AFC Wimbledon

Return to Plough Lane, new stadium....whats not to like.

The slow demise of greyhound racing in London?

How they sold Kingstonian down the river by selling Kingsmeadow to Chelsea?

Quoted from GollyGTFC

How they sold Kingstonian down the river by selling Kingsmeadow to Chelsea?

Seems to be a bit of a popular misrepresentation of the truth, this one. Kingstonian were owned by Rajesh Khosla, who had previously bought the club for around £500k. Wimbledon had been paying Kingstonian a sizeable fee for each game they staged at Kingsmeadow, when it was Khosla himself who instigated the deal to sell the ground for his own personal financial gain. Here's what he had to say at the time:

"I have agreed to sell the 110-year lease to AFC Wimbledon subject to them getting the approval of their supporters on Monday. It is a good deal for the clubs and for me. I will receive £2.5 million after buying the club for £445,000, though in total it has cost me nearly £600,000 The deal stipulates that Ks will be given a long lease at a reasonable rent."

In effect, the deal reversed AFC Wimbledon's role from tenants to landlord. However, the presence of this long-term lease agreement meant that they were unable to unilaterally sell the stadium to Chelsea without reaching an agreement with by this time fan-owned Kingstonian. They mutually agreed a financial compensation package and vacated the ground accordingly.

Undoubtedly some shady dealings involved in that series of events, but I'm not sure it's fair to paint Wimbledon as the villains.

I can't speak for the greyhound stadium, however I assume the plot had only become available because it was financially unviable - again not any fault of Wimbledon's. Correct me if I'm wrong on that.

Well said Poojah. That old canard that Golly repeated needs to be put to bed once and for all.

Before Khosla took over the Ks, they were in severe financial difficulties having spent huge sums (for them) on an unsustainable squad in the late 90s. They had a cracking team.

As for the the demise of dog racing, if it’s bothering many people they don’t seem to have done anything to revive it.

Anyway, back to AFCW. Superb achievement. My only slight regret is not being able to easily walk to a match I want to see any more  

PS to say Wimbledon are in any way responsible for Kingstonian’s predicament is a bit like blaming a small shopkeeper for selling his shop to a big chain while the shop’s former owner is unemployed.

When we played them in the the cup I went into the greyhound stadium by mistake thinking it was Plough Lane...Sad to say but at the time it was in better condition than Plough Lane.

Quoted from Boris Johnson

Return to Plough Lane, new stadium....whats not to like.

That sounds great to me and the only thing more I would like, is for them to score a few more goals.
I have got them on the Fishy Pontoon Buster.