The Political Economy of Football V2

I have been sceptical about the long-term viability of fan owned clubs, recent events at Exeter City seem to confirm this.   Even prosperous fans in south-west London find it difficult to provide the funds needed to compete. AFC Wimbledon are at a crossroads, squeezed by what many League One and League Two owners believe is unsustainable spending that cannot continue. The fan owners face a dilemma: invite wealthy investors with deep pockets on board, or lose pace with the spiralling costs of running an EFL club. More than 4,500 of the 7,500-plus owners turned out to vote on Monday night, opting to dilute fan ownership to 50.01 per cent — similar to the model adopted by German clubs — and freeing up shares to sell to outside investors with funds to keep the club competitive. The club have spoken to about ten potential investors, including a consortium led by their former captain Robbie Earle. Many around the club fear this vote is merely a stepping stone to relinquishing ...

The Fair Game Index has rated the top 92 clubs in the pyramid through 80 different touchpoints across four criteria: Financial Sustainability, Good Governance, Equality Standards and Good Governance. At the moment over half of England’s top 92 clubs are technically insolvent, and a majority of Championship clubs are spending more than they earn on players’ wages. AFC Wimbledon emerge as England’s best run club with an overall score of 73.58 out of 100. The Premier League’s top club are Brentford.  Championship side Plymouth Argyle boast a perfect score in the Financial Sustainability metric, whilst League One’s Cambridge United set the standard for Good Governance. Exeter City are the highest scorers for Fan Engagement, with Lincoln taking the honours for Equality Standards. In fact, clubs in Sky Bet League’s One and Two scored higher overall across all four criteria than their counterparts in the Sky Bet Championship. The top three clubs for financial sustainability are ...

AFC Wimbledon’s 2021/22 accounts show revenue up £3m to £8.1m due to matchday ticket sales and catering/conference returning, reports Kieran Maguire.   Operating losses fell £300k to £850k, would have been closer to breakeven but some costs for stadium.  Player sales of £750k (Cox & Palmer?) cut further losses The club have a strong balance sheet, plenty of property assets, over £2.7m in the bank. Club funded by variety of loans, including Plough Lane bond, and shareholder contributions. They spent a fair amount on ground development, although far less than previous season. Plough Lane bond receipts allowed repayment of some other loans. Ticket sales added almost £2m to income, and catering/conferences £1m. Wage bill up £1m as football staff numbers increased. They spent £100k on players and had sales of over £700k.

AFC Wimbledon's chief executive has called on the EFL to take tough measures against clubs like Charlton and Portsmouth who have been unable to field a matchday squad because of Covid-19, claiming that the Wombles have done a better job of containing Covid.  The 'strongly worded' Wimbledon letter is here:  https://www.afcwimbledon.co.uk/news/2021/december/club-statement2/ The statement has received a mixed reaction from fans:  https://fanbanter.co.uk/afc-wimbledon-receive-mixed-reaction-after-issuing-strong-statement-to-the-efl/?fbclid=IwAR0lVEMX7LsQzW4B2clEtSbrVNyohNvHzCpado9OqdHV3rMnEGqDyrVmOcY

Celebrating the return of Wimbledon to Plough Lane:  https://londonnewsonline.co.uk/welcome-to-the-resurrection-revived-dons-return-to-plough-lane-after-29-painful-years-in-exile/ Crusading football journalist David Conn looks at the Wimbledon story here:  https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2009/apr/28/afc-wimbledon-blue-square-conference-south-champions

AFC Wimbledon have issued a statement in which they admit that their plans to build a new stadium at Plough Lane could be hit by the coronavirus pandemic: Trust voice stadium build concerns Fans engaged in a substantial and highly successful fund raising effort for the new stadium by selling bonds.

Kieran Maguire of the Price of Football reports 'AFC Wimbledon publish 2019 accounts for AGM. Income up 15% on back of FA Cup run and beating West Ham. Sale of ground to Chelsea made £4m profit +£1m from developer. An extra £70k was given to Kingstonian. Stripping out one off items gives an operating loss of £1.5m (£30k a week). For the first time in the club's history as a phoenix club AFC Wimbledon had higher income and wages than MK Dons, also had lower operating losses.' AFC Wimbledon paid £80 in wages for every £100 of income in 2018/19. This is higher than recommended levels, but not unusual for a League One club. Wimbledon Bond came too late for the accounts but reference made to nearly £2.5m of investment made from share issue late in 2019 assuming final price agreed for new stadium. The club spent more that £4.2m on development for new stadium in 2018/19. The sale of Kingsmeadow allowed the club to pay off bank loans. The Wimbledon Bond is powering ahead and ...

