Stadium crowdfunding

[iWomble]

Not posting this to get donations, though you know it's the right and proper thing to do, but we've just raised £1M in 24 hours through crowdfunding for our new stadium. Can't think of anywhere in the UK it's been done before and wondering why not. Is it just our ownership model that means we can raise that sort of money or would you do the same for your club if asked?

https://www.seedrs.com/afcwimbledon/

 

[PuB]

I’d probably knock in a fiver just to see you heading back home finally. Not sure there’s ever been such a high profile appeal in terms of football, which is a credit to your fans.

 

[Lamby]

Can we crowdfund for a digger to rip it up before it's finished?

 

[iWomble]

I’d probably knock in a fiver just to see you heading back home finally. Not sure there’s ever been such a high profile appeal in terms of football, which is a credit to your fans.

Cheers (though £10 minimum investment).

What I'm curious about though is whether other clubs will see this and go hmmm. If Scally could get a brand new stadium in place and was short a couple of million would you pitch in? Because I think I would have if crowdfunding had been a thing all those years ago and Sam Hammam had asked us for it instead of moving us to Selhurst Park, even knowing what a chancer he was.

 

[LadyWomble]

When all's said and done, it's a share issue, just with a trendier sounding handle of 'crowdfunding'. Lots of neutrals chipped in their fivers and tenners when we reformed; I wouldn't expect them to do so again, especially as 2 clubs in this league remain under threat of going out of existence. Unlikely IMO but worrying for them.

As for mentioning the charlatan Sham, that greedy bastard was only ever in it for himself. Don't do it again ;-)

 

[Bar Carousel]

We raised £300k to kick start a move for a training ground back in the city during our fan owned days with a crowd funding campaign.

Always seemed a reluctance by the board to keep on asking fans to stump up more cash so the ground never came up. Given that many fans had either fully or by syndicate contributed £1k to a share only a short while before, I don’t think there was the appetite or ability to go on and raise further millions.

The worry with infrastructure projects being crowd funded is that you risk building the club up to then be sold to a private owner. In our case the trust shares could not be sold at a profit so putting further money in to the club to build it would not have seen a return on the investment. Besides, in our case we needed millions just to fix essential safety works to keep stands open, hence the eventual sale.

That’s a tremendous effort by your lot and I wish you well in your imminent move home which is long overdue.

 

[iWomble]

We raised £300k to kick start a move for a training ground back in the city during our fan owned days with a crowd funding campaign.

Always seemed a reluctance by the board to keep on asking fans to stump up more cash so the ground never came up. Given that many fans had either fully or by syndicate contributed £1k to a share only a short while before, I don’t think there was the appetite or ability to go on and raise further millions.

The worry with infrastructure projects being crowd funded is that you risk building the club up to then be sold to a private owner. In our case the trust shares could not be sold at a profit so putting further money in to the club to build it would not have seen a return on the investment. Besides, in our case we needed millions just to fix essential safety works to keep stands open, hence the eventual sale.

That’s a tremendous effort by your lot and I wish you well in your imminent move home which is long overdue.

Didn't know that about the training ground, but was that because of the ownership model at the time and would you do it again if asked now when peoples' wallets have had time to recover?

There's no real prospect of return on investment with ours but looking through the list so far there's a fair smattering of people who clearly aren't fans but investors having a speculative punt for a couple of grand in some cases. So it's not just romantics buying into the story. Think it's restricted for now to those who pre-registered an interest so be very interesting to see how far it goes when it becomes public.

 

[LadyWomble]

We raised £300k to kick start a move for a training ground back in the city during our fan owned days with a crowd funding campaign.

Always seemed a reluctance by the board to keep on asking fans to stump up more cash so the ground never came up. Given that many fans had either fully or by syndicate contributed £1k to a share only a short while before, I don’t think there was the appetite or ability to go on and raise further millions.

The worry with infrastructure projects being crowd funded is that you risk building the club up to then be sold to a private owner. In our case the trust shares could not be sold at a profit so putting further money in to the club to build it would not have seen a return on the investment. Besides, in our case we needed millions just to fix essential safety works to keep stands open, hence the eventual sale.

That’s a tremendous effort by your lot and I wish you well in your imminent move home which is long overdue.

Thanks for the good wishes BC. As for the bolded bit above, we tightened our rules after MacAnthony was sniffing around before he bought Posh. Basically, the Dons Trust will still control a minimum of 75% of the voting shares and any 'restricted action', e.g. change in ownership, name, ground, etc., needs super-majorities in votes of Trust members, with 2 votes taking place. We had to go through that process to agree to Kingsmeadow being sold and NPL being bought. Tortuous but worth it.

 

[PuB]

Cheers (though £10 minimum investment).

