Fun and games all round : the Volkstadion Fans Stadium share issue has raised half the necessary deposit, though with a week to go it’s going to need some serious increases in receipts for it to avoid the shortfall many fear. Can you imagine the cries of anguish if the cheques got returned?
Now, I don’t quite know what is going to happen should the £1m not be raised, but two things seem clear : firstly, looks like AFCW fans will have to keep digging deep in their pocket for a while longer. Which needless to say could seriously start to piss off people if they get seen as a permanent cash cow – goodwill is very difficult to gain and very easy to lose. Secondly, no matter what gets raised, it proves what spending power AFCW can rely on. Supposing the issue raises £