The Bizarre Stadium That BANKRUPTED A Football Club 

“They almost managed to secure a return to the third tier, then called the second division, and now league one” …man if I wasn’t familiar with English football that would be confusing as hell.

I remember getting Reynolds to sign my programme one match day when I was a kid, I was fixated on a spider that was in his comb-over. You don't forget these things

Brazil: "bankrupted a club? lol hold my beer" Brazil makes stadiums that can "bankrupt" a Nation XD

A video on the fall of ITV Digital and how lower leagues clubs were really affected by it would be interesting.

As someone from the area I knew quite a bit about what happened to Darlington F.C. This was a great and accurate insight. Every time I drive past that stadium it still shocks me.

I was there with Brentford in 08/09, the season we went up and the problems at Darlo were really coming to a head. The fans all got on great and we felt really sorry for them. A really decent set of fans who deserved better from that nasty owner.

Sometimes I really wonder how Alfie finds these stories. One moment its mafia owning a football club and next its an owner burning down his football stadium to whatever was going On in the 50-60s. This guy's a genius👏👏👏

I miss Darlington playing in the Reynolds. My dad lived a 5 minute walk away and you could hear the entire crowd roar on the odd occasion that Darlo scored.

Wow what a fascinating story. My condolences to the Darlington supporters for having to put with this conman.

I don't give a shite about either one of these teams, but yet I'm here, as this is one of the BEST sport channels on RU-vid. Keep up the great work HITC.

As a American, this video is very informative. It also serves as a cautionary tale for any non MLS club wanting to build a new stadium because this could easily happen here.

You forgot to mention, as any Darlo supporter would know. The stadium during winter was always 5-10 colder than it actually was. Like sitting in a freezer for 90 minutes.

Remember going to a preseason friendly there when Middlesbrough played Darlington, and the stadium was far too big for the size of the club, such a shame to see what's happened to them since, but they're slowly on their way back 🤞

I was just shaking my head and chuckling until you got to the part about him naming it Reynolds Arena, then I burst out laughing. What an odd lunatic, hahaha. Well done, Alfie. I just barely found your channel and it's a delight. Watching from Salt Lake City, UT in the States.

Darlo born, resident & fan here. I was at the Wembley game v Peterborough - got soaked! And the last game at Feethams, the first at the Stadium, and the first at the Meadows.

In the Netherlands, Feyenoord is one of the historic top 3 teams. However, these last few years they have been struggling financially which have lead them to fall out of that top 3. To get them back to the top, they want to get American investors in and build a new stadium that would be called Feyenoord City. Feyenoord themselves don't have the finances to build the stadium themselves, that's why they need the investors. The investors on the other hand only want to invest when the stadium is built. This back and forth discussion has been going on for years now and has only costed money so far. Thw fear is, that if Feyenoord demolish "De Kuip", their iconic stadium, and built a new gigantic stadium while barely having the funds for it, they'll go completely bankrupt.

Superb video, Alfie. I enjoy all the channel's content but think these longer, documentary-style uploads are particularly interesting.

Darlington council had a hand in this and you rather skirted over it with a very brief mention, the council decided that once built that the stadium on match days would lead to traffic chaos and so imposed a 5000 capacity on the stadium, this was destined to kill the club as they were never going to be able to improve on their finances with that cap, from what one councilor said to me it was very much a tool to get at Reynolds.

Loved that video! I’m from Middlesbrough and was only young when all this was going on in Darlo so didn’t understand the ins and outs fully until watching this 👏🏻

Great video from a Darlington fan, all very factual apart from we never formed a phoenix club, we were the same club, but treated like a new one by the FA even though we carried over the debt.

As someone from Darlington, this is a fantastic video

I remember visiting both Feethams and the new Arena on several occasions as a child at school in the town through schemes by the club to get more people going to games. It was a very turbulent time with feelings constantly ebbing between blissful and woeful depending on the current goings on, and ultimately the up and downs of the club led it to where the club is now. The townspeople tried so hard to support the club, with regular concerts taking place at the new stadium, as well as the charity game mentioned (which I was at) in attempts to justify its existence and buoy the finances of the clubs but theres only so much a northern, working-class town can do against such reckless financing. Sad times.

