FA Cup - MK Dons

[MouldyRoyal]

I thought it was some sort of shared ownership/recognition of the prior honours etc?

[Alexander Litvinenko]

I thought it was some sort of shared ownership/recognition of the prior honours etc?

They've gone back to ownership of the London Borough of Merton, and are on display in a museum there. But there's nothing to stop them being transferred to AFCW in future.

The important thing is that MKD have done their bit and handed them over, renouncing any claim to the past history of Wimbledon FC.

[Christof]

The Dons are a wart of the face of football ............ but, if they hadn't been bought and moved, does anyone really think that they would still exist. AFC Wimbledon would still have been required to de-Rangerisfy the situation. They have very few fans.

Now the truth is, they should've been allowed to die and someone that deserved it be promoted in their place. But not for one minute do I think that the current Dons cost Wimbledon their place in the league.

And just to be clear, living amongst them makes me feel no better about the fact that they should've come through the league ranks in the proper way.

As a fellow MK-dweller, I have mixed feelings:-
GOOD
- facilities (fantastic new stadium, hotel, Ikea and ASDA for the ladies, new retail park going up)
- community schemes (coaching at local schools/clubs, very good youth set-up)
- economy (jobs, amenities that wouldn't have been here if the deal hadn't happened)

BAD
- franchising (should never happen again)
- negative publicity (this place gets enough crap written about it already)
- missed opportunity (for me the big one - he could have saved MK City, who went out of business around the same time that Wimbledon moved up north, but that wouldn't have delivered the property deal)

Ultimately, MK Dons are not going to vanish, so the AFC Wimbledon fans who wish this to happen may as well stop wasting their energy and direct it to something more positive. At the same time, the hatred towards MK Dons will be around I suspect for a generation at least, so Winkelman will need to carry on eating humble pie (whilst doing very nicely thanks) for a good while yet.

[Franchise FC]

The Dons are a wart of the face of football ............ but, if they hadn't been bought and moved, does anyone really think that they would still exist. AFC Wimbledon would still have been required to de-Rangerisfy the situation. They have very few fans.

Now the truth is, they should've been allowed to die and someone that deserved it be promoted in their place. But not for one minute do I think that the current Dons cost Wimbledon their place in the league.

And just to be clear, living amongst them makes me feel no better about the fact that they should've come through the league ranks in the proper way.

As a fellow MK-dweller, I have mixed feelings:-
GOOD
- facilities (fantastic new stadium, hotel, Ikea and ASDA for the ladies, new retail park going up)
- community schemes (coaching at local schools/clubs, very good youth set-up)
- economy (jobs, amenities that wouldn't have been here if the deal hadn't happened)

BAD
- franchising (should never happen again)
- negative publicity (this place gets enough crap written about it already)
- missed opportunity (for me the big one - he could have saved MK City, who went out of business around the same time that Wimbledon moved up north, but that wouldn't have delivered the property deal)

Ultimately, MK Dons are not going to vanish, so the AFC Wimbledon fans who wish this to happen may as well stop wasting their energy and direct it to something more positive. At the same time, the hatred towards MK Dons will be around I suspect for a generation at least, so Winkelman will need to carry on eating humble pie (whilst doing very nicely thanks) for a good while yet.

I'm quite happy with the bad press MK gets as a place to live - let the rest of the country leave us to enjoy it
When it (finally) gets city status then renaming as MK City seems the logical answer
In the meantime, because we're not natives, MK Dons holds absolutely no interest for any of us. It's the mini Franchisees that may be the ones to change that

[Ian Royal]

I know an MK fan and he's a good bloke, so I'm a bit biased.

I agree it should never have happened and that it was totally wrong. But it did happen. It happened years ago. It's got nothing to do with most of the fans of the club and there's no way to fix it now that's workable. It's been made so nothing can be repeated. It's just another sordid affair in the pretty sordid history for football. They're just another club like all the others as far as I'm concerned now.

