K’s Ponder Fan-Ownership and an Uncertain Future
- Taimour Lay
- Nov 10, 2016
- 4 min read
A proportion of the money AFC Wimbledon will pay Kingstonian to vacate Kingsmeadow can be used to fund a groundsharing arrangement for the next three years, it emerged at a public meeting on Wednesday night.
Held to discuss the forthcoming vote on whether to become fan-owned, the Q&A with the Board revealed that AFC Wimbledon appear to have required assurances on how much of the cash would be spent on short-term costs associated with leaving Kingston. K’s will also be permitted to use some of the money to meet a shortfall in the budget caused by lower gate receipts outside the town.
The agreement does not currently extend to more than three years. Ongoing negotiation over the use of estimated £1million indicates the range of conditions AFC are placing over the money in the short and medium term as K’s future remains uncertain.
But it seems to conflict with previous statements made by Dons chief executive Erik Samuelson that they were comfortable with the payoff leading to a groundshare well beyond three years, a prospect which K’s fans fear will lead to the club’s demise.
“There worst thing that can happen is that they receive enough money from us to pay for a groundshare for decades, that’s hardly a death sentence,” Samuelson pronounced in September.
The location of the groundshare has yet to be revealed with four possibilities still being negotiated – although co-chairman Mark Anderson confirmed that Carshalton’s Colston Avenue was not one of them. Fans have been concerned at how far outside Kingston the club will find itself next season. An announcement is due by Christmas.
The groundshare is expected to be medium-term to indefinite, with plans for a new stadium in Chessington still at the earliest stages. Anderson suggested there could be movement in the pre-planning process by the end of the year.
The public meeting, attended by over 100 supporters at Kingsmeadow, was ostensibly about the referendum but other issues inevitably became points of contention, not least the viability of the club’s financial position and imminent homelessness.
A representative from Supporters Direct, a government-funded body who are facilitating the vote, struggled to cope with pointed questions from the floor about whether the vote was appropriately timed. “Why not vote in three months’ time when we know more?” was a repeated enquiry. “We’re voting on community ownership just when we’re leaving our community in Kingston” was another.
Fans also demanded access to the full club accounts in order to evaluate the likely gaps in future funding if the Directors withdraw. The board revealed they have been contributing £20-30,000 a year. They have already indicated that they are likely to reduce their commitment over the coming years, whatever the result of the vote.
The ballot paper, distributed this week to the registered electorate of 252, poses a simple choice between becoming fan-owned and remaining Director-owned but there remains confusion about how, if at all, K’s could seek to adopt a hybrid 51%-49% model popular in Germany.
The board did not rule out a second vote after the move to becoming a Community Benefit Company had begun.
Chairman of the Supporters’ Club, Geoff Yorke, spoke out against the proposal, citing concerns over the size and financial means of K’s support.
Former Kingstonian Supporters Trust activist Gary Ekins joined the sceptics. “Only 252 people have even registered to vote. Chessington is a pipedream. When we groundshare, our crowds will sink to 100. How can we possibly look to run the club now?”
Kingstonian will leave Kingsmeadow at the end of the 2016/17 season. Chelsea Ladies will groundshare with AFC Wimbledon before becoming sole occupants when AFC leave for New Plough Lane.
The payment to Kingstonian flows in part from the early breaking by AFC Wimbledon of a tenancy agreement set to run until 2023. AFC claim a large proportion of the money is a donation to ensure Kingstonian’s future.
K’s have been AFC’s tenants since the early 2000s. The Dons bought the ground from the then K’s asset-stripping owner, Rajesh Khosla, using a loan from the businessman.
“We have never played at Kingsmeadow rent free,” Anderson stressed. “We retained a lease on the perimeter of the ground which we then relinquished. The Council were not happy with us receiving money for that so a ‘zero rent’ agreement was put in place instead.”
The K’s board also committed to leaving the club debt free if and when it transfers to fan-ownership. They reiterated at the meeting that none of the AFC money will be used to repay the Directors’ loans made to the club. In the financial year ending May 2016, each of the three Directors were owed a combined £180,000. “That will be written off”, Anderson confirmed.
While K’s have struggled the last three seasons, it was also revealed that recent cuts in the playing budget were at least in part caused by the departure of “silent” Directors brought in by former manager Alan Dowson, two of whom had been contributing funds.
Postal voting in the referendum closes at the end of November.