THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

The other thing is that, despite lower- and non-league football becoming much more a "thing" for young guys to get involved in, our club doesn't fit with that aesthetic or trend. It's in a big bowl stadium and for many reasons, which others have laid out, doesn't have the vibe of most clubs of our position.

I have thought about that quite a bit actually. I think for younger fans that simple school jibe must have a decent amount of effect.

The thing is though, that true of any team not in the EPL and quote frankly also true of about half the EPL as well.

I think there might be something in this for slightly older fans. If I meet people and they ask about football and who I support etc. I half dread the conversation when I say MK Dons. Some dont care at all but most who do ask have a fairly negative view.

Im not sure thats so true of the younger fans, they play as all sorts of teams on FIFA and most either dont know or dont care about the whole saga

I would suggest pretty much all kids under the age of around 16 would have absolutely no idea about how we were formed. I genuinely think we would just be seen as another lower league club to them. They'll be put off by the fact we're in League Two (or even League One if we go up), but not because we're the franchise. The only reason they would know or care about our history would be because a parent or someone they look up to has explained to them that they have to hate us.

When I first started coming consistently, in the 08/09 season on the back of Wembley and promotion, we had pretty much the entire second half of the season at home £1 kids £10 adults. I get it was a long time ago, but it helped bring consistency. Me and my Dad used to travel up from Bedford for it, one occasion against Brighton it was 1pm sat in the living room watching the telly and my dad didn't even know we were at home until he asked who MK Dons had that day. Said Brighton at home, same prices as before and by 2pm we were in Milton Keynes heading toward ASDA for a pasty before picking some tickets up. We went to almost all home games after the Leicester home game - and we had season tickets by the April for the next season because it was fun.

Family fun day was organised, fun and had effort and entertainment for the kids. The club shop had stuff in it, players were walking around outside the ground talking to young fans and taking pictures and signing autographs, we had open training sessions for fans to meet their favourites, and the on field stuff was fun and exciting and had been for 2 straight years with Allen, Ince and RDM.

I get these kinda of efforts cost money and you'd probably lose more money than you make - but it turned me from having it as something to do on a Saturday with my dad, to us as season ticket holders to this day. I didn't care that kids at school laughed at my team because I just laughed back at them that at least I go to football games and they have to wait until MOTD to see highlights of their team.

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You really are obsessed about the move, aren't you?

If so many people in the area have such an issue about watching MK Dons, how come they fall over themselves trying to get tickets when a big team comes to town?

Most of the factors listed on this thread are valid IMO - and the club certainly isn't helping itself atm - but a widespread impact of the move and AFCW in the long-term probably exists only in your head.

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It's Pete's train set, and we should all feel honoured to be granted the privilege of paying to play with it.

I think ironically the size of the stadium has also a big part to play in us being able to grow the fanbase.

Being in a smaller, compact stadium would lead to a better atmosphere & would help the first timers psychologically feel a instant connection to the club and team & hopefully help encourage them to come back and experience it again.

To that point, would anyone actually mention the size of the fan base if we didn’t have such a massive stadium?

Yep, I brought some family who were visiting to a game the season before last so one where we were decent. they liked it but said the atmosphere was odd (They are predominantly Everton fans) and said the atmosphere was like an friendly match and thought it was because there were so few in such a big stadium. I do understand that, if you were a first time visitor, you might wonder if its something that you wanted to do again?

They're good points Alby makes in regards to what the club used to do, none of which is really my thing, but you turn up these days and there's fuck all to entice the casual supporters with young families to even bother.

I'm sure Pete has said recently that they've tried everything they can think of but nothing has worked. Looking as if they've given up. Certainly looks that way going by the abysmal match day experience. Even if a casual supporter did go, what on earth would make them want to return?

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