[Big Foot]

http://www.afcwimbledon.co.uk/news/arti ... 88954.aspx

AFC Wimbledon to review fans' arrangements for the trip

[Stuka]

[PieEater]

From my recollection of the move to MK it wasn't as simple as the press are making out, IIRC Sam Hamman sold the club to some dodgy Icelandics who sold it to Koppel who then sold it to WInkleman. It was Koppel that agreed with the move when he realised they'd been sold a turkey and looked for a profitable way out, Winkleman was shopping around a number of clubs to get his "enabling development" and Koppel agreed. So Wimbledon were the victims of a series of dodgy chairmen and property developers, starting with Hamman who eventually sold Plough lane and built a supermarket and ending with Winkleman who bought the club to build a supermarket.

And just to counter TMDs point, in their final season at Selhurst the attendance dipped below 1000 and IIRC below 100 at one point.

[Royalist]

Cannot understand why so many 'MK' fans crawled out of the woodwork for that game. They never get that many at home but some people decided to go down and support MK for that game. Mind boggles.

Nice stadium, went with the now dead Windsor and Eton, but far too big for them the fact there is a top tier waiting for seats makes me laugh when its half empty as it is!

[Rev Algenon Stickleback H]

Cannot understand why so many 'MK' fans crawled out of the woodwork for that game. They never get that many at home but some people decided to go down and support MK for that game. Mind boggles.

High profile match attracting more fans than usual.

It must be a first.

[Royalist]

Yes and i bet many of the AFC Wimbledon fans that went are not regulars but when you don't go regularly i don't get the mind set of people that would come out in support of MK in that game!

[Alexander Litvinenko]

I think a lot of neutrals went because of the high-profile of the game. I toyed with the idea of going, and of course I'd have only been able to get tickets in the home areas - but that doesn't mean I'd have been supporting MKD.

[Royalist]

No doubt a few might be honestly just be rubberneckers but not that many. Far more than they ever get!

[Stuka]

I think a lot of neutrals went because of the high-profile of the game. I toyed with the idea of going, and of course I'd have only been able to get tickets in the home areas - but that doesn't mean I'd have been supporting MKD.

I also thought about it but I'd feel a bit like a voyeur, gazing at other people's business. I'd also already got a ticket for the Man Utd game and one game a week is enough for me.

[Christof]

Cannot understand why so many 'MK' fans crawled out of the woodwork for that game. They never get that many at home but some people decided to go down and support MK for that game. Mind boggles.

3 pages in local rag (including full page advert), kids for £1, only £15 adult (as opposed to £20 normally), meant an extra 5k 'home' fans on the gate

Nice stadium, went with the now dead Windsor and Eton, but far too big for them the fact there is a top tier waiting for seats makes me laugh when its half empty as it is!

The extra tier is to be able to attract other sporting (e.g. Northampton Saints rugby) and non-sporting events (gigs etc.), as there are few Home Counties venues with that sort of capacity. I'm sure they're hoping to fill it with MK Dons fans eventually, but not yet...

[Royalist]

How can a tier with no seats attract them right now? It cannot be used?

MK Bowl going to take the bigger stadium acts i'd of thought?

[Christof]

How can a tier with no seats attract them right now? It cannot be used?

MK Bowl going to take the bigger stadium acts i'd of thought?

Not yet, but it will be ready for next season (paid for by the new shopping centre behind the north end).

The Bowl has a capacity of 65k or so, which is great for huge summer events, but too big for other arena-sized bands on tour, so they'll be no doubt hoping to attract bands that play at the Ricoh, Pride Park etc. They were talking about taking over the Bowl and turning it into their training ground at one point, but that seems to have gone quiet.

[MouldyRoyal]

I really like this gif.

[Mr Optimist]

I know an MK fan and he's a good bloke, so I'm a bit biased.

I agree it should never have happened and that it was totally wrong. But it did happen. It happened years ago. It's got nothing to do with most of the fans of the club and there's no way to fix it now that's workable. It's been made so nothing can be repeated. It's just another sordid affair in the pretty sordid history for football. They're just another club like all the others as far as I'm concerned now.

Like a child born that is conceived by a rape victim.

[Christof]

Footnote: local MK rag's front page story this week was:-

AFC Fans' Dirty Protest Shame

Apparently, the away fans decided to 'decorate' the facilities, in a way that even the likes of Leeds and Millwall hadn't...

http://www.miltonkeynes.co.uk/news/loca ... -1-4557310

Cue another war of words between fans of each club (yawn)...