Chester Perry wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 03, 2020 9:30 am

It finally happens tonight - AFC Wimbledon will play a match at Plough Lane - the real sorrow is there will be no fans there to see it - from the Telegraph

AFC Wimbledon gear up for bittersweet return to Plough Lane after 29-year absence
JIM WHITE NOVEMBER 03, 2020

When AFC Wimbledon play their first match at their new Plough Lane stadium, against Doncaster Rovers on Tuesday, it will be an evening of mixed emotion for the club's commercial director Ivor Heller.

“It’s amazing, incredible, but horrendous all at the same time,” says Heller, who was one of the founder members of the club when it was formed from the ashes when the old Wimbledon was franchised into MK Dons. “Our whole story is about the fans. We’ve been in wilderness for nearly 30 years and when we finally get to reach the promised land, everyone is locked out. None of our fans, the people who built us, can be there. You could say it is typical Wimbledon. We’ve never done anything the easy way. Nobody ever handed us anything on a platter.”

It is 29 years ago since Wimbledon FC played their last fixture in their home borough, against Crystal Palace at the old Plough Lane ground which has since been modernised into a housing development. At the heart of their story - as the club first squatted at Selhurst Park, then was forcibly relocated 30 miles north to Buckinghamshire before being reborn as a fan-owned phoenix operation in Kingston - has been an insistence on one day returning home.

“Being in Plough Lane was 100 per cent critical to everything we stood for,” says Heller. “To me we wouldn’t properly be Wimbledon unless we got back to the borough of Merton. We never made a secret of that ambition right from the start.” And now they are back, in a £36 million, 9,300 capacity new stadium, built where the old dog track used to be. Funded in part by a bond scheme which raised more than £5million from the club’s supporters, the opening of the place has only been held back six weeks by the pandemic.

“Construction carried on throughout the first lockdown, though it had to slow a bit to follow social distancing rules,” explains Heller. “But actually we were blessed by the sunshine. This spring and summer has been perfect building weather.”

When the ground opens, there will be none of the old school, Crazy Gang Plough Lane in evidence. The pitch is a carpet, there is ample hot water in the visitors' dressing room, everywhere is sleek comfort rather than tumbledown squalor. More to the point, the new construction has several innovations which will enable it to deliver sustainable income. There are conferencing facilities, a 500-seat lounge, a club museum including Vinnie Jones’s 1988 FA Cup winner’s medal. Plus a pub which, once lockdown has abated, will be open seven days a week. That, though, is not the end of the story: there is planning permission to extend the capacity to 20,000.

“I think there is a market for that sort of scale,” Heller reckons. “I think people will come here and really enjoy themselves in a safe and modern environment. I feel now we have this facility, we’ll be on to something. This is not just a massive prospect for us, but for the whole of the borough.”

Though to Heller’s evident dismay, initially there will be no one able to experience at first hand the club’s new spiritual home.

“Telling fans and sponsors that sorry, there’s nothing I can do to get you in has been heart breaking,” he says. “But being involved with this club has taught me to be a glass half full type of guy. I’m hopeful by the end of this season we’ll be getting crowds back in. And the start of next season, it will be back to capacity attendances.”

And for him that is when things will finally have come home.

“The first time we can have a full house here, that will be our party. Until then we’re marking time.”

Paul Waine wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 03, 2020 7:46 pm

Burnley played the last game against Wimbledon at Selhurst Park before they moved to MK - becoming MK Dons some time later. This was the last game of the "ITV Digital" season and was the last game many of the Clarets team that day played for us.

ClaretTony wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 03, 2020 8:06 pm

This isn’t quite correct. The game you refer to was the final game of the 2002/03 season but the ITV Digital season was 2001/02. It was also not the last game before the move to MK. They started the following season at Selhurst Park. We were the first team to play them though in MK at the hockey stadium.

Chester Perry wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 03, 2020 8:00 pm

from the MMT thread this morning

TsarBomba wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 03, 2020 8:00 pm

I worked in Wimbledon for 4-5 years and lived around the corner from where the stadium now is, replacing the dilapidated dog track. It’s been a helluva journey.

