THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

This is meant as a thread to try and understand why, despite large efforts or more or less no effort at all the fanbase remains more or less static?

First off, I should say that I dont actually live in MK but am in Bedfordshire, so in that regard I dont always get to see what the club are doing locally but many of you will and will perhaps have some ideas at to what is working and what isnt.

My own journey to MK was born really of having children. Prior to that I would go and watch Bedford Town or Ampthill Town but I played on Saturday afternoons from the age of 16 until my early thirties so didnt really go to much live saturday football. I went along to the evening games at the NHS with a work colleague who happened to live in Wolverton.

My son wanted to go to a match when he was around 5 and I guess Luton would have been what most parents and their kids supported around here. A few other families had started to go to Dons though and talked about the stadium and how safe it was for young kids so thats why I decided to bring him there.

For him that was it. Today he is a first gen Dons fan who has owned a season ticket for 12 years and went to every home and the vast majority of the aways. University has ended that consistency but he still travels to aways regularly. My other son was much less interested overall but last season he started showing a bit more interest and this he has led to him going to all the homes and about half the aways this season. He is moving to sit in block 11 next season and is giving up playing so he can do more aways.

This is a bit war an peace but when I think about it, the three season tickets I have held for 13 years plus came about from nothing the club did. Most of the other families we went along with in those first few visits fell away after only a few games and out of their other friends hardly any bother with MK.

Apart from the odd email and a free shirt one season, I cant recall any meaningful marketing from the club. The kiosk at the centre was a good idea I thought but that didnt last long so I can only imagine it didnt produce anything meaningful. The free tickets for u12s was a great draw for us originally but where are the teenagers that should have grown into full fledged dons fans now?

Why out of a town with a population of around 300,000 have we sat at a season ticket holder number of around 5000 ish consistently for years?

The club is 20 years old now and the stadium around 18 years now so whilst still an infant compared to most we havent grown the fanbase for a very long time now

Is the club doing something wrong or maybe they are doing something right but not continuing to throw money that hasnt appeared to make any difference?

Is it the Premier League thats the issue, drawing the younger fans away with the sheer volume of watchable live football?

It won’t grow up the club climbs the leagues.

To be honest, for a club that was “formed” in 2004, having consistently 6,000 fans in at League 2 actually isn’t that bad and is better than a lot of clubs.

Unfortunately, even for the youth of today, the mindset is still very much to support one of the big “6”. The only way we’d build upon our Core is to have consistency within the Championship.

If you had asked me ten years ago, I would have been pretty optimistic about the club growing the fan base as we became an established club and the young people in the area grew up with the club. At that time there was no Championship or Premier League club from Watford to the south and Birmingham to the north. Luton have recovered since then.

Why hasn’t it happened? I’m not sure, I’m sure many will be critical of the club and put the blame there. Maybe that’s the case. I’d say that accessibility to Premier League football via TV and streaming has been a factor. Had it remained difficult to watch top level football on a Saturday, it may have been different.

I guess the ultimate answer is we just haven’t had the money to drive the success that would probably have increased the interest. People will blame the club for not spending money, but I’m not sure they’ve ever had the money to spend. At least they’ve ensured that we’re sustainable and live within our means, frustrating as that is at times.

For a number of reasons which include

Lack of a football culture / history in the area
Support of Premiership clubs, especially London clubs
Lack of MK identity
Success of local rivals
A lot of warehouse / shift work, working Saturdays
The failure to establish a Championship team
Low income compared to high prices, less disposal income
Lack of atmosphere
Mistakes by Pete and the board

_________________
Disclaimer: All my comments are my opinions unless stated otherwise. I'm just a fan following my club.

Because we're rubbish

_________________
#DonYourWhite

Turn Stadium MK WHITE In The Playoffs

https://donsaction.co.uk/

GET THIS SEASONS HOME SHIRT FOR £16.50 ↓↓↓
https://shop.mkdons.co.uk/collections/23-24-home-kit

Seen that the Toot(ers) (club and supporters group) work extremely hard to get supporters in. Naving spoken to a old mate, he said that some football fans are fed up paying top prices to go and see the Prem clubs and all that goes with it. They've benefited from the lower cost and the ease of going to matches (despite being a bunch of cu*ts).

_________________
Three cheers for his nut brown arsehole, hip hip.....

That was exactly the reason why many started supporting the old Wimbledon in the first place - Prem too expensive and often sold out. Of all the "local" London clubs, Wimbledon had by some distance the highest proportion of out-of-town ticket holders.

All of the above are possible factors but the main thing is that AFCW did a job on us putting about the false story that we 'stole' WFC. The true (and half true) facts are lost in the mists of time and now we're forever smeared. There's no way casual fans are going to be bothered with having to defend themselves over this (even now, I can speak to normal sensible non-football people, if I mention MK Dons it's almost like a shaming - or if not, some jocular reference). So, no, we'll never grow with that hanging over us, the club needed to take a far more aggressive stance on this with clear statements and meaningful talks with AFCW and the FA. Too late now, it's drifted along for 20 years since the meaningless 'accord', I can't speak for everyone obvs but I'm fed up of being pushed around and treated like pariahs (for what? We had no say in the matter)

That's a separate issue (you can say the same about non-league, I followed Chelmsford City decades ago) and fair play to them.