Hey Alfie, I just thought of a cracking idea for a video you could do on the turbulent recent history of Goztepe in the Super Lig. They’re one of the Super Lig’s most well supported clubs (a bit like a Newcastle United, Sunderland or Strasbourg if you may). In the 2001/02 season, they finished seventh in the top flight, however from 2002 to 2008, they were relegated five times in six seasons, due to their inability to reduce their outstanding debt which resulted in the football club being banned from signing new players during that time. In August of 2007, a business based in Istanbul, vowed to take them back to the top flight making them one of the top five clubs in the country, but they were met with lots of suspicions from the fan base, and then they handed over the ownership to another bloke called Mehmet Sepil in 2014. Anyway, they’re back in the Super Lig as a solid mid table/weaker top half team. Why am I bringing all this up? Because apparently Abramovich is looking to possibly buy the club himself, after being sanctioned from the UK. It’s a crazy crazy story and may you could look into this, not to mention, they are not only a rare example of a club that is considered a neighbourhood club, as well as the fact that they’ve played in 3 different stadiums since 2011, but also in 1969, they became the first Turkish football team to play a semi-final of a European competition.

As Darlington are my go to team whenever I play a manager game (cm01/02) , this is a sad story to hear. Would love to see them reach higher levels of football soon!

Absolutely the kind of video that makes me love this channel.

Very accurate and well researched account. I have followed darlington since 1992 and remember these events as if they were yesterday. Horrendous

What an incredible video. Wow. I was kinda feeling sorry for him after he had what must've been a f***ed up childhood being abandoned like that, then he got himself together and as soon as he had the cash, blew it all. This man needed a financial advisor around him. Smart people. What a waste of everything.

The old Darlington ground was in the town centre, within walking distance of the Railway Station. The replacement is in the middle of nowhere.

This is absolutely fascinating on many levels. Subtley hilarious, historically intriguing. Genuinely the best thing ive watched in any form for a while. Very well made indeed.

33:43 Hartlepool Town? Don't you mean Hartlepool United? Jeff Stelling will be going ape right now!

Being a supporter through this sad recap. Painful. The win over Mansfield being a huge high and my best day watching football. Hopefully they can make their way back from the wilderness in the future.

Thank you very much for a hugely informative, and entertaining clip. Such a sad, but intriguing story. Fantastically narrated as well.

I was a season ticket holder but from the late 00’s onwards so I heard stuff about Reynolds and the pre-stadium era but nothing in this much detail, thank you x

Getting that stadium built was a big achievement, shame everything else went wrong for Darlington and Feethams was not available to return to. Good luck to them I went to the Reynolds Arena and they beat my team 5-1 so shocked what happened to them. Proof also out of town football stadiums are not a good thing.

Brilliant video, it really informs and educates me on these topics in ways I can't get from anywhere else. Such an in-depth research you'll never find almost anywhere else. Thanks so much.

I remember being a young fan through the 2nd and 3rd administrations, fa trophy run was one of the best football experiences of my life, similarly some dangerously cold winter games where they only opened 1 block of the stadium are some of the most depressing. The club has a strong history of young players getting their start there and have always had their loyal core, a club that deserves a professional set up but this time in a financially stable way. I speak for other fans when I say we don’t care about the level we play at, we are just happy we still have our club.

Excellent video, great to learn about what happened as I wasn't old enough to remember all this. As a Poolie I hope to see Darlo back in the football league.

Liked at 2:50. Great intro and a fascinating piece. More of stuff like this please Alfie.

Always interesting,informative and fantastically researched,thank you.

As a Darlo fan myself. I really appreciate this. Keep up the good work

What a story. I feel for the fans, but this should be made into a movie or TV series. Unbelievable

fantastic work archie you make incredible detailed and obscure videos and they never disappoint

Always wanted to hear about this story in full. Very good video!

I hope Darlington get back in league the ASAP, met a load of them at an England game top lads , Tranmere fan

An extremely interesting and well presented documentary about the ups and downs of Football in the 21st Century.