But spare a thought for Kingstonian. Chelsea and Wimbledon pretty much carved up Kingsmeadow between them, and Kingstonian ended up ground sharing with Leatherhead. To get back to where they are now, Wimbledon dislodged another club from theirs.

Paul Waine wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 03, 2020 9:16 pm

Yes, I'm "painting pictures" and creating links with the Clarets. I believe 14 Clarets were released before the game at Selhurst Park, including some of the emerging developments squad. Every contract that could be terminated was terminated. That was all down to ITV Digital. I agree their default was earlier. (Covid-19 may also cast a long shadow).

ClaretTony wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 03, 2020 10:28 pm

Beresford, Davis, Armstrong & Taylor played their last games for us that day as did Waine & Papadopoulos who came on as subs. With all the money I the world I can’t imagine any of those would have been kept other than Taylor.

cricketfieldclarets wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 03, 2020 10:44 pm

I dunno. Papadopoulos had a better time of it for the next five years than we did up until the point we went up.

He was player of the year (which he won several times in his career) top scorer and title winner for panathanaikos as well as playing at the olympics and winning a euros.

I suspect he would have been easily good enough for us at that level. The others Taylor aside I agree were well past it.

Herts Clarets wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 03, 2020 8:39 pm

I was in MK on Thursday and trying to the significance of the Asda store to the next for stadium to my son. Our one and only visit there was for the 5-0 win in the run of 23 23 undefeated. Really pleased to see Wimbledon back in their home borough. I remember a poster called Wisa Si on the old board when the whole move was going through.

Targetman wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 04, 2020 9:11 am

We also played there in the FA Cup, a certain Mr Coyle's final game as manager

Dark Cloud wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 05, 2020 7:45 am

Fantastic story and good luck to them. An often forgotten/overlooked PL mainstay of the 90's.

tiger76 wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 05, 2020 10:31 am

Yes they managed 14 straight seasons in the top flight as well as their famous FA Cup win of 1988, and they definitely upset the big boys with their antics, I love it when somebody does that, it's hard to imagine for younger readers, but Luton, Oxford and Wimbledon were powerhouse teams in the mid to late 1980's.

dibraidio wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 05, 2020 2:22 pm

Ironic that the thread was started by someone from Milton Keynes?

whentheballmoves wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 05, 2020 10:45 am

So pleased for them.
I watched them at Bedfont Sports, right near one of the London airports, on the day Burnley played the other club at the national hockey stadium (last minute May o.g. for a 2-2- draw?)
They were delighted to see several Clarets there.
I sold about 80 copies of the fanzine, and ended up being interviewed by the Financial Times on the Tube of the way home,

ClaretTony wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 05, 2020 3:15 pm

Being up here in the NW I went to a local non-league game that day when we drew 2-2 at the hockey stadium. I've been since but only once they had formally admitted they were a franchise and handed back the history of the club to its rightful place.

Devils_Advocate wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 05, 2020 3:22 pm

What about Asda, have you been back inside one of their stores yet?

ClaretTony wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 05, 2020 3:15 pm

Being up here in the NW I went to a local non-league game that day when we drew 2-2 at the hockey stadium. I've been since but only once they had formally admitted they were a franchise and handed back the history of the club to its rightful place.

SussexDon1inIreland wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 05, 2020 2:49 pm

Always had a soft spot for the Dons punching above their weight in the Premier League - had some great players as well like Robbie Earl,
then I went to several matches when they restarted as ~AFC Wimbledon and it was at first 'park football' and it was great to see how they worked their way up back into the football league. I also was at the game above that 'whentheballmoves' mentioned above.

The only time I didn't like the Dons was when they were non league and beat Burnley at Turf Moor in the FA Cup in the 70's 1-0

It took me years to live down that defeat.

UTC

whentheballmoves wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 05, 2020 3:31 pm

It was in the days of really cheap return tickets to London from Sheffield, say around £20,so i didn't mind.


I've still never been to MK, and don't intend to, unless I can get a free ticket, thus giving them £0!!!

Didn't supporters groups go to Camelot, Alton Towers and the like instead that day?!

dibraidio wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 05, 2020 2:22 pm

Ironic that the thread was started by someone from Milton Keynes?