A Dark Day

Today was a dark, dark day.
My beloved football club, Darlington, went into administration.

It was so shocking. I felt like I was going to throw up when I read the headline on the BBC website. In fact, I think maybe I did a little. All I needed to read was the headline 'Darlington Enter Administration'. That says it all.

For me, it really came out of the blue. I know that we had to get rid of a lot of players in the close season last year and that Dave Penney really didn't have a lot of money to spend but still! The team are doing reasonably well too consistently holding down a playoff or automatic promotion spot (so basically always in the top 7) and when the team is doing well everything must be ok behind the scenes, right? Guess not.

So we are 5 million pounds (I have only just realised that this keyboard doesn't have a pound sign!) in debt with 54,000 a week losses. We need to find a buyer or we go out of business and we have been deducted 10 points so have dropped from 7th to 11th in the league table. No rose tinted spectacles here.

We previously went into administration in 2003 when George Reynolds was chairman. He was pretty infamous and ridiculous and has an interesting story that I wish was in no way connected to Darlington Football Club. There is an article in today's Northern Echo where the headline is George Reynolds: Don't Blame Me. George, I blame you for EVERYTHING.

Incidentally, our 27,500 seater stadium has been renamed The Northern Echo Darlington Arena. Catchy, I know. The stadium was built by George Reynolds because, naturally, a struggling, small, north east club NEEDS a stadium THAT big. Believe me, attendances haven't increased with the rise of available seats. The stadium has had quite a few names in its short history:
Williamson Motors Stadium,
96.6 TFM Darlington Arena,
Balfour Webnet Darlington Arena
and now,
The Northern Echo Darlington Arena.
It has also been known as The Darlington Arena when it hasn't had a sponsor.
Actually my favourite of the names it has had is Reynolds Arena (because no self respecting chairman who builds such a mammoth - or white elephant - isn't not going to name it after himself). I don't know why because I have no liking for the man himself at all. It is probably because it is the shortest name that the stadium has ever had.

The long and the short of it is that I am not a happy bunny today. I wasn't so worried the last time we went into administration and I think I should have been. Well, I'm making up for it now!
Is it wrong to pray for a football club??