The Lounge

[MacWomble]

The romance of the Cup. Now the boys can concentrate on the league (as they say). And there is an ex-Spurs manager on the look, if we are bold enough. Regardless, we seem to be roughly where we were at the same point last season. If we keep up these Groundhog seasons, then we might just make New Plough Lane in one piece. Work workmen work!

[Cape Cod Womble]

After not seeing the Dons since Peterborough away in September, I’ve just done two rather unlikely away jaunts. Firstly Saturday at Blackpool was just imminently forgettable. Only one shot on goal and we never looked like getting anything out of the game. The big fella up front for ‘Pool Gnanduillet, just monstered our defence. Mikey T posted that since 1982 in his visits to Blackpool, Wimbledon has only drawn once and scored one goal. Says it all really. After the game I met two Dons fans from St Helens of all places, real rugby league territory. Saturday night was quiet, no other Dons oot and aboot.

Last night at Donny Rovers was the closest to a home game for me all season. Needless to say it was absolutely freezing. The Dons were very good in the first half and should have gone ahead but of course Kwesi hit the post. I was quite impressed by Paul Osew out wide. He is nippy and skilful but can easily be muscled off the ball. The second half was a bit predictable however. Good finish by Rovers legend James Coppinger and a second killed us off. I liked Glyn’s nice comments towards the 181 travelling fans, much appreciated. We did our best in the cold.

In the Rovers Bar before the game, a guy called Ian latched on to me, who was doing the 92 club circuit. He managed to be Sheffield’s version of Eric Olthwaite, the most boring man in the world, from Michael Palin’s “Ripping Yarns” series. He decided to take up residence in the away end and regaled me with stories throughout the game of different grounds that he had been to and the fact that his wife was away on holidays in Las Vegas (for a bit of excitement I would imagine). I thought at one stage that he was going to talk excitedly about rain gauges and Howard Molson and his no.2 Spear and Jackson shovel. I noted in the second half that (The Away Turnstile podcast co-host) Stuart Young went and stood as far away from him as possible. I finally cracked the shits when he asked me “are there many people from Britain living in Australia?”

My next game is Tranmere Rovers away just on Christmas. A group of us including Super Dawnie are going to the Cavern Club in Liverpool after the game. Without Eric Olthwaite I might add…

[Colum]

Cod Womble you cracked me up. Ripping Yarns is (IMHO) among Mr. Palin’s finest work….

“Barnstoneworth United’s Yorkshire Premier League 1922 team…
Hagerty F., Hagerty R., Tomkins, Noble, Carrick, Dobson, Crapper, Dewhurst, MacIntyre, Treadmore, Davitt.”

Classic, unlike Barnstoneworth United’s team of 1935!

[Cape Cod Womble]

Glad you liked it Colum but by the end of the game I’d didn’t ‘arf feel like killing him!

[onyadon]

The Plough Lane Stadium project has been plunged into crisis with the Dons Trust announcing problems with the final funding of the ground. The DT have released an email to members (and sighted by me) detailing issues with the bank funding for the final 11 million pounds.
“We do not yet have a firm offer of a loan. We are working hard to secure one but it is taking us longer than we expected to get there, and there is no guarantee that we will get what we are looking for.” The DT say “If we are to build the full phase one of the stadium for 2020/21, we need to be able to demonstrate to our contractor by January that we will have the funding available.” Planning/contract negotiation delays of up to two years have caused the current problems and added to the building costs. There will be a special meeting of DT members on December 9 and they will face four options:
Option 1: Hang on and hope for the best. The DT may raise £11 million of debt and, if it can get a really favourable refinancing package (low interest rate, extended repayment period), then maybe that will be sustainable. However, the DT adds “We haven’t yet got such an offer after many months of trying, and it isn’t long before we would need to demonstrate the availability of this funding to Buckingham (builders) if we are to proceed with the full phase one project.
Option 2: Issue more shares through a further round
of crowd funding. However, the rules on crowd funding don’t permit further crowdfunding for another 12 months after the first round closed or to raise the amount of money the DT are looking for. In any case, the DT thinks the opportunity for appealing to the fanbase and beyond for further funding of that nature, having just completed one round, is much diminished.
Option 3: Appeal to DT members and fans for donations.
To put that in context, the £10 million would be equivalent to over £3,000 per Dons Trust member. “Realistically speaking, coming on top of the crowd
funding that you supported so generously, we would be surprised if you were able to donate that much.”
Option 4 (and the most contentious one): Bring in external investment. Bring in a group of investors who want to make a positive impact by supporting AFC Wimbledon financially but without entering into a
loss-making investment. The DT says it knows these investors do exist. “We came across some of them while we were preparing for the crowd funding and were hoping to bring them in as part of that, and we have continued to talk to them over recent months. We were struck by the genuine goodwill towards AFC Wimbledon from high net worth individuals who live locally and further afield. They wanted to help, and to contribute significant sums of money, but had a different perspective towards investing than crowd funding investors. They raised a number of issues that they would want to be addressed in our structure and
governance. If these were addressed, they have indicated that several millions of pounds would be available.”
Under the club constitution, the DT (and its members) own 75% of the club and this is a sticking point for possible outside investors.
The DT says “Besides the limited rights that remain for minority investors with the Dons Trust retaining this level of control, they are concerned that it would
be difficult to raise additional money in the future, should the need arise. From their perspective, decisions to raise additional share capital should
be driven by the club’s business plan and not be held back because of the financing desire of one shareholder (i.e. the Dons Trust) to retain a particular level
of voting control. The current governance structure, and in particular the need for a suitably qualified board of directors (comprising key executives of the football club as well as directors nominated by the Trust and investors) that makes commercial and financial decisions, as well as day-to-day operational
decisions, for the benefit of the company as a whole and is not dominated by a majority of Dons Trust board nominees.”
The DT says of Option 4 “We remain in control of our destiny and these are choices for you, the membership, to make. If you want us to pursue this option, then we would need to bring a number of votes to Dons Trust members.”
So as you can see there are some very important decisions coming up at the SGM on December 9. I am sure others will have their thoughts on these unexpected developments and welcome their views ….

[liamwimbo]

Very disappointed, but in a funny way, not surprised by the latest development. O always thought the financing of the new stadium would be problematic. The crowd funding, to which several of us in Australia contributed, was never going to raise enough money. It was designed, I think, to reduce the level of debt we would have by taking out the equivalent of a mortgage to fund NPL.
I know nothing about business finance, but would have thought the club were solid enough to negotiate the equivalent of a business loan, given we would have the ability to pay the monthly repayments from the income generated on match days.
So the inevitable question is – Do we have to give up the fans owned model? And if we do, at what cost?

[Author]

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