The Darlington Arena

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The Northern Echo Darlington Arena

Full name	The Northern Echo Darlington Arena
Location	Darlington, England
Opened	2003
Owner	Darlington F.C.
Operator	Darlington F.C.
Surface	Grass
Capacity	25,500 (Restricted to 10,000 by local planning regulations)
Field dimensions	110 × 74 yards
Tenants
Darlington F.C.

The Darlington Arena (known as The Northern Echo Darlington Arena for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in England that hosts Darlington Football Club's home fixtures.

Contents 1 History 2 Other uses 3 The Future of the Darlington Arena 4 References

[edit] History

Prior to moving to the ground in 2003, Darlington had been playing at Feethams, located near to the town centre. The current stadium is built on a greenfield site next to Darlington's A66 bypass.

Upon completion the arena was originally called the Reynolds Arena, after the club's then-owner, George Reynolds. However, following Reynolds' bankruptcy and arrest on charges of money laundering, the name was changed to The New Stadium in April 2004. Since then the club have sold the naming rights for the stadium to sponsors, firstly as the Williamson Motors Stadium then as the 96.6 TFM Darlington Arena between November 2005 and September 2007, and then as the Balfour Webnet Darlington Arena between September 2007 and February 2009. The ground took its current name in February 2009 when The Northern Echo began sponsorship.

A crowd of 11,600 watched the first game in the new stadium for a 2–0 defeat to Kidderminster Harriers.^[1] Since then the ground has averaged a gate of around 3,000-4,000 supporters, although certain fixtures such as derby match against local rivals Hartlepool United in March 2007 (10,121 spectators), have pulled in a significantly larger turnout.

The capacity of the stadium is currently capped at 10,000 for football matches due to poor access roads around the stadium, although the club are allowed to apply for an exception for certain occasions.

The Darlington Arena consists of four equally sided stands. The West Stand, which is located just behind the goal, is generally the more vocal of the two sides used by home supporters.

[edit] Other uses

Darlington plan to use the stadium for musical concerts to increase club revenue. The first set of concerts, called Pitch Invasion, were due to take place in June 2007 but were cancelled by the club just three months before.^[2] However, Elton John was the first act to play at the stadium, on 5 July 2008.^[3]

The Arena also played host to first ever professional rugby league match in the history of County Durham, when the Gateshead Thunder used the ground for their fifth round 2009 Challenge Cup game against the Oldham Roughyeds due to a fixture clash.^[4]

[edit] The Future of the Darlington Arena

In February 2009 Darlington Football Club went into administration. One of the main reasons was because of the Darlington arena as the club had an average crowd of around 3,000 in such a big stadium. The costs of running the stadium were said to be way too high and one of the stands were closed to reduce costs.

[edit] References

Football League Two venues, 2008–09 v • d • e
Adams Park · Blundell Park · Christie Park · Crown Ground · Darlington Arena · Dean Court · Deva Stadium · Don Valley Stadium · Gigg Lane · Griffin Park · Kenilworth Road · Meadow Lane · Moss Rose · New Meadow · Priestfield Stadium · Recreation Ground · St James Park · Saltergate · Sincil Bank · Spotland · Underhill Stadium · Vale Park · Valley Parade · Victoria Road

Coordinates: 54°30′30.33″N 1°32′3.82″W / 54.508425°N 1.5343944°W / 54.508425; -1.5343944