Post by loy PRA on Dec 9, 2016 15:35:06 GMT
And so, the first league meeting of one of the biggest schisms in British football.
Looking back, it was all extremely interesting. The move had been mooted long before the 2003 date and there was even talk of franchising Wimbledon off as far as Dublin, attempting to cash in on the Irish market for the premier league. They also for a time were chaired by the particularly unpleasant chairman Sam Hammam who went on to chair Cardiff City to quite considerable success.
I am not particularly sure of the history, but Wimbledon seemed to have a lot of Norwegian investment during their latter premier league years and favoured a business plan to move Wimbledon away from London and face less competition from other, bigger London clubs. It seems a strange move from a financial point of view in retrospect, given the wealth and player pool of the capital but I am told Leyton Orient have considered it due losing a traditional fanbase in East London with immigration to/emigration from the area.
Looking back, it was perhaps allowed as somewhat ultimately failed experiment in club moves. MK was an ideal location due to the fact it was a manufactured overspill commuter town where people were used to things being effectively made. FA Bods would've been interested to see whether this sort of move could be successful and indeed, replicated. Also prevalent being the American sports culture of teams being moved about relatively frequently depending on the team's financial or on the field success, which fitted in with Peter Winkelman's 'vision', rather than simply growing the team from the ground up.
At the same time, the Wimbledon F.C did have serious problems. The move to selhurst park was a poor idea, football had outgrown their particular brand of bullying physicality of kicking other teams from the pitch, and towards the end the fans simply didn't turn up. All the more ironic that without the distraction, in their first season back in the first division they could've went straight back up to the Premier League as they had David Connolly banging in the goals.
Be interesting to see what happens, I have a slight preference for AFCW, despite the fact they didn't really do anything for non-league football apart from use it as a vehicle to return (return?) Wimbledon to the football league. Can't see the same situation ever happening again in football.
Looking back, it was all extremely interesting. The move had been mooted long before the 2003 date and there was even talk of franchising Wimbledon off as far as Dublin, attempting to cash in on the Irish market for the premier league. They also for a time were chaired by the particularly unpleasant chairman Sam Hammam who went on to chair Cardiff City to quite considerable success.
I am not particularly sure of the history, but Wimbledon seemed to have a lot of Norwegian investment during their latter premier league years and favoured a business plan to move Wimbledon away from London and face less competition from other, bigger London clubs. It seems a strange move from a financial point of view in retrospect, given the wealth and player pool of the capital but I am told Leyton Orient have considered it due losing a traditional fanbase in East London with immigration to/emigration from the area.
Looking back, it was perhaps allowed as somewhat ultimately failed experiment in club moves. MK was an ideal location due to the fact it was a manufactured overspill commuter town where people were used to things being effectively made. FA Bods would've been interested to see whether this sort of move could be successful and indeed, replicated. Also prevalent being the American sports culture of teams being moved about relatively frequently depending on the team's financial or on the field success, which fitted in with Peter Winkelman's 'vision', rather than simply growing the team from the ground up.
At the same time, the Wimbledon F.C did have serious problems. The move to selhurst park was a poor idea, football had outgrown their particular brand of bullying physicality of kicking other teams from the pitch, and towards the end the fans simply didn't turn up. All the more ironic that without the distraction, in their first season back in the first division they could've went straight back up to the Premier League as they had David Connolly banging in the goals.
Be interesting to see what happens, I have a slight preference for AFCW, despite the fact they didn't really do anything for non-league football apart from use it as a vehicle to return (return?) Wimbledon to the football league. Can't see the same situation ever happening again in football.