stealthpapesFrom Despair To Where?WestYorksRoyal As a thought experiment with MK Dons, I often wonder if they could have achieved more had the owners with the bright idea done everything organically. Started a club at the bottom and pushed them through the leagues at AFC Wimbledon ultimately did. It would create more of an identity as Milton Keynes' club.
As it is, the club is tainted and it holds them back in a place as populated as MK. It will take >50 years for people to forget how they came into existence, and true football fans in the area may well default to supporting a north London club or Watford/Luton.
Put it this way, if I had kids around where I currently live I'd give them a day out to see Bradford or Huddersfield (not Leeds). If I lived around Milton Keynes, there's no way I'd take them to see MK Dons.
There's a lot of Burnley fans in Keighley.
While there is a moor in the way, they're basically next to each other. Guess the trains don't quite make it over. Ilkley is probably just nearer to Leeds, but even railway man here can't work out how I'd get to Burnley from there.
In to Bradford or Leeds and out again I would imagine.