The fan driven bond issue for AFC Wimbledon has now raised over £5m and the organisers are now aiming for £7.5m. The more that is raised in this way the less the club will have to borrow to finance the new stadium near their old home in Plough Lane: Bond success One of the organisers told Richard Cawley of the SLP: 'There was a bit of a narrative that because people had said this was the only way forward [external investment] and they were people in authority, a lot believed that was the only way forward. We’ve changed the game on that. We believe there are more Wimbledon fans and football fans out there who understand what we stand for – not just football but also the community and a broader spectrum of things.' 'If we’re self critical then I think we’ve been asleep at the wheel a little bit. We got so used to fan ownership and The Dons Trust running things that we didn’t realise what needed to change. It’s taken something like this to remobilise and understand the va...

Fans at AFC Wimbledon look as if they have raised over £4m through a bond issue to help to fund their new stadium. The club should be able to raise the rest of the money commercially. Construction of the new stadium at Plough Lane would have been halted if funds had not been raised by the end of the month: Fans' bond issue

I am rather more sceptical about fan owned clubs than many analysts. Of course, I do understand the motivations behind them and I am a shareholder in my local phoenix non-league club. However, I do think they face a lot of financial challenges, even if they have a relatively prosperous fan base. Last December AFC Wimbledon faced a £11m shortfall on the completion of the construction of their 9,000-seater stadium at their spiritual home of Plough Lane. At a special general meeting of the Dons Trust, it was explained that outside investors had offered £7.5m in return for a 30 per cent stake. That would have seen the Trust in effect surrender control of the club. A small group of three fans devised the Plough Lane Bond and yesterday it was launched to a wider public at an event in London. It is attempting to raise £5m towards the shortfall on the stadium by offering bond holders annual returns of up to four per cent on five, ten or 20 year investment terms. That is a decent coupon ...

Arsenal fans in Surrey are planning a breakaway club with the aim of rising through the non-league ranks like AFC Wimbledon: Dial Square FC Their plan is to return eventually to a purpose built stadium in Woolwich. This proposal has not gone down too well with Charlton fans who refer to Arsenal as 'Woolwich Rejects', but don't want them back in the area as competitors, albeit there are still quite a lot of Gooners in South-East London. Those behind the project should bear in mind the difficulties encountered by FC United. Even AFC Wimbledon have found raising money for their new stadium far from straightforward.

Top South London football journalist Richard Cawley looks at the £11m shortfall facing AFC Wimbledon for the first phase of their new stadium at Plough Lane. Despite the shortfall, fans are for now resistant to offers of external investment (three individuals who would each put in £2.5m) which would change the character of the club: Plough Lane build Nevertheless, a leading blogger at the club said: 'It’s pretty clear some of the initial reaction from a fair amount of our fans – particularly younger ones – are all for the idea of selling off to some form of outside investment.' He also argued, 'There isn’t an £11m shortfall because they’ve actually got £5-6m of that secured if the other bit was in place.' An interesting observation with wider applicability was: 'It’s part of the wider debate in League One about clubs improving their grounds. Andy Holt at Accrington talks about this – most owners are almost discouraged from doing it because they don’t get money ...

AFC Wimbledon are hoping to raise £7m towards the cost of their new stadium by crowdfunding from their supporters. Crowdfunding is become increasingly popular with football clubs: New Plough Lane stadium The club has a relatively affluent group of supporters and are offering some novel incentives, so they may well succeed, reducing the loan burden.

AFC Wimbledon made a net loss of £507k in 2017/18 compared with a profit of £50k in the preceding year. This was partly due to £200k of set up costs for the new stadium. Kingsmeadow was sold to Chelsea for £7.5m and is being occupied rent free until the new stadium is ready. Turnover was up marginally from £4.87m to £5.05m. Match receipts accounted for 57 per cent of income. Sponsorship and advertising accounted for 12 per cent and bar and catering for 8 per cent. Wages and salaries were up 17 per cent at £379m. They have doubled since 2013. They accounted for 75 per cent of turnover, a little above the Uefa recommended level of 70 per cent. Player purchases cost £86k and sales £422k giving a profit of £336k.

AFC Wimbledon are looking forward to construction work starting on their new stadium in the summer. In the meantime, they have given considerable financial help to their tenants at Kingsmeadow, Kingstonian. The turnover for 2016/17 was about £740k higher than the previous year at £4.675m. The major reason for this increase was additional central funding from the EFL and the Premier League solidarity payments which also reflected the extra payments following promotion to League One. As a result, these payments were over £600k higher than in the previous years. Sponsorship and advertising were over £600k higher. The main turnover items were: Match receipts and prize money £2.719m Youth development income £602k Sponsorships and advertising £590k Bar and catering £400k In 2016-17 the club had very good attendances, averaging comfortably over 4,000 for league games. Taking account of the increased income from solidarity payments, and a profit of £355k from the sale of players, th...