AFC Wimbledon New Ground Proposal

Is this it? Will we finally have a ground of our own in the borough of Merton for the first time since 1991?

The club has drafted plans to build an 11,000-capacity stadium. The plans allow for the stadium to be expanded to 20,000 at a later date, presumably subject to meeting league requirements should the club be promoted a few divisions!

Galliard Homes are partnering the proposal and the idea is to build some 600 new homes, and commercial outlets as part of the redevelopment.

The proposed site is the current Greyhound Stadium although there are alternatives plans that have been submitted. AFC Wimbledon chief executive Erik Samuelson said: “There is a long way to go before our plans become a reality.” (Source: AFCW Official site)

Indeed there is a long way to go as the plans need the support of Merton Council before a formal application can be submitted.

Either way, raising the £16m estimated build cost will be hard. Yes, it’s not as much as the Emirates Stadium cost, but for a club with lean resources and without a billionaire owner, it will be a hard but not impossible.

So is this it? WIll we finally have a stadium in Merton of our own? I’m beginning to believe again!

Off Topic – AFC Wimbledon & Saracens

So this is my first real blog, other than that strange greeting WordPress issued for me (nice thought, bit cheesy?), and I am going off topic straight away!

I want to start by writing something about sport – well, two sports in particular – Football and Rugby. 

I am immensely proud that my team, AFC Wimbledon, achieved promotion to the league last season. It seems somehow that an element of order and correctness has been restored to the game of football after Wimbledon FC and its supporters were shamefully let down by the FA in 2002. 

Conceived in May 2002 by a small handful of die-hard supporters, the new club carried the torch of the old club, its spirit, ethos and history. In under a decade, the new AFCW achieved five promotions in nine years and restored its league status after having been unceremoniously robbed of it by the FA, the so-called guardians of the sport in this country. Like a phoenix from the ashes (I’m gushing now), the new Crazy Gang have returned and proved that fans can run a club better than most!

I was at Wembley on 14th May 1988 to witness the Crazy Gang defeat the Culture Club (to paraphrase John Motson), and I have long thought that was the best day in the club’s history. But it isn’t. Not any more. Roll over 14th May 1988, and hello 21st May 2011! Righting a wrong, A-team style, the New Crazy Gang won promotion to the League in dramatic fashion, and that is now the best day in the club’s history.

As for Rugby, my team Saracens won the league last season. Immensely proud again, and not least because I feel an added affinity for this club because my eldest (a girl) plays for Saracens under-7s (well under-8s in the coming season).

Closing thought: it’s nice to  support a couple of teams that occasionally win things but to win every season must become a little stale after a while. 

Hopefully, the muse of blogs will inspire me to write something more in line with the reason I started this blog: the general theme of  musings on life and tax. Let’s hope life and tax can be as inspiring as AFC Wimbledon and Saracens! 

Paolo Michele Maranzana