Really interesting video. I was aware of the problems over the arena and I remember the Tino Asprilla saga but it's only from watching your video that I have become fully informed of what went on!

Brilliant doc. Need more extra long vid like this from you :)

Hull City at least share their stadium with a well-supported rugby league team to share costs.

Subbed from this strange and bewildering story. Well told 👍

Absolutely fantastic video enjoyed it immensely

I would love as I'm a port vale fan to hear information on the clowns we've had since our championship relegation. I'm guessing it would surprise a good few people 😄. Loving your channel m8 😀👍

My dad was a football scout for darlo and middlesbrough at the same time different age groups the F.A. wrote to him saying he could be a scout for two teams at the same time so he had to decide which team to scout the boro payed him quite well be darlo paid him three times as much under george .he did not need the money but decided to choose boro and found some good players for them probably a wise choice in the long run.

American here. New to football, loving these historical videos. I find it amazing to compare George Reynolds to Boston's New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. Kraft was a 'hundred millionaire' as well. The Patriots were in dire straights. He gained control in Kraft is now a multi-billionaire and the most powerful owner in the most powerful league in the world. Reynolds is in a pine box. I sincerely hope that Darlington can find an owner half as good as Kraft.

Top notch Alfie, another bit o' history to sink our teeth into. Love this aspect of your channel; When you do these, you're the Mark Felton of Footie content! 🍻👍

Excellent video. Thank you.

I'd love to see you do a video on Sutton United - the oldest football club to every debut in the Football League, 123 years in the making, in our little non-League ground and our strange colours of amber and chocolate.

At least hull already had immense support even in league 2 they were getting crowds over 10,000. Darlington never had that. To build a 27,000 seater was pure stupidity.

Thanks to this channel I am able to appear knowledgeable about football at dinner parties and social gatherings. Thank you!

Saturday night here in Brazil and I watching this masterpiece, amazing piece of jornalism, great work Alfie.

I love the detail in this, keep it up. Your editing is also underrated, the wide range of pics you scatter around the videos really helps these from just being podcasts (which would be good enough anyway!).

Great video. I've always been intrigued about Darlington FC and its bizarre stadium. Surely they could have just stayed at Feethams and addressed the waterlogged pitch problem with the money they spent. I'm also curious as to why the seats are red instead of black or white.

I visited the TFM/Reynolds arena with Carlisle back in the day there was barely 2000 fans in there. Good to see they've reformed and are clawing their way back.

A Documentary Well Worth Watching! Especially for football fans. Can only assume Mr Reynolds didn't fully take in to account the Infrastructure needed, to cope with , a stadium of that capacity, ( re -traffic). A once, Great Vision , in principle, for any football fan in Darlington. Good Luck,.. to the New Club, on,.. and especially off the field.

Love these videos, would be incredible if you could do one on Rushden & Diamonds at some point

This reminded me of football manager. Never ask the owner to buy the stadium unless you're really well off financially.

This is superb, great documentary 👍

I've watched a lot of your vids over the years and never subscribed for some reason. I am now because these newer deep dives videos are very entertaining.

I’m pleased you’ve uploaded this as Darlo are my non league side (I’ve been to games) but I’ve got work in 5 hours and I’ve not slept 😭

Used to love visiting Feethams when Fulham played Darlo…a proper football ground.

Darlo fan since my schooldays (late 70s) - In 1999 I won tickets to the Villa FA Cup game, full hospitality with meal etc... Met Villa chairman Doug Ellis in the restaurant - He said he'd just been speaking to Reynolds and called him 'interesting' with a sarcastic smile on his face. I told him to keep a close eye on his watch 🤣

Great video. I remember the fundraiser game sat behind one of the goals - I believe it was before the game Gazza was messing around taking shots at the keeper. When he scored a penny he turned around and pulled a mooney in front of the entire stand!

remind me of when valencia started building a new stadium, rediced its planned capacity gradually until its became slightly larger than their old stadium, then they gave up when they couldnt afford completing it

Mad coincidence that we uploaded this exact topic 3 days ago, just not in 37 minutes 😂 Great video though Alfie

Enjoyed that mate, thank you

Not a George Reynolds fan then.....absolutely scathing! lol brilliantly informative, entertaining video

You know a club has great support when they go through that much of a torid history and still comes back strong with a new club with an average attendance of 1500 nowadays! Up the Quakers!

