THE DARLINGTON ARENA

(Redirected from 96.6 TFM Arena)

'The Darlington Arena' (known as the 'The Balfour Webnet Darlington Arena' for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium in England that plays host to Darlington Football Club's home fixtures.
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' and then the '96.6 TFM Darlington Arena' between November 2005 and September 2007. The ground took it's current name in September 2007.
The ground has the theoretical potential to be expanded to a capacity of approximately 60,000-65,000 seats. However, as the club currently resides in the bottom tier, divisions below the Premiership (several aims former chairman George Reynolds constructed it with), the likelihood of this ever coming to fruition seems highly doubtful.
After a crowd of 11,600 watched the first game in the new stadium (a 2-0 defeat to Kidderminster Harriers F.C.) 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 F.C. 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 fooball matches due to poor access roads around the stadium, however the club are allowed to apply for this to be ifted for certain occasions.