14 March 2017 AFC Wimbledon v MK Dons

[gable-ender]

A rather rhetorical question:

The AFC Wimbledon match day programme from last night failed to print the oppositions name on the cover. I wonder why?

[littlewiggy]

Good for them I say.
I don't blame them for refusing to recognise or acknowledge them.

It shouldn't ever be forgotten what the Franchise club did.
Or forgiven.

Their scoreboard purposely left the "AFC" bit off too, and the "Dons" part of the opposition ...




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[Five and In]

littlewiggy wrote:

Good for them I say. I don't blame them for refusing to recognise or acknowledge them. It shouldn't ever be forgotten what the Franchise club did. Or forgiven. Their scoreboard purposely left the "AFC" bit off too, and the "Dons" part of the opposition ...

What happened to the original Wimbledon was a disgrace and would never have been allowed if they were a "bigger" club.
I understand when teams move a few miles to improved new grounds, but fifty miles??

For all the good he did for them, Sam Hamann has to take a big chunk of the blame as he had been touting them around for a few years at the time including a strong possibility of moving the club to Dublin at one point.
The local council didn't exactly cover themselves in glory either for how they made it almost impossible for the club to stay at Plough Lane.

A wonderful fairytale that turned into a horror story.

[littlewiggy]

If MK wanted a league club, they should have started at parks level and earned one like everybody else has to, that's the top and bottom of it for me.

They've been let off and forgiven way too lightly by the general football community for what they did to the real Dons.
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[Dorking]

littlewiggy wrote:

If MK wanted a league club, they should have started at parks level and earned one like everybody else has to, that's the top and bottom of it for me. They've been let off and forgiven way too lightly by the general football community for what they did to the real Dons.

https://footballpink.net/2017/02/15/8101/

In 1979, (Wimbledon Chairman) Noades purchased Milton Keynes City FC for £1 and installed a group of Wimbledon directors – including future owner Sam Hamman – to similar roles at the smaller club. Noades later recalled that he had entered talks with the Milton Keynes Development Corporation about merging the two outfits. The plan was to move the Dons to Buckinghamshire, adopt the Milton Keynes name, and retain Wimbledon’s place in the Football League. It did not come to fruition at the time and Noades sold Milton Keynes City just a year later. Though only worthy of the local papers back then, it takes on new significance given Wimbledon’s hugely contentious move to Buckinghamshire almost a quarter of a century later. Noades left the club soon after the failed merger, selling his stake to Hamman in 1981, though his involvement with Wimbledon was not finished yet..........

(He then bought Palace and tried to merge Palace and Wimbledon!)

[Tynie Topics]

You’d be here all day trying to explain all the twists and turns that lead to Wankerman & Co removing the club to MK. So let’s not bother.

AFC Wimbledon are heading back to Plough Lane in a couple of years time to a new stadium, they are also equals in league standing to “them”, which will be a remarkable achievement from where they began on Wimbledon Common in 2002. Personally I think at that point they should change the name back to Wimbledon FC and re-instate the original badge, I know not all fans agree with that but at some point I think “normality” should prevail as far as possible.

People will never forgive or forget, but maybe time to move past it all.
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[littlewiggy]

Agree about the name change and badge.

When we were forced to start again at parks level in 1989, we spent £8k we could ill afford (given we also had to ludicrously fight the FAW in the high court for the right to play in Wales) to buy the name "County" from the receivers.

Legally we were prevented from using it for ten years, but as soon as that time had elapsed in 1999, we changed our name from "Newport AFC" back to "Newport County AFC."

Then six years later in 2005 we reinstated the classic club crest.

Both were very important to me as a fan.

Likewise I loathe our nickname of "The Exiles" which apart from that troubled first decade serves no relevance to our 104-year history - hence I've long championed restoring "The Ironsides" nickname.
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[pafcprogs]

I think I heard Mark Clemmett on Radio 5 Live saying the programme just had a squad list instead of the usual 8 pages of details n the opposition...