Brilliant video, I worked at the club as a chef when Reynalds was there at Feethams and he was a bizarre character, you had to address him as Mr Chairman and I once saw him try to fire a kid who was on work experience for calling him George lol

Used to go to Fortuna Dusseldorf in the 80s and their old "Rheinstadion" had a capacity of 65,000 at the time and was drawing crowds of less than 10k, it was soul destroying just watching a game like that, I can only imagine what its like to play in those conditions week in week out.

Great video. Keep up the great work

Do a video on strangest player signing announcements

I’ve been a darlo fan all my life, living only 10 mins away from the town. I was at the 2011 FA cup final in Wembley. I’m only 18 now but have seen some shocking moments happen at the club. I really hope we can one day make it back to when we were knocking on the doors to promotion into league 1. I believe. Cmon darlo🖤🤍

A few in accuracies: The club wasn't in liquidation in 2004 or any other time. The club has never gone bankrupt. Our winning goal at Wembley against Mansfield was in 120th minute, in the FA Trophy, not FA Vase. We were never wound up! A phoenix club was not formed! The fans bought the club from the Administrator. The fans then paid off all the clubs debts. Our ground is up to National League standard and has been for 2 or 3 years. You also say we fell victim to Sterling's loans. Many fans would disagree with that. They were the only decent owners we had at the Arena..

really enjoyed this one, thanks

I’m surprised a major sporting organisation hasn’t picked you up yet. Your research and presentation are second to none!!

Watching this while figuring out how to put Trent, Salah, Kane and Sancho in my FPL.

As a academy player around that time i loved this video. Going to a club with massive high hopes to fall to pieces within a few year and being there you could tell no money for strips and played our games in old Southampton strips. Training on just a field. And after spending 5 year at the club for the hole academy prospects to be shown the door was bad overall. Glad to see them on the up now.

great video Alfie, well done man

Enjoyed it. I wish the fans and club all success. My club Southend United are currently in desperate times and I see some parallels here.

In this and other worlds,Darlington are one of my favourite clubs daily in my life forever and every generations that we would be born!!!I am extremely so sad to hear this news about this wonderful club being disrupted by being bankrupted because of the owner who did not even save the finances of the stadium to fund for their club's transfer budgets and earn profits through the sales of the players whom they would offload each and every seasons made the stadium debt remain unpaid!!!I fully hope that the owner would smartly save the club from being extinct by galvanising the squad and pay the debt amount of the stadium as soon as possible!!!

What a banging video. Never heard this story before but I enjoyed every second of it.

Great video tbf! Would be great to see more about the history of different English clubs that have interesting stories

I'm from Darlington and remember visiting often was a brilliant stadium but such a mistake

Went to many Darlington games from 2008-11 as met a Darlo fan at Uni, was at the 2011 FA Trophy Final. (Chris Senior, what a legend!) Fantastic football club, supporters were great but have been absolutely shafted by an obscene stadium and terrible ownership. Hoping they come back to the Football League soon and I can sample a delightful parmo again. #HawayDarlo

The Population of Hull is 261,000, Darlington's is just over 100,000, add to that Hull have always been a more successful team than Darlington, usually in higher divisions while Darlington were always scraping around at the bottom of the lowest Divisions, so no matter what went on Hull were much more likely to make a success of their new Stadium than Darlington.

Very interesting video and laughed so hard at the final comment "now I'm going to go and get a Cornetto"!!!

fantastic really enjoyed that thanks

Good that Darlington FC Supporters Group own their club btw Can you do a video on the AFC Wimbledon story?

I remember joining Darlington youth academy and then 1 month later getting released because of the 2012 incident

Unreal video, yet again 👏👏

Really enjoyed this one.👌🏻