Halls Athletic delighted to be returning to their historical home in Dartford

DARTFORD have announced a groundshare agreement with Halls Athletic for next season.

The deal will see the Southern Counties East Football League First Division side use Princes Park Stadium and its facilities, while the Isthmian League Premier Division Darts are playing away from home.

Halls Athletic has a close affinity with the Princes Park site stretching back over a hundred years.

The club began life using the grounds that would later become Princes Park and in more modern times, played first team matches on the 3G community pitch between 2009-2022 before leaving to play at the Erith Sports Stadium at Avenue Road.

A Dartford statement said: “As a community club, Dartford Football Club is happy to be able to offer its ground and facilities to Halls Athletic on a groundshare agreement.

“Not only does it gives Halls the opportunity to call the ground its home for the season, it allows Dartford FC to maximum utilisation of its facilities, such as bars and food outlets.

“This is another step to helping us achieve our ambitions of increasing the revenue of the site, as we stated at the fans forum earlier in the year.

“We look forward to watching the partnership grow.”

Halls Athletic manager George Michaelas said: “We are absolutely delighted to be returning to our historic home at Princes Park to play stadium football in one of Kent’s best non-league facilities.”

Vice chairman Chris Michaelas added: “This partnership represents an unmatched milestone in our 106-year history and marks a signal of intent for the coming season.

“Thanks to everyone involved at Dartford Football Club for making the deal happen. The new season starts today.”

Chairman Steve Vanstone added: “I am hugely excited to welcome this significant new agreement, which builds on our already long-standing relationship with Dartford FC and will no doubt be beneficial to both clubs going forward.”

Dartford have previously shared their grass stadium pitch with Thamesmead Town and Greenwich Borough.

Halls Athletic completed their maiden campaign in the tenth-tier of English football in the bottom four (15^th place) last season.

Visit Dartford’s website: www.dartfordfc.com.