now so the ground itself was called fetums or feethams f-e-e-t-h-a-m-s and in 1907 england played the netherlands in a friendly here it was england's amateur team so i don't think england count as an official international fixture but the netherlands dukes they sent their best team the netherlands lost 12-2 so i'm currently stood on the site at which the netherlands have their highest ever international defeat so after years of playing here throughout the 1800s and all the way up to the early 2000s why did they move why did they want to change look there used to be a stadium here but now there's houses where are darlington currently well they went to a new stadium but they're not even there anymore they're somewhere else in 1997 this stadium the football part of it anyway was renovated but the chairman george reynolds still wasn't happy with it entirely and the conditions were pretty decrepid i've had a look at pictures online i might include a few for you now as well um yeah i think it basically just needed updating if they were going to sort of uh progress as a club and in 2003 they moved somewhere completely new but just check this out look here is the qriket club that was once connected to the football ground which was once there really sad to see that the cricket club still remains but the football club football stadium has completely gone sad story that you see sort of the world over in the uk over of all these new clubs who want to sort of progress all these clubs that want to progress into the newer eras especially when it comes to stadiums everyone wants a brand swanking new stadium don't they let's go and check out the place that they move to ultimately the stadium that completely destroyed a football club yep here's the culprit this is the reason why darlington went bust right the stadium is sadly completely shut i think we have another stadium to go to as well to finish off this story and i need to tell you about this place as well of course looks like they're using it as a vaccination center let me go around the other side see what i can see and tell you why this place bankrupted the football team and you might actually be thinking well if the football team don't play here anymore what is the stadium still doing here and why does it still look you know kind of in use it's not too like run down for somewhere which doesn't have anyone playing here and that's because someone actually does play here still not a football team but i believe the rugby team darlington modern park rfc rugby foot club so um yes there is a rugby team that plays here the football team are gone of course sadly but yes it's still used for rugby so the darlington arena opened in 2003 in order for darlington football club to become a bigger club and to start progressing through the english football league system of course we're at their old ground i would have showed you some older pictures um of their former stadium and so they needed somewhere newer bigger more modern better facilities in order to rise through the divisions they must have been thinking maybe championship maybe premiership local rivals hull moved into a new stadium around the same time that darlington did and went in a very different direction hull eventually made it to the premier league um obviously i haven't been there for a number of years now when i'm filming this but they at least got there and they sustained themselves as a very good well-run english sort of you know second tier club really this place opened with darlington versus kidderminster and over 11 000 people were here for the first game and darlington sadly lost to nil so many of these like new stadiums um that get built i think that the teams always seem to lose i think it happened with rotherham i've got a feeling york might have lost at their new stadium and darlington lost their first game at their new home as well after that first game where over 11 000 people attended attendances did start to dwindle and they averaged around 2 000 people per game after that stadium costs were extremely high and without that many fans coming to watch the games money started wearing thin in 2010 they finished bottom of league two and would eventually have to leave this place just two years later darlington then actually folded as the club sweet and spotless league two went into the non-leagues a couple years later had to leave this place and then folded completely a phoenix club was formed named darlington 1883 the 1883 of course being the year that the original darlington were formed a hark back to their initial days as i told you about earlier on they actually started in the northern league very similar to the early darlington in the 1800s who actually won the northern league obviously the newer sort of northern league would be a little bit different to i guess the one that was sort of in the 1800s or whatever um but yeah essentially this place bankrupted the football club they had too big a stadium and the costs were too high of running it and not enough fans were coming to watch them play results dwindled i guess it was sort of an ongoing cycle wasn't it not enough fans bad result bad result leads to not enough fans not enough fans no atmosphere at least a bad result not enough fans bloody bloody blah and so it goes on until eventually they get relegated out of the league system and they have to start again as a phoenix club thanks to this stadium and i guess from where they were it was an exciting time for fans to move stadium um but actually on the drive here it's a little bit outside of the sort of town or whatever um as is the case with so many modern stadiums the old ones are usually in and around the houses of the people in the 1800s and the early 1900s stadiums were built near the masses because public transport and the road system and people didn't really have cars as much people couldn't get out to the sort of outskirts of cities and towns and stuff which is why stadiums are usually built in city centers but you know increasingly uh these city center stadiums get a bit decrepit and there's not enough space to expand them and so whenever new stadiums are to be built they're built sort of out in the middle of sort of main roads or whatever which i feel like is the case here a little