The Darlington Arena

History

Prior to moving to the ground in 2003, Darlington F.C. had been playing at Feethams, located near to the town centre. The current stadium was 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, Reynolds was declared bankrupt soon afterwards and arrested on charges of money laundering. As a result of this, the stadium's name was changed to the New Stadium in April 2004.

The Arena consists of four equally sided stands. The West Stand, located behind the goal, was generally the more vocal of the two sides used by home supporters. A crowd of 11,600 watched the first game in the new stadium for a 2–0 defeat to Kidderminster Harriers. Since then, the ground averaged a gate of around 1,500 to 2,000 supporters, although certain fixtures such as the derby match defeat against local rivals Hartlepool United in March 2007 (9,987 spectators), pulled in a significantly larger turnout. thumb|200px|The stadium with, former logo of [[96.6 TFM]], branding on side The club has sold the naming rights for the stadium to various sponsors: Williamson Motors, 96.6 TFM, Balfour Webnet, and in 2009 The Northern Echo; since Darlington Mowden Park RFC have used the arena, it has been named The Northern Echo Arena, rather than the previous name The Northern Echo Darlington Arena.

It was the largest Conference National venue with a capacity of 25,000. Attendances for football matches were restricted to 10,000 by local planning regulations, because of poor access roads around the stadium, although the club was allowed to apply for an exception for special occasions – namely cup ties against bigger clubs.

It was announced in May 2012 that Darlington would no longer play at the Darlington Arena. The club initially agreed a ground share deal with Shildon A.F.C., before deciding to share with Bishop Auckland F.C. instead.

Following the announcement that the football club would no longer play at the arena, it was reported that the arena may be closed down and be replaced by a housing estate. However, in December 2012, Darlington Mowden Park R.F.C. bought the arena for £2 million, as well as 17 acres of adjoining land, with the intention of developing a multi-sports facility; the club owner stated that he hoped that playing at the arena would improve Mowden Park's performances. This would be proved to be true, as they were promoted to National League 1, the third tier of English rugby union, beginning in the 2014–15 season.

The club played their first game at the arena on 2 February 2013, in front of a crowd of over 1,000 spectators, defeating Bromsgrove 62–7 in a National League 2 North league game. Regular attendances would bring in around 700–1,300 spectators.

Tees Valley Metro

Starting in 2006, Darlington Arena was mentioned within the Tees Valley Metro scheme as a new possible station site. This was a plan to upgrade the Tees Valley Line and sections of the Esk Valley Line and Durham Coast Line to provide a faster and more frequent service across the North East of England. In the initial phases the services would have been heavy rail mostly along existing alignments with new additional infrastructure and rollingstock. The later phase would have introduced tram-trains to allow street running and further heavy rail extensions.

As part of the scheme, Darlington Arena station would have received service to Darlington and Saltburn (1–2 to 4 trains per hour) and new rollingstock. While never concrete or mentioned in any detailed plans, there was also mention of street-running trams to Darlington town centre, which may have also operated in the vicinity of the Arena.

However, due to a change in government in 2010 and the 2008 financial crisis, the project was ultimately shelved. Several stations eventually got their improvements and several new stations like James Cook railway station were constructed.

Other uses

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

Concerts

Darlington planned to use the stadium for musical concerts to increase club revenue. Elton John was the first act to play at the stadium, on 5 July 2008, attracting a crowd of 17,000.

In 2018 Steps and A-ha performed at the arena, followed in 2019 by Jess Glynne.

Vaccinations

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the arena was used as a large vaccination centre. It was able to vaccinate up to 7,700 people per week.

References

References

1. "Darlington". The Football League.
2. Ward Hadaway for Darlington Football Club. (May 2007). "Planning Statement". Darlington Borough Council.
3. "The Darlington Arena, former home to Darlington". Football Ground Map.
4. (15 August 2003). "Darlington 0–2 Kidderminster". BBC Sport.
5. (25 March 2007). "Darlington 0–3 Hartlepool". BBC Sport.
6. (8 May 2012). "Darlington seal groundshare deal with Shildon AFC". BBC Sport.
7. Willis, Joe. (30 May 2012). "Darlington to play at Bishop Auckland, not Shildon". The Northern Echo.
8. (6 December 2012). "Darlington Mowden Park: Rugby team buy The Arena". BBC SEport.
9. Craggs, Andy. (3 May 2014). "DMPRFC 30 – Ampthill RFC 28". DMP.
10. (2 February 2013). "Darlington Mowden Park make dream start at Northern Echo Arena". The Northern Echo.
11. Tees valley Unlimited. (18 May 2010). "Tees Valley Metro: Phase 1 – Project Summary". Stockton-on-Tess Borough Council.
12. Tees Valley Unlimited. (April 2011). "Connecting the Tees Valley – Statement of Transport Ambition".
13. LOWES, RON. (18 September 2007). "Executive Report – Tees Valley Metro".
14. (2006-11-09). "Metro system hope for Tees Valley".
15. (2023-02-04). "When the Tees Valley was set to get its own £220m metro system and what went wrong".
16. (2024-01-27). "Tees Valley authority unanimously backs £1bn transport plan". BBC News.
17. Wilson, Scott. (9 May 2009). "Super League dream for Thunder supremo Findlay". The Northern Echo.
18. "Jess Glynne Goes Down a Storm in Darlington". Mowden Park.
19. "More gigs for Darlington after A-ha and Steps Shows". The Northern Echo.
20. "Fourth Large Vaccination Centre for the region to open in Darlington".
21. (10 June 2021). "Lengthy queues in wait to get vaccine at Darlington Arena".