Back in 2019 when we were facing financial disaster and the loss of our club a small group of Dons Trust members stepped up to launch the Plough Lane Bond.
Helped by teams of volunteers and the generosity of so many of you we raised the money needed to get us back home to Plough Lane and fund the construction of the stadium.
Today, we face new challenges and have new opportunities as we look to refinance and plan for the club’s financial future. The group who conceived and ran the Plough Lane Bond scheme all recommend we vote yes to Majority Rule and give the board the option to sell more shares in AFCW PLC and help our financial future.
“AFC Wimbledon 100% fan owned would be my preference. And I think that’s something we should strive for over time. But in the immediate future I would like us to have as many options as possible for us to buck the trend of modern football and stay fan-owned and become sustainable.
We must vote for 50.01% as an option.”
- Xavier Wiggins
“When we set up the bond we wanted to help the club complete Plough Lane and remain fan owned. The biggest threat we have to our fan ownership today isn’t a mythical bogeyman or malign actor from outside – it’s that we could simply run out of money.
By making more equity available either to existing fans, members and bondholders as an alternative to debt, or using it to look to bring in further minority stewardship investors, we can improve our financial position and therefore support and underpin fan ownership in the future. Let’s say yes to 50.01%”
Charlie Talbot
“We’ve achieved a lot since 2019 but be under no illusion there’s still a lot to do and improve.
Adding further equity investment to improve our financial position and allow further growth is crucial in my view. It will help support us in remaining fan owned and protect everything we have fought for and built.
Protecting fan ownership was always our biggest priority. We deliberately put the safeguard in place in the terms of the bonds that if fans ever lost majority control all the bond money would have to be paid back immediately.”
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Damien Woodward
“The price of fan ownership is eternal vigilance and eternal fundraising. That’s the reality of the football world we operate in and the Plough Lane bond was just one of the many examples we have of that.
I’d prefer us to be 100% fan owned, and maybe there’s a future in which an activist Trust can raise the funds to do that, however we now need to give the boards as many options as we possibly can to make the best decisions for our collective future.
Voting yes to 50.01% is a major part of that.”
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Graeme Price
The first vote closes on Monday 18th November and then we will be in contact about the second vote immediately after.
This week we’ve also produced for members a summary document of the updated vision for the Club, the 2024 AFC Wimbledon strategy. (PDF)
This is a summary of a much more detailed 50-page report which contains more details on all the initiatives. This strategy also represents what needs to be done to achieve our goals – it is not a detailed plan of when each project will be completed or how much each project will cost.
Detailed prioritisation, timeline planning and cost analysis will form the next steps of the process, dependent on the amount of investment capital available to fund the work.
Back in 2021 in consultation with members The Dons Trust agreed a new strategy and goals for the club. These documents build on, and update that based on the current financial and competitive context.
We have a bold vision, that is for the long-term. It’s an aim not unlike getting back to league or returning to Plough Lane. It would involve beating the odds, but it is not impossible. What it does do is provide everyone with an aim and outline the steps to get there.
It lays out a bold ambition for our Club, the pace and scale of which will be dependent on many factors. It gives us the where we want to get to, and some of the how we can get there, what’s missing is the when. And that’s partly down to how much investment we can raise from equity and the ways in which that can improve our long-term financial planning and annual profitability.
You have the chance to help shape that decision and give the Dons Trust Board in 2025 more options to continue the club’s growth on and off the pitch.
The Dons Trust board