AFC Wimbledon going home

[Kiwi Womble]

Id like to think we could play a roll in securing the K's future, when the Chelsea deal was announced i thought i saw a Rep from Kingstonian come out and say something along the lines this is the kick in the arse they need to start planning for the future and that may well be away from KM but in a ground that was their's and manageable for them, fingers crossed

Now there is a couple more people looking at this thread again, anyone know anything about my query from the last page?

bit of a random one loosely associated. any idea why this artists impression is using that logo/badge?, i only found it on line and thought it was cool (hence the avatar) was it officially commissioned?

 

[WhiteRussian]

Makes no difference its on a site which holds a current stadium and is designated for sporting development.

If that was the case with Plough lane, how come it now has houses on it? Just thinking that doesn't bode well if a developer comes along with more money to turn it into houses, whats stopping the greyhound stadium covenant getting revoked?

 

[womble76]

Its different for many reasons but to long and political to explain. The giving up on the covenant on plough lane was very different to this site and its sporting designation. Trust me its all happening bar appeals from any nimbys.

 

[Meadow]

I think there's a lot of guilt at Merton regarding the lifting of the covenant on the old ground. Sham persuaded them that selling it would enable the club to build a new ground nearby and not to allow it would hold the club back.

Hence the sporting intensity requirement on the new site - it secures sport in the borough.

In the unlikely event of us not getting permission, an Irish greyhound bloke is waiting in the wings to put in a bid for a new greyhound stadium. Personally I'd dispute that greyhound racing is sport.

 

[Paddy]

Id like to think we could play a roll in securing the K's future, when the Chelsea deal was announced i thought i saw a Rep from Kingstonian come out and say something along the lines this is the kick in the arse they need to start planning for the future and that may well be away from KM but in a ground that was their's and manageable for them, fingers crossed

That was our chairman who said that & was met with a resounding "what the fuck have you been smoking" on our end.

A move away from KM for us means a move away from Kingston town as there isn't really any suitable space to build a football ground & you guys know better then anyone what happens to your fan base when you move a club from it's home town.

 

[Womble98]

I don't see why some kind of deal where KM own something like the pitch couldn't be worked out. I will vote against any proposal which shafts you.

 

[Kiwi Womble]

That was our chairman who said that & was met with a resounding "what the fuck have you been smoking" on our end.

A move away from KM for us means a move away from Kingston town as there isn't really any suitable space to build a football ground & you guys know better then anyone what happens to your fan base when you move a club from it's home town.

flag that then, hadn't heard the backlash, will be disappointed if we shaft Kings, kind of goes against the idea of the club

 

[Wombletom]

It appears that the fat lady is starting to clear her throat.... It really looks like we're coming home.

http://planning.merton.gov.uk/MVM.D...61_Comments Environment Agency 26.11.2015.PDF


http://m.wimbledonguardian.co.uk/news/14118139.AFC_Wimbledon__Is_Dons__exile_over_at_last_/

 

[oakroader]

even though "everybody" hates luton...i'm sure i speak on behalf of
all our supporters on here when wishing you success when you get back to where
you rightly belong!!
ps...luton fans have always showed support for this proposal

 

[djs]

Agreed.

 

[Paddy]

I don't see why some kind of deal where KM own something like the pitch couldn't be worked out. I will vote against any proposal which shafts you.

flag that then, hadn't heard the backlash, will be disappointed if we shaft Kings, kind of goes against the idea of the club

Guess you guys were among the 19 (is that figure right?) who voted against the sale. Thanks to those few who remember where they came from, unfortunately the majority have spoken & with it removed any difference between yourselfs & the other 91 clubs in the professional ranks.

Enjoy your return to Wimbledon while we presumably end up ground sharing at Corinthian-Casuals, a club with actual morals they stick too.

 

[Womble98]

Guess you guys were among the 19 (is that figure right?) who voted against the sale. Thanks to those few who remember where they came from, unfortunately the majority have spoken & with it removed any difference between yourselfs & the other 91 clubs in the professional ranks.