bit but what is the current darlington team like where are they currently playing well let's go and find out here we are inside of darlington's third stadium i guess this would have been so i've got an interesting fact to tell you about that stand just over there i've just met um the groundsman here nathan really nice guy i believe they play rugby a lot around here as well as like rugby pitchers up there and you may be able to see a few like rugby stands sort of as we make our way around as well um but yeah darlington play here now and finally a little bit of good news i know it's been a bit like doom and gloom for darlington but when they did go down they had to start from the very bottom but they won three promotions in four seasons in 2017 they dropped the 1883 from their name did the phoenix club and they just became darlington fc again the original darlington fc were back fans now completely owned the club as well how often do we see that you know phoenix clubs getting born out of mismanagement of the sort of original team from some awful owner or whatever and then the fans will eventually own the club um i think that's sort of the best way forward isn't it for the phoenix clubs i think berry it's probably happened with and other clubs as well um that sort of escaped my mind right now but think how many clubs you see sort of go into administration maybe afc wimbledon are they completely fan owned as well um yeah the fans obviously take ownership of the clubs it means so much to them and they don't want it in the hands of some other owner who doesn't really care about it and who'll let it go sort of out of existence [Music] so last season darlington finished 13th in the national league north they finished above kurz and ashton but below hereford remember this is the club that won division three in division two so they were sort of a league one league two team the highest they finished was sort of mid-table i think lower mid table in the second division obviously they've beaten chelsea in the fa cup i think we said um they've done well in the effort they cut them into the quarters of the league cup but they're now playing in the sixth tier of football and look here is oh here we go there's some media seating there darlow fans radio shout out to them and there's the badge of darlington nicknamed the quakers um and darlington football club fans radio in memory of jeff jones 45 to a 2019 darlow fans radio hits for away directors and this is where they ply their trade now obviously they started in 1883 against uh at phetams i think i was just chatting to nathan the groundsman there who did confirm that it was fetums i never really know how to say a lot of the words feetham's i thought it may have been but i think it's fetums and a really interesting fact that he was telling me about this stand behind the goal here apparently this stand is from phetams itself so this is an old classic standard they kept from their very first stadium so i love the way right that they've linked the first stadium with the kind of current one so they have stage number one and stadium number three that are brilliantly linked and in between they have the uh yeah the terrible story of stadium number two which bankrupted them and bloody hell here we go look rangers fans as per usual with the stickers absolutely everywhere you go but yeah here we go look let's go and touch the old stand of fetums apparently this was um yeah such a legendary old stanford and they actually kept it i think in storage i'm not sure what parts of it or maybe all of it or whatever but yeah parts of it were kept in storage um when they were at the darlington arena or whatever and now they get to use it here the old legendary stand the darlington cop there you go and as i now stand and touch the old stand that was once a part of their original stadium will we ever see a return to original times for darlington of course they had to start three divisions below what they're in now so currently in the national league north mid table last season but looking at the national league north if you look at the heritage of some of the clubs i hereford are a big club who they finished one one place different two last season they're a big former uh league team who probably deserve a video at some point i'm gonna have to cover them will we ever see darlington return to sort of where they belong the football league a team that's won league titles in the football league it's done within the fa cup they've done well in the league cup i think steve bruce may have even played here is that true is he not a darlington man i think he might be darlington a big club who now play at this non-league ground here who oh god you got a feel for the fans aren't you moving around getting bankrupt by the stadium do feel sorry for him but yeah that is football at the end of the day it's a business as much as a sport that we all love and darlington fans they've um yeah they've had a rough time of it i'm sure if you are a darlington fan let me know your experience of the past you know 10 20 years from leaving your old ground to go into the new ones now being here have many fans sort of stayed with them have other fans gone to support other teams that are in the local area your hulls your yorks your middlesbroughs your sunderlands your newcastles i'm not sure yeah let me know in the comment section below if you could remember to hit that like button that would be unbelievable and if you don't subscribe your team that you support are going to get relegated next season whoever you support you don't want them to go down so just hit that red button that subscribe button to prevent that from happening a massive massive thanks for watching i'll leave some videos here on screen right now as i look over the new home of darlington will they be here forever will they get another stadium move only time will tell thank you for watching and i'll see you in the next one

Channel: Footy Adventures

Views: 149,792

Keywords: soccer, football, darlington, darlington fc, darlington football club, sport, sports, uk, united kingdom, england, english, english football, non league, efl, football stadium

Id: nJg2-Ax8n2w

Length: 15min 55sec (955 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 15 2022