Nice touch...a bit more subtle than their Karl Robinson banner at least
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Currently disposing of my collection so please email any wants lists to [email protected].
Most Plymouth post 1959 but plenty of others including reserves, friendlies, Cup Finals Internationals and Club issues, handbooks and other sports.

[Ronsaunders]

It will be interesting to see the outrage when, in all likelihood, Kingstonian fail when their plight was that some some opportunists (like that Winkelman character) saw an opportunity to advance their desires (like that Winkelman character) and by doing so, shafted a club (like that Winkelman character). In fairness, that is where the Winkelman comparison ends, as he didn't stop another pastime in MK to get his desires.

[Tynie Topics]

Just to correct you there Ron on a number of points.

Kingstonian were in Administration when their dodgy new owner bought the club and the stadium lease. He latterly wanted to sell the stadium lease, Kingstonian couldn’t buy it so AFCW, who were already tenants and actually only a season old, did buy it via bank loans (which took years to pay off) and a share issue via the Dons Trust. Otherwise both AFCW and Kingstonian would have been homeless at that point.

Kingstonian have effectively played free at Kinsgmeadow since 2003, and keep all match day income including bar takings. They have no other costs associated with the upkeep of the stadium apart from a very minimum rent.

Kingstonian have known for a while that the stadium would be sold should AFCW be successful in moving back to Merton. If you look at the statements on their website they admit the stadium is too big for their needs to even entertain trying to buy it (they average less than 400). AFCW have assisted Kingstonian and are providing a cash payment from the proceeds of the sale to help them in their quest for a new ground.

Nobody was shafted Ron, if AFCW hadn’t bought the lease then the future of both clubs would have been in severe doubt many years ago and we wouldn’t have been discussing this now.

Hopefully Kingstonian are successful in moving to a ground more in keeping with their needs.
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[littlewiggy]

Tynie Topics wrote:

Just to correct you there Ron on a number of points. Kingstonian were in Administration when their dodgy new owner bought the club and the stadium lease. He latterly wanted to sell the stadium lease, Kingstonian couldn’t buy it so AFCW, who were already tenants and actually only a season old, did buy it via bank loans (which took years to pay off) and a share issue via the Dons Trust. Otherwise both AFCW and Kingstonian would have been homeless at that point. Kingstonian have effectively played free at Kinsgmeadow since 2003, and keep all match day income including bar takings. They have no other costs associated with the upkeep of the stadium apart from a very minimum rent. Kingstonian have known for a while that the stadium would be sold should AFCW be successful in moving back to Merton. If you look at the statements on their website they admit the stadium is too big for their needs to even entertain trying to buy it (they average less than 400). AFCW have assisted Kingstonian and are providing a cash payment from the proceeds of the sale to help them in their quest for a new ground. Nobody was shafted Ron, if AFCW hadn’t bought the lease then the future of both clubs would have been in severe doubt many years ago and we wouldn’t have been discussing this now. Hopefully Kingstonian are successful in moving to a ground more in keeping with their needs.

Excellent post Tynie.
That's how I thought I remembered it too.

The only thing AFCW are "guilty" of, is prolonging the life of a fellow shafted club by about 15 years.
Kingstonian would have gone the same way as the likes of Fisher Athletic yonks ago without them.

I only wish my club were half as well run as Wimbledon.
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[bee007]

Wimbledon are no angels themselves. Why have they been allowed to take over someone elses Stadium, just so they can play football back where they came from? Speedway, Greyhound Racing & Stock Car Racing all have a large following of dedicated fans(I agree not on the scale of football) but now all 3 lots of those fans are homeless. There is now no London Speedway Team, no London Greyhound Track, and nowhere in London for Stock Car Racing. Why should they be allowed to turf people out just because they want it. Any respect I had originally for Wimbledon's plight, has now gone. Arsenal and Spurs have also had favourable treatment in getting new Stadiums buy removing other businesses just so they can build what they want. If I wanted to compulsory purchase a football ground to build something I wanted, there would be no chance. Why is football treated so different? Rant over

[Dorking]

Speedway packed up there in 2005, and its demise was nothing to do with AFC Wimbledon.