Enjoy your return to Wimbledon while we presumably end up ground sharing at Corinthian-Casuals, a club with actual morals they stick too.

I didn't actually get to vote, had forgotten that I hadn't renewed and didn't get around to renewing in time.


I don't think you were shafted though. We are giving you a substantial fee in order to assist you, which in my mind allows us to hold our heads high. We aren't a charity club.

 

[Paddy]

A substantial fee... you mean compensation for breaking the lease agreement (or rather activating the lease break in the agreement that for some unknown reason was agreed by our chairmen in circa 2007) plus a little bit extra to appear like you are doing the right thing by us which consistently gets reported in the news as a 'donation' or 'a substantial fee' without paying homage to the fact that it's mostly compensation?

At least we can install a few steps at King George's Field now!

 

[The Paranoid Pineapple]

I didn't actually get to vote, had forgotten that I hadn't renewed and didn't get around to renewing in time.


I don't think you were shafted though. We are giving you a substantial fee in order to assist you, which in my mind allows us to hold our heads high. We aren't a charity club.

Haha, like fuck you can. Scarcely any better than the MK Dons.

 

[Paddy]

Haha, like fuck you can. Scarcely any better than the MK Dons.

PP, sorry mate but I disagree with you, they are nothing alike. MK Dons have never alluded to the fact that they care about principals only to go & do the exact opposite.

 

[Womble98]

As far as I know, we don't have to give you anything. It isn't our fault you have been too fucking lazy to do anything for the past 12 years and have instead spent every year moaning about us. "What have Wimbledon ever done for us" I can hear you say as you sit in the seats we paint every year, the ground we pay to maintain every day, the pitch we pay to maintain every season, as you use the facilities we volunteer to fix and maintain every year. You are more than happy to sit and moan but if you had got off your arses a few years early you would be in a prime position to be in a good place now. Don't blame us for your stupidity.

 

[Paddy]

As far as I know, we don't have to give you anything. It isn't our fault you have been too fucking lazy to do anything for the past 12 years and have instead spent every year moaning about us. "What have Wimbledon ever done for us" I can hear you say as you sit in the seats we paint every year, the ground we pay to maintain every day, the pitch we pay to maintain every season, as you use the facilities we volunteer to fix and maintain every year. You are more than happy to sit and moan but if you had got off your arses a few years early you would be in a prime position to be in a good place now. Don't blame us for your stupidity.

You maintain the stadium you own. Well, that's just about a given.

If we, say 300 hard-core fans & that's being generous, started donating since the day you first moved in we wouldn't have enough money to even start to rival any kind of bid you require or what you paid in the first place.

Furthermore, pot/kettle? Or did this exact logic not apply to you when Wimbledon moved to MK?

 

[Womble98]

You maintain the stadium you own. Well, that's just about a given.

If we, say 300 hard-core fans & that's being generous, started donating since the day you first moved in we wouldn't have enough money to even start to rival any kind of bid you require or what you paid in the first place.

Furthermore, pot/kettle? Or did this exact logic not apply to you when Wimbledon moved to MK?

We haven't just announced that we are moving you to a place 60 miles away. We didn't have 12 yrs preparation before the move was announced. We actually did stuff though, unlike you. Protests, boycotts etc. What have you lot done? Fuck all. No wonder no one cares about your claim that you are being shafted when you have done sweet FA about it.

Your fans, your board, all of you, have known that we wanted to move away from Kingsmeadow. The site was identified years ago, you still did nothing. You might not have been able to afford to stay at Kingsmeadow but you would have found it much easier to make yourself a nice tiny little ground where you can have your shitty stands without anyone improving them.

 

[Paddy]

Boycott? Boycott what? Protest what? That a club that isn't ours is selling a ground that is no longer ours to a different club that is not us? Do you think either party would bat an eyelid?

