page_title: Relocation of Wimbledon F.C. to Milton Keynes
section_title: Talks with Luton, Wimbledon, Barnet, Crystal Palace and QPR
hierarchical_section_title: Relocation of Wimbledon F.C. to Milton Keynes / Milton Keynes Stadium Consortium / Talks with Luton, Wimbledon, Barnet, Crystal Palace and QPR
caption_attribution_description: Photo taken by Charruss2491
context_page_description: Wimbledon Football Club relocated to Milton Keynes in September 2003, 16 months after receiving permission to do so from the Football Association on the basis of a two-to-one decision in favour by an FA-appointed independent commission. The move took the team from south London, where it had been based since its foundation in 1889, to Milton Keynes, a new town in Buckinghamshire, about 56 miles to the northwest of the club's traditional home district Wimbledon. Hugely controversial, the move's authorisation prompted disaffected Wimbledon supporters to form AFC Wimbledon, a new club, in June 2002. The relocated team played home matches in Milton Keynes under the Wimbledon name from September 2003 until June 2004, when following the end of the 2003–04 season it renamed itself Milton Keynes Dons F.C.
  Wimbledon F.C. spent most of its history in non-League football before being elected to the Football League in 1977. A series of club owners believed that its long-term potential was limited by its home ground at Plough Lane, which never changed significantly from the team's non-League days.
context_section_description: The first club approached was Luton Town, still based at Kenilworth Road, in 2000. As in the 1980s, Luton's owners liked the Milton Keynes idea but the fans strongly opposed it. The Football League stated that no member club could leave its own area and blocked the move. Nevertheless, Winkelman attempted to negotiate a move with two League clubs from London over the following months; he approached Crystal Palace and Barnet, but neither was interested. Winkelman then offered the ground to Wimbledon. He registered several internet domain names with variants of "Milton Keynes Dons" and "MK Dons" in June 2000. Wimbledon initially rejected the Milton Keynes idea.
  Røkke and Gjelsten appointed a new club chairman, Charles Koppel, in January 2001. According to Stephen Morrow in The People's Game?: Football, Finance and Society (2003), Koppel had never been to a football match before becoming involved with Wimbledon and "gave the impression of being completely unaware of the relationship that exists between a football club and its supporters." He was interested in an "enabling development" whereby a stadium could be created and funded as part of a business or leisure opportunity—exactly the kind of proposition put forward by Winkelman.
  Towards the end of the 2000–01 season Wimbledon and Queens Park Rangers, who were in financial administration, entered discussions over a merger; the new team would play at Loftus Road. The Football League announced on 2 May 2001 that it would give "favourable consideration" to a takeover of QPR by Wimbledon, but that the process would have to be very quick for the merged team to take part in the 2001–02 season. Noades—by now the owner of Brentford, who were themselves interested in a move out of Griffin Park, either to groundshare at Loftus Road or to a move to Woking,—said that Wimbledon would have to give him 12 months' notice to leave Selhurst Park. The majority of Wimbledon and QPR fans quickly made their opposition to a merger known. Following Wimbledon's draw with Norwich City at Selhurst Park on 6 May, Koppel came onto the pitch and told the mostly jeering home fans that "there never was a merger proposal with QPR"; the Loftus Road club had instigated the talks, he said. QPR abandoned the amalgamation plan two days later, citing potential fan alienation, while also announcing that there would be no further talks with Brentford, who would seek and eventually obtain an option to move into Kingstonian's ground Kingsmeadow, before Noades sold his shares in Brentford to Bees United in January 2006, with the club still at Griffin Park.
  A month later, Winkelman offered his Milton Keynes stadium site to QPR, promising that the club's name and blue-and-white hooped strip would be kept in Buckinghamshire and that the fans would be represented on the board of directors. "We have real resources to put behind the club," said Winkelman. "They are fast running out of solutions and we are the answer to their problems." QPR dismissed the offer, leading the developers to once again contact Wimbledon later that month. With Koppel in charge, Wimbledon were more receptive this time around—Koppel said that Wimbledon's owners were subsidising the club to the tune of £6 million per year and that such action was necessary to prevent its liquidation. As talks progressed, Winkelman approached the owner of Milton Keynes City, attempting to buy the club name. It soon became clear that the bulk of Wimbledon's support strongly opposed a move of this kind.
caption: Loftus Road, Queens Park Rangers' home ground (2007 photograph). In 2001 QPR were linked with first a merger with Wimbledon, then a move to Milton Keynes.
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