Spurs spent 20+ years slowly buying up adjacent land as and when it became available. Admittedly the final business burning down was very dodgy, but the Compulsory purchase order would have taken effect anyway.

Spurs new ground is just one part of a big scheme which will probably cost over a billion quid when complete, a massive regeneration including an academicians school, a Saintsbury supermarket (both already open), and a couple of hundred new homes (flats). Why wouldn't the Council want all that investment, new homes and new jobs??

[Tynie Topics]

bee007 wrote:

Wimbledon are no angels themselves. Why have they been allowed to take over someone elses Stadium, just so they can play football back where they came from? Speedway, Greyhound Racing & Stock Car Racing all have a large following of dedicated fans(I agree not on the scale of football) but now all 3 lots of those fans are homeless. There is now no London Speedway Team, no London Greyhound Track, and nowhere in London for Stock Car Racing. Why should they be allowed to turf people out just because they want it. Any respect I had originally for Wimbledon's plight, has now gone. Arsenal and Spurs have also had favourable treatment in getting new Stadiums buy removing other businesses just so they can build what they want. If I wanted to compulsory purchase a football ground to build something I wanted, there would be no chance. Why is football treated so different? Rant over

Wimbledon Stadium was available for sale, AFCW/Developer bid for the land, as did others who wanted to develop the land for continued greyhound racing. There may have been others. Football (and 600 flats) was given the nod after many public inquiries and the application being called in by the Mayors office. The application had to jumped through many hoops and was far from being treated favourably.

It is hardly the fault of AFCW that London has no suitable greyhound venue, isn't Walthamstow lying derelict? Why should the football club stand back whilst the land is offered for sale 500 yards up Plough Lane which in all likelihood would have been turned into even more flats?

Nonsense.
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[Tynie Topics]

littlewiggy wrote:

Excellent post Tynie. That's how I thought I remembered it too. The only thing AFCW are "guilty" of, is prolonging the life of a fellow shafted club by about 15 years. Kingstonian would have gone the same way as the likes of Fisher Athletic yonks ago without them. I only wish my club were half as well run as Wimbledon.

AFCW have made mistakes along the way, nobody is perfect and they had nobody to follow as an example of how to do it, but they try to do the right thing.

Bottom line is that the club is run by the fans for themselves given their original club was removed from them, and against massive odds have made a success of it.

It seems it rubs some people up the wrong way. C'est la vie.
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[littlewiggy]

Tynie Topics wrote:

littlewiggy wrote: Excellent post Tynie. That's how I thought I remembered it too. The only thing AFCW are "guilty" of, is prolonging the life of a fellow shafted club by about 15 years. Kingstonian would have gone the same way as the likes of Fisher Athletic yonks ago without them. I only wish my club were half as well run as Wimbledon. AFCW have made mistakes along the way, nobody is perfect and they had nobody to follow as an example of how to do it, but they try to do the right thing. Bottom line is that the club is run by the fans for themselves given their original club was removed from them, and against massive odds have made a success of it. It seems it rubs some people up the wrong way. C'est la vie.

They may have made mistakes, but I wish a couple of our custodians had possessed some of the foresight theirs have shown.

We started from scratch like they did, only 14 years earlier, and still have no place to call home.

Five different grounds since, in two different towns and one village, and now the WRU are buying Rodney Parade which leaves our future up in the air again.
They couldn't make it any clearer that we're not wanted there.

Our lack of planning for a permanent home of our own is as far away now as it was in 1989.

Meanwhile we continue to try and compete at a decent level with none of the income streams that keep clubs in the lower divisions going - no bar income, no food sales income, no function hire, precious little hospitality income, and no non match-day income whatsoever.

We get no help from our short-sighted council who fail to recognise the importance of the town (now city) having a professional Football League club, but will happily waste six figures building a solid steel 'wave' on the riverbank which they think is art, but the locals think is a complete eyesore.

Since Somerton Park was recklessly levelled for housing in 1993, we've shared with a parks side, an athletics club, and a pair of rugby sides who wantonly wreck the pitch we've poured over £100k into during our short tenure, by still playing games in monsoons.

Hence I dream of the kind of mistakes Wimbledon have made mate.
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