All that would have ever achieved is Kingstonian losing out on even more money. Although I can't blame you for suggesting such actions that had proven to be so successful for you in getting what you wanted.

So tell me, what COULD we have done? As I previously said there's 300 of us, not thousands backed up by a media circus that aired your plight to the nation... so raising money from fans isn't exactly the answer that would produce any value even had we started in 2002.

Finally your but about building a new ground earlier or being ready to do so, first refer back to my point about the difficulty of raising money from such a small pool, secondly think about the fact that land in Kingston (town) is one of the most expensive in London, thirdly there is no land to build this fabled ground on with the money we don't (& regardless wouldn't) have.

But this is going round & round. End of the day is I'm allowed to be upset by this, you're allowed to do whatever the fuck you want with no regard for others... so... here we are.

 

[The Paranoid Pineapple]

As far as I know, we don't have to give you anything. It isn't our fault you have been too fucking lazy to do anything for the past 12 years and have instead spent every year moaning about us. "What have Wimbledon ever done for us" I can hear you say as you sit in the seats we paint every year, the ground we pay to maintain every day, the pitch we pay to maintain every season, as you use the facilities we volunteer to fix and maintain every year. You are more than happy to sit and moan but if you had got off your arses a few years early you would be in a prime position to be in a good place now. Don't blame us for your stupidity.

Yes, you do. In accordance with the terms of the license, you have to compensate us should you wish to activate the break clause so I think we need to let go of this disingenuous "donation" stuff. It may well be that you are planning to give us more money than you are legally required to, but it's still going to be insufficient when it comes to purchasing land for a new ground (and that's if we can actually find a site - this seems nigh on impossible in Kingston).

Congrats, you maintain a ground that you own, having bought it from an asset stripper when we were destitute. And you'll do very well out of its sale, no doubt.

As for our stupidity and laziness - wot Paddy says, basically. What on earth do you expect us to do? There needs to some recognition that Wimbledon are a much bigger club. Our situations are not analogous because you're not a comparably-sized club. You'd spent 27 seasons in the football league, 14 in the top flight, had thousands of fans and a media bandwagon behind you. We've spent our entire existence in non-league football, have about 300 regular match-going fans, have no media profile and weren't even in possession of the full facts regarding the agreement between the two clubs (we were unaware that a break clause existed and believed we had a right to play at Kingsmeadow into the next decade and beyond). But even if we were aware of this it wouldn't have made the faintest bit of difference. How much are a club of our limited resources feasibly going to be able to raise towards a new stadium?!

Don't really expect you to agree with my perspective but a modicum of empathy would be nice.

 

[EricSabin]

Feel a lot of sympathy for Kingstonian, doesn't quite sit right that Wimbledon sold the ground without much thought to Kingstonian.

 

[The Terminator]

Feel sorry for the K's.

One of my friends is a K's fan and she has no idea where they're going to go if Chelsea decide to boot them out.

Something about one their old owners sold the ground to Wimbledon, re-invested the money into the playing squad and it all went badly wrong......

 

[womble76]

Not what happened much more complicated than that.

 

[The Paranoid Pineapple]

Feel sorry for the K's.

One of my friends is a K's fan and she has no idea where they're going to go if Chelsea decide to boot them out.

Something about one their old owners sold the ground to Wimbledon, re-invested the money into the playing squad and it all went badly wrong......

Not quite (that actually makes the villain of the piece sound quite benign)! The story, in a nutshell, is that Ks went into administration, a guy called Rajesh Khosla (the aforementioned villain) bought the club and its assets, flogged the ground to Wimbledon and pocketed the money. Things improved thereafter - a local man, Jimmy Cochrane, took the reigns and effectively saved the club from bankruptcy, subsequently handing over to the current co-chairmen, who have put the club on an even keel (although the fact that we don't own the ground means that Ks have remained in a precarious position ever since the sale).

 

[womble76]

Who was the owner prior to the admin. I thought it was koshla.

