Wimbledon FC: A Warning For All Arsenal Fans

Take a look at our away kit:

http://goonertalk.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/new-away-kit.jpg

It reminds me of the 1988-89 season. That was a good time in my life.

That season started in late August 1988 with a 5-1 away win against Wimbledon at Plough Lane - an absolute shit-hole of a ground that was situated in Merton - a boring, conservative, nothing going on London borough, full of stale civil servants who encourage their children to be referees rather than footballers.

Merton is where the Wimbledon Tennis Championships are held.

It's Middle England on the edge of south-west London.

You don't go clubbing in Merton, instead you go to the garden center and buy plants for your overpriced flat.

Fuck off Merton.

Wimbledon Football Club and its old ground Plough Lane no longer exist. Plough Lane was sold in 1994, while Wimbledon FC died in 2004 when its owners changed the name of the club to MK Dons (after having relocated in 2003 to Milton Keynes).

The beginning of the end for Wimbledon was the Hillsborough disaster of April 1989. The subsequent Taylor Report that resulted from the disaster, stated that all top flight clubs in England and Scotland must play in all-seater stadiums. This law hit Wimbledon hard, because its Plough Lane ground consisted mainly of concrete terracing.

The ex-owners of Wimbledon FC claimed that building a new all seater-stadium was better economically than redeveloping Plough Lane. They promised their fans that they would try and stay in Merton but then claimed to have searched exhaustively with Merton council for a new stadium site in and around Merton - but alas to no avail. Instead, they moved to Selhurst Park in 1991 and ground shared with Crystal Palace for over 10 years. Selhurst Park is 6 and a half miles from Plough Lane.

Plough Lane is now a block of private apartments having been sold to Safeways supermarket (who in turn sold the ground to a private property developer) by former owner Sam Hamman.

Hamman was the first owner to try and relocate the club away from London to a more profitable location. But the FA refused to give him permission to move to Cardiff, Belfast or Dublin - his profitable cities of choice. Hamman seemed to not care that a football club in Britain is seen as an important part of the community that it's based in. He viewed Wimbledon FC as a sports franchise, which has been prevalent in American sports over the decades. Look at the list of American baseball and basketball teams that have moved from one city to the next, changing their name in the process:

The Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles in 1958 and became the LA Dodgers.
The Atlanta Braves were originally the Boston Braves then moved in 1953 to Milwaukee and became the Milwaukee Braves. In 1966, the team moved to Atlanta and became the Atlanta Braves.
The New York Giants baseball team moved to San Fransisco in 1958 and became the San Francisco Giants.
The LA Lakers started life in Detroit before moving to Minneapolis where it got its nickname -The Lakers- after the 10,000 lakes slogan of the Minneapolis area.

Can you imagine Arsenal moving from London to La Coruna, Spain, which is the same distance as Detroit to Minneapolis (682 miles) ? Or Arsenal moving to El Aaiun, Western Sahara, which is the same distance as Minneapolis to Los Angeles (1900 miles) ?

Yes, Arsenal did move from Woolwich, south east London to Highbury back in 1913. The distance was just over 12 miles. The move to The Emirates or Ashburton Grove from Highbury is a mile at most. Wimbledon FC's move to Milton Keynes is roughly 60 miles.

Merton council and Wimbledon F.C. fans wanted the club to move back to a redeveloped Plough Lane during the time the club was ground sharing at Selhurst Park. However, Sam Hamman thought that selling Plough Lane for his own profit was a better idea. He wasn't interested in the future of the club, which is why he never seriously looked for another ground, despite Merton council giving permission for a new 20,000 all-seater ground to be built in their borough. In 1994, Hamman sold Plough Lane for 5 or 8 million pounds (depending on what source you read). None of the money was reinvested back in the club.

In 1997, Hamman sold Wimbledon F.C. to two Norwegian businessmen (Bjorn Rune Gjelsten and Kjell-Inge Rokke) for 22 million pounds. Hamman blamed Merton council for not helping find a new ground, but evidence suggests that he used them as a scapegoat. Hamman had no intention of helping Wimbledon F.C. He would argue that during his time as owner of Wimbledon F.C. that the club new owner Charles Koppel said it would be too expensive for him to buy back the land sold by previous owner Sam Hamman. But then buying the land for a new stadium in Milton Keynes would cost the same amount of money.

Wimbledon's Norwegian owners saw a money making opportunity in having a professional football club in Milton Keynes. Until they moved there, none existed. The encatchement area. The owners of Wimbledon don't care about the fans. They need the fans but they don't care where the fans reside or where they come from. All they care about is having fans that will spend money on their club.

Sam Hamman unfortunately sold the club to the wrong type of businessmen. From the moment the Norwegian businessmen joined the Wimbledon board star players started being sold. Koppel looked at other avenues to make the club profitable including holding talks with Queens Park Rangers FC about a possible merger. Pete Winkelman Inter MK consortium.

The FA have a lot to answer in this embarrassing episode (1) for in allowing Wimbledon to recollect 62 miles north to Milton Keynes; and (2) to rename themselves MK Dons.

Was I at the game that day? No, I was in Glasgow watching Rangers thrash Celtic 5-1 with my dad. It was and still is my only Old Firm match. It was a great day out.