What I'm curious about though is whether other clubs will see this and go hmmm. If Scally could get a brand new stadium in place and was short a couple of million would you pitch in? Because I think I would have if crowdfunding had been a thing all those years ago and Sam Hammam had asked us for it instead of moving us to Selhurst Park, even knowing what a chancer he was.

Not a chance I’d be chipping in whilst Scally is in charge or Evans is manager.

 

[Indian Dan]

We’re just in the initial stages of similar. Contracts will be exchanged this month to purchase the freehold of the CG footprint from the Council. It will be a 50/50 purchase between the Supporters Trust and our current owner - each putting up £1.1m. It’s the only way a club of our size can at long last redevelop the infrastructure.

 

[Luke Imp]

We've done it for the playing budget the last 5 or 6 years, albeit not this season, but we've not done it for any infrastructure that I can recall.

 

[Indian Dan]

Wtf? Are you saying the club has funded its playing budget via the supporters raising the money?

 

[Luke Imp]

Wtf? Are you saying the club has funded its playing budget via the supporters raising the money?

Some of it, yeah. Started in 2014/15 in the NL (or maybe 2015/16). So when our budget was £500k and we raised £50k, that was a decent chunk back then compared to the budget itself.

Over the years, we've paid for Callum Howe, Nathan Arnold, Sean Raggett when in the NL and there were a couple of others whose names escape me.

We probably fundraise £100k+ a year through various supporter groups.

EDIT - Actually, I tell a lie, they also set up one for part of the training ground as well but that was pre-FA Cup money.

 

[WilsdenBantam]

Some of it, yeah. Started in 2014/15 in the NL (or maybe 2015/16). So when our budget was £500k and we raised £50k, that was a decent chunk back then compared to the budget itself.

Over the years, we've paid for Callum Howe, Nathan Arnold, Sean Raggett when in the NL and there were a couple of others whose names escape me.

We probably fundraise £100k+ a year through various supporter groups.

EDIT - Actually, I tell a lie, they also set up one for part of the training ground as well but that was pre-FA Cup money.

This definitely needs to be moved to the tinpot thread.

 

[Indian Dan]

If we did that, Power would have bought another racehorse!

 

[Franchisor]

"We are targeting an average attendance of 7,000".

Good to see we won't be the only club in this division with a stadium too big for us.

 

[WhiteRussian]

"We are targeting an average attendance of 7,000".

Good to see we won't be the only club in this division with a stadium too big for us.

Oh FFS, did you have to prod the ants nest?

Stand by for - You stole that club, You stole that stadium, You stole those supporters, You stole my hamster, ad nauseam

 

[Franchisor]

Oh FFS, did you have to prod the ants nest?

Stand by for - You stole that club, You stole that stadium, You stole those supporters, You stole my hamster, ad nauseam

Are we the baddies?

 

[WhiteRussian]

Who, us?

 

[Bar Carousel]

Didn't know that about the training ground, but was that because of the ownership model at the time and would you do it again if asked now when peoples' wallets have had time to recover?

It was a Tifosy run campaign. I think the target was £250k but it ended at around £325k.

Now under private ownership, it would create a shit storm if the Tornante group put out the buckets and asked the fans for money. There's still a small (but very vociferous) minority of ex shareholders very bitter about selling the club, who are quick to jump on the Eisner's at every given opportunity. In their hustings presentation, their pitch was to build the club, spending money on the infrastructure. They are being held to account on this, so asking for fans help would be seen as a break of trust.

I for one wouldn't be comfortable spending my money on an infrastructure project which would add value to a private companies assets.

 

[Bar Carousel]

Thanks for the good wishes BC. As for the bolded bit above, we tightened our rules after MacAnthony was sniffing around before he bought Posh. Basically, the Dons Trust will still control a minimum of 75% of the voting shares and any 'restricted action', e.g. change in ownership, name, ground, etc., needs super-majorities in votes of Trust members, with 2 votes taking place. We had to go through that process to agree to Kingsmeadow being sold and NPL being bought. Tortuous but worth it.

We effectively had two groups owning the club. The Trust (which fans bought shares in), and then a number of High Net Worth Investors, basically local businessmen who bought a high number of shares, separate to those of the Trust.

The goal was for the Trust to always be the majority shareholder. However, it soon became apparent that the club's infrastructure was in a far worse state than first considered. As money's were required to sort out these problems, it ended in the HNW's having to cover costs. But every time they did so, the Trust's shareholding diminished.

If we had continued on in the same vein, the Trust would have become a not much more than a token seat on the board. Nobody wanted this, including the HNW's.

In hindsight, perhaps there should have been more of a drive to keep asking fans for monies after we'd purchased the club (increasing the Trust's shareholding). But for whatever reason it didn't happen.

The Trust shares were not able to be sold for profit, so there was never a question of buying one for speculative purposes. I believe the HNW shares could be, but when an agreement was made to sell to Tornante, these were sold at the same rate as the Trusts or thereabouts to avoid perceived profiteering.