 

[The Paranoid Pineapple]

Chris Kelly had been the numpty in charge of the purse-strings. Khosla bought the club from the administrators, Begbies Traynor.

 

[LadyWomble]

Of course there's sympathy and empathy for Ks. They were in a no-win situation in 2002/3 - in administration, effectively on the brink of extinction, then the club's administrator allowed separation of ground and club to the asset-stripping Khoslas. Don't forget, good ol' Uncle Ron (Noades) was sniffing around for Brentford at the time as well, ready to make a bid. Our compensation offer has been described by one of Ks' own co-chairman as 'exceptionally generous', way beyond any legal obligation. Without it, we (Dons Trust members/owners of AFCW) would never have agreed the sale of KM to Chelsea. I can understand the bitterness of Ks fans but to suggest they've been sold down the river is disingenuous. There's loads of stuff about the situation online for any interested neutrals but, as an example, here's an old piece from a Ks fan on 200% http://twohundredpercent.net/?p=9392

 

[Kiwi Womble]

I voted in favour, all the research I did said Kings were getting a substantial fee to help the secure their future somewhere which seemed fair.

Questions for K's fans, would you rather we'd not bought the ground and it was potentially sold to a developer like plough lane was? Who else was interested, genuine question as its a bit hard to keep track on local news all the way in NZ. Also, if your fan base is 300 odd, even if we gave you the ground could you afford to maintain it?

I guess id always thought of it as we'd bought K's 13 years to secure their own destiny either at kingsmeadow or elsewhere, very sorry to hear how dissatisfied some fans are

 

[JonnyWomble]

To be honest I really feel sorry for the Ks fans here, I really don't understand why the billionaires Chelsea are unwilling to allow Kingstonian to play at Kingsmeadow.

I'm unhappy about what's happening to the Ks, but this is NOT our fault. During our time at Kingsmeadow we have done everything we can to help the Ks, whilst keeping the goal of returning to Merton as realistic as possible.

 

[Paddy]

Feel sorry for the K's.

One of my friends is a K's fan and she has no idea where they're going to go if Chelsea decide to boot them out.

Something about one their old owners sold the ground to Wimbledon, re-invested the money into the playing squad and it all went badly wrong......

We're going to be out of KM at the end of 2016/17, as no one seems to either want to talk to Chelsea... or they have, it didn't work out & no one told the fans. 2017/18 I am pretty certain we will end up at either King George's Field (Corinthian Casuals' ground in Tolworth, within the Kingston borough) or back at the Beveree (Hampton & Richmond's ground in Hampton outside the Kingston borough but just over the bridge from Kingston town).

The end game is we build our own stadium with the 'generous donation' from those who would coin themselves the worlds best landlords in the world ever (although my landlord is de facto better then them because he's not selling my flat to a random any time soon). Where will this stadium be? Well, talk is some greenbelt site in Chessington (within the Kingston borough but far away from Kingston town) could be developed to house us & it's been assumed to involve Combined Counties League side Chessington & Hook United.

I voted in favour, all the research I did said Kings were getting a substantial fee to help the secure their future somewhere which seemed fair.

Questions for K's fans, would you rather we'd not bought the ground and it was potentially sold to a developer like plough lane was? Who else was interested, genuine question as its a bit hard to keep track on local news all the way in NZ. Also, if your fan base is 300 odd, even if we gave you the ground could you afford to maintain it?

I guess id always thought of it as we'd bought K's 13 years to secure their own destiny either at kingsmeadow or elsewhere, very sorry to hear how dissatisfied some fans are

Kholsa had no other interested parties at that time. AFCW buying KM did not save us, as some AFCW propaganda would suggest, as Kholsa remained our chairman & with no ground to make money off of he was probably more likely to pull the plug on the club before Jimmy Cochrane stepped in & saved us.

I think 300 of us could maintain the ground (Albeit not to the same standards as you do), we did play there for a few years before you turned up.