There have been many rumours and false stories appearing on social media in recent months about our club. Here is the true story:
In April 2023 our managers were approached by a businessman based in the USA with a view to forming a new club, Darlington United playing out of Darlington Arena. The project was to gain promotion and climb up through the leagues and become a professional team. Everything was supposedly agreed to play at Darlington Arena. Agreements were made to move the whole club over to Darlington United, management , officials and players. Having won the league and cup double Redcar Newmarket had gone as far as we could due to ground grading requirements for promotion.
So we began preparations for the 2023/24 season with grand plans for the new club playing out of a 25,000 seater stadium. Several players were recruited from a higher level to be part of the new team.
Alarm bells began to sound in early July as we started our pre season games with the last minute arrival of playing kit and a limited supply of equipment. We carried on with our pre season games but financial support was very limited and often late.
Plans for the first game at the stadium which was to be heavily promoted and publicised went very quiet and nothing seemed to be happening.
We had been promised an awful lot and nothing was materialising . A week before the first game we contacted the owner and said that as things stood we would not be able to fulfil our opening fixture as the necessary funds and equipment had not arrived. The owner took this as being issued an ultimatum, it wasn't, it was a fact.
The owner then announced, two days before the start of the season, that he was pulling the plug on the project until next season when he intended to move to the UK.
What followed was 48 hours of negotiations, meetings and calls to the FA, League, ground owners and former sponsors to try and save the club by reverting back to Redcar Newmarket. This was achieved with 24 hours to spare before our first game at Fishburn Park, which had to be switched to Whitby.
We went to Fishburn Park with the grand total of £60 in our funds . We paid £50 for match officials, leaving us with £10 remaining. We won the game 11-0 but now the job of raising funds to run the club began.
The management, players and officials agreed en bloc to stick together and see this through. So just for the record Redcar Newmarket do not pay our players, in fact its the opposite, they pay us subs to play.
We are extremely grateful to long term sponsors who stepped in to help, VEHICLE SMART and DG TROPHIES were incredible in their generosity. Also to the many people who donated to our crowd funding page and supported our walk from Whitby to Redcar.
Thank you to the CLEVELAND BAY Redcar for offering us a base and thanks to RYE HILLS ACADEMY for allowing us to return to our ground at very short notice.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to saving our club.