Guest BirdonaMaguire Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 Steady on MK aren't the first side to do this though Arsenal did it way back when, moved North of the river. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluesteel Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 Didnt know that about Arsenal. I dont really want to join in the Wimbledon/MK Dons bashing, but I would suppose that although moving Arsenal north of the river would remove them from its original community, at least it wasnt as far as Wimbledon to MK Dons. It must have been awful for Wimbledon fans, even if there weren't many of them. Milton Keynes has the potential to support a decent sized club, but taking over a clubs name and transporting them so far away is pretty uncomfortable. I wouldnt blame the fans though, if Sheffield for some bizarre reason only had one club that was way down the non league ladder and a brand new team turned up in the Championship I daresay many people would rather watch that over time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BirdonaMaguire Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 Didnt know that about Arsenal. I dont really want to join in the Wimbledon/MK Dons bashing, but I would suppose that although moving Arsenal north of the river would remove them from its original community, at least it wasnt as far as Wimbledon to MK Dons. It must have been awful for Wimbledon fans, even if there weren't many of them. Milton Keynes has the potential to support a decent sized club, but taking over a clubs name and transporting them so far away is pretty uncomfortable. I wouldnt blame the fans though, if Sheffield for some bizarre reason only had one club that was way down the non league ladder and a brand new team turned up in the Championship I daresay many people would rather watch that over time. The club's relative geographic isolation resulted in lower attendances than those of other clubs, which led to the club becoming mired in financial problems and effectively bankrupt by 1910, when they were taken over by businessmen Henry Norris and William Hall.[5] Norris sought to move the club elsewhere, and in 1913, soon after relegation back to the Second Division, Arsenal moved to the new Arsenal Stadium in Highbury, North London; they dropped "Woolwich" from their name the following year.[6] Arsenal only finished in fifth place in 1919, but were nevertheless elected to rejoin the First Division at the expense of local rivals Tottenham Hotspur, by reportedly dubious means.[7] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest marston Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 Erm since when has 17,717 been a sell out for a 22k stadium? That was the Leicester gate by the way, both games against L**ds were under this figure. As for Wimbledon's gates in the PL, the amount of away fans from Manchester and Liverpool usually ensured a sell out, not home followings The set capacity includes every seat in the stadium. However, some seats are not sold for segregation purposes - not an issue when England Under 21 played there. I agree with your point about the away fans. For that reason,the ground in MK would easily sell out for certain PL matches. Such is the draw of the PL however that Wimbledon actually once had a crowd of over 20k at Selhurst comprised overwhelmingly of home fans. The occasion was in May 2000, the Dons last home match in the PL against Villa who brought under 3k with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BirdonaMaguire Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 The set capacity includes every seat in the stadium. However, some seats are not sold for segregation purposes - not an issue when England Under 21 played there. I agree with your point about the away fans. For that reason,the ground in MK would easily sell out for certain PL matches. Such is the draw of the PL however that Wimbledon actually once had a crowd of over 20k at Selhurst comprised overwhelmingly of home fans. The occasion was in May 2000, the Dons last home match in the PL against Villa who brought under 3k with them. Given how Stadium:Mk is set up there is no way 4k is used for segregation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AltyOwl Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 Didnt know that about Arsenal. I dont really want to join in the Wimbledon/MK Dons bashing, but I would suppose that although moving Arsenal north of the river would remove them from its original community, at least it wasnt as far as Wimbledon to MK Dons. It must have been awful for Wimbledon fans, even if there weren't many of them. Milton Keynes has the potential to support a decent sized club, but taking over a clubs name and transporting them so far away is pretty uncomfortable. I wouldnt blame the fans though, if Sheffield for some bizarre reason only had one club that was way down the non league ladder and a brand new team turned up in the Championship I daresay many people would rather watch that over time. Though definitely not directly comparable, you could say that with Sheffield FC, with Wednesday coming along and taking the support. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest marston Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 Given how Stadium:Mk is set up there is no way 4k is used for segregation I don't think the Club has always had a licence for 22k people. At the end of 07/08 the last game against Morecambe sold out but only 17,500 tickets were available. The main point I'm trying to make is if the Club makes the PL at least half a dozen matches would sell out no problem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lincs Owl Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 I wonder if the people who seem to hate Milton Keynes folk for supporting what was Wimbledon, feel the same way about.... Meadowbank who left Edinburgh for Livingston and changed their name. or Clyde, who left Glasgow for Cumbernauld and will probably eventually change name. Weren't those 2 clubs also doing basically the same thing.. ie moving to a Government 'new town' to improve attendance figures. