Some time, years back when my oldest son now age 42, was still at school, I recall endeavouring to encourage him to keep his studies up to speed, by promising to take him to every FA Cup home match that the then Wimbledon FC, based in Plough Lane Wimbledon, was playing in. The ground was pretty basic with supporters mainly standing up; snacks of hot dogs and drinks of Bovril were the only sustenance on offer when attending games in cold weather. Much to my surprise Wimbledon failed to be knocked out of the cup so we became frequent supporters,
Unexpectedly at least to me at the time, in 1988, Wimbledon went on to beat Liverpool 1- nil at the final at Wembley. My blog post about this previously is at:
Following the changes made to Wimbledon FC, their much criticised move to Milton Keynes and the renaming of the club as MK Dons, local friends formed a new AFC Wimbledon football club, affectionately known as "The Dons" which played on a rented ground nearer to Kingston upon Thames, than to Wimbledon.
Later the Dons bought the Kingston ground, which was recently sold by the club, to Chelsea Ladies FC for a tidy sum. New premises near to the club's original ground were purchased and this, led to the building of a new stadium for AFC Wimbledon. The new stadium will be opening for the Dons' first match there, on Tuesday 3rd November 2020 (against Doncaster Rovers).
Funding the new ground over and above the sale proceeds from the old, is largely being achieved through local supporters buying stakes, though I believe an American has made an offer either to buy the club or to invest by contributing c. 22% of the building costs. So far as I am aware, the size of local subscriptions, has meant that there is currently no need to sell. Given the present Covid-19 caused, ban on supporters visiting football grounds, there may however be a need for some new capital in the months ahead.
Meanwhile, ironically AFC Wimbledon's final match prior to their move to the new stadium will be today against MK Dons. Although some of the tension between the two clubs has dissipated following the provision MK Dons to AFC Wimbledon of the 1988 FA Cup itself, matches between to the two clubs are still what may be termed "Grudge Matches".
So "C'mon you Dons".
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