Princes Park has lived up to our expectations - EXCLUSIVE

Dartford celebrate their first anniversary at Princes Park this weekend - and co-chairman David Skinner has hailed the club’s return home a huge success, writes Stephen McCartney.

At least 32,000 fans have flocked through the turnstiles at the £6.5m stadium since it opened on 11^th November 2006.

4,097 fans witnessed the club’s emotional homecoming after fourteen years in exile, when West Sussex side Horsham YMCA were the first opponents.

Striker Brendon Cass, whose netted fifteen goals already this season, went down in Dartford history as being the first player to score at the stadium - after just ten minutes and 27 seconds into it’s first game - a 4-2 victory.

And now it’s the time for Essex side Waltham Abbey to visit on Saturday, as birthday celebrations are in full swing.

“Yes and what a year it’s been!” said Mr Skinner, when speaking EXCLUSIVELY to www.kentishfootball.co.uk.

“Moved in, settled in, I think everyone now thinks it’s home.

“Players seem to enjoy it, the crowd seem to enjoy it, I think everyone enjoys it.

“We always hoped we could do this. Sometimes you do pinch yourself about all what’s going on, but no, this is fulfilling our expectations, shall we say.”

A whopping 23,719 fans watched Dartford’s sixteen home league and cup games at Princes Park last season - averaging 1,482.

But following their controversial switch to Ryman League Division One North this season, crowds have plummeted.

8,382 have watched their ten league and cup games so far this season - averaging 838 - and Mr Skinner explained why he feels that attendances have dropped.

“We don’t seem to have as many children coming along to watch the games as we used to,” he said.

“The adult figures are not that far down on what they were, but the children seem to be missing.

“Plus you’re always going to have a novelty value of it, but no, we’re pretty happy.

“The 850-900 we’re getting on Saturday’s, obviously midweek its always going to be a bit less, but no, if we get 800-900 on a Saturday, we’re more than happy.”

Dartford have yet attracted a four-figure crowd to Princes Park this season, but Mr Skinner believes that figure will be broken for Saturday’s game.

The Kent club are enticing kids to Princes Park for the events leading up to the game, starting on the plaza at 11:30am.

“There’s face painting, Bubbles the Clown, and magicians and all sorts of things going on,” said a smiling chairman.

He added: “It’s a family fun day and there’s lots of stuff for kids and families.”

Despite having excellent facilities, Mr Skinner reminded fans that the club will not see a penny of the profits yet.

“We never expected for the place to pay for itself within the first year,” he explained.

“It’s about a two to three year plan to actually start to break even and to make some money.

“And again, we’re still finding out how this place runs because of a few teething problems that we’ve had with some of the utilities and services and stuff like that.

“We’re probably using a lot more than we should. Obviously in the second year we’ll look to (chop) that down to what we actually need, make sure the equipment works properly and get a better idea what the utilities prices are going to be.

“Then we can start to look at how we match that amount with income.”

It was such a shame that the Darts wasted a good chance to reach the summit of the Ryman League Division One North table, following their disappointing goal-less draw Edgware Town in midweek.

But the Darts are in third place after 12 games - just one point behind leaders Edgware Town - and ready to mount a serious bid for promotion.

Mr Skinner agreed. “Yes, we’ve got to get promotion,” he said. “We missed out last two years through various reasons and it was understandable the way things were.

“But this year we’ve got to get promotion, whether it be top or via the play-off’s, we’re not bothered.”

Visit Dartford’s websites:

www.dartfordfc.co.uk

www.dartfordfootballclub.co.uk

Dartford v Waltham Abbey
Ryman League Division One North
Saturday 10^th November 2007
Kick Off 3:00pm
At Princes Park Stadium, Grassbanks, Darenth Road, Dartford, Kent DA1 1RT