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wath-owl Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 I wonder if the people who seem to hate Milton Keynes folk for supporting what was Wimbledon, feel the same way about.... Meadowbank who left Edinburgh for Livingston and changed their name. or Clyde, who left Glasgow for Cumbernauld and will probably eventually change name. Weren't those 2 clubs also doing basically the same thing.. ie moving to a Government 'new town' to improve attendance figures. Nobody gives a sh*t about Scotland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Donman Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 They already had a local football team.....MK Borough who played in the South Midlands league and had a nice little ground and was well run. AFC Wimbledon had to start at that level and made it to the FL If the MK Dons fans were true football fans and wanted to support their 'local club'....why did they not support MK Borough? No....they are in the same league as the fans of the who do not support their local team but prefer to support Arsenal, Manure Ited etc. Do not come the 'support their local team' stuff on here.......they support MK Dons because it was a FL league club that was given to them at the expense of real football fans who did support their local team from non-league to Div 1! Don't forget also that the 'National Hockey Stadium' was used for the first couple of years or so to accommodate this 'highjacked' football team. We often get asked about supporting our local team. The extract from Wikki explains that the owners of Wimbledon bought the club. Who knows what would have happened if they hadn't but people of Milton Keynes can't be accused of not supporting their local team when it was taken away from them The first version was a Southern League team founded in 1956 as Bletchley and WIPAC Football club before changing their name a year later to Bletchley Town. The club changed name again in 1974 to become Milton Keynes City.[2] The club posted woeful finishes, never finishing in the top half of their league.[1] The club's only real achievement was victory in the 1979–80 Berks & Bucks Senior Cup.[3] In 1979, after yet another awful season which saw the club finish second from bottom,[1] Ron Noades, the chairman of Wimbledon, entered talks with the Milton Keynes Development Corporation in 1979 about the possibility of moving the south London club to Milton Keynes.[4] At this time Noades purchased Milton Keynes City and Wimbledon directors including Sam Hammam, Bernie Coleman and Jimmy Rose became Milton Keynes City directors on top of their roles in south London. The plan was to merge the two clubs to produce a club using Wimbledon's place in the Football League under the Milton Keynes City banner. The idea was subsequently abandoned, however, and Milton Keynes City was sold on.[5] More terrible seasons followed before the club floundered during 1984–85.[2] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SiJ Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 I'm waiting for the day that an opposing fan starts the thread. . . "_______ fan in deceleration of war" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEnchanter Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 Who cares about them as a club. We should only care about getting 3 points tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scram Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 They already had a local football team.....MK Borough who played in the South Midlands league and had a nice little ground and was well run. As mentioned above it was Milton Keynes City - their ground was basically an open field with a rialing round the pitch and one stand - which was curiously condemned and therefore boarded up but also listed as it was reputed to the oldest stand in the country. The club wasn't well run and beset by financial trouble (as are most at that level) - they also played outside MK (there's a shock!) and by the old railway engineering works in Wolverton There were other clubs similarly in the MK locality that could equally have been the setting for an MK based club (New Bradwell St Peter/Old Bradwell St Peter for eg) - but MK City bore the MK name - even though they played outside the city! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mkowl Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 Milton Keynes basically developed around existing villages. One of those villages was in fact called Milton Keynes, where the city then got its name from. So technically they all played outside Milton Keynes. The pysche of the place is not to wait for things to happen but make things happen. Football club was no different Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scram Posted September 9, 2011 Share Posted September 9, 2011 Isn't MK really a borough anyway? The point i was making is that a lot of people seem to have this idea that Milton Keynes City was the club that should have been invested in if MK wanted a league club - but they were playing in another nearby little town anyway - having taken the place of the previous club. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Triplej2 Posted September 10, 2011 Share Posted September 10, 2011 milton keynes last season wer best day out for ages and it was the only stadium that actually made you feel welcome,no knobhead stewards bossing you about and all that crap and i actuall thought the stadium was superb,best new one by a country mile Call yourself a realist? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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