MORE than 200 fans took the opportunity to listen to the future ambitions of their football club.

The board of directors at Darlington Football Club have outlined their bold ambition to move the club forward.

And developing commercial opportunities is the key to securing the long-term future of the club, David Johnston told supporters when they attended the meeting in the town's Dolphin Centre.

Mr Johnston was keen to point out that the suggestions for moving the club forward – including the possibility of moving to a proposed sports village at The Northern Echo Arena in the town, building its own club house, an academy and 4G football pitches – were not cast in stone.

Tackling the club's debt and balancing the team's playing budget were also high on the agenda for the board.

He said: "The key thing around the financial performance for this year is we are projected to make a £10,000 loss now, against £80,000 plus last year, so this is the best financial year we have had in four or five years.

"I hope that with a bit of luck around crowds and performance, we could even show a small operating profit for this season – for the first time since the club reformed."

Mr Johnston outlined two options as part of the club's strategy for growth – private ownership or developing commercial strategy to deliver extra funding.

"Without any further commercial revenue streams, it is difficult to grow the business. There's an operating budget to enable us to play in this league but talking with the management team, would we have a team to compete if I cut the playing budget next season – would that team be able to compete and get promotion, probably not, it's sustainable at this level but it's not enough to get out of this division.

"So the club has to understand – what is it we want to do? Are we happy staying in this division? If we are, it's easy to cut the playing budget but ultimately the risk of that is crowds fall away," he said.

The sporting village concept is very much a concept at the moment, there is no business plan behind it, he told fans.

"We have looked at it and it doesn't appear to be right for us but we may re-engage if the commercial offering and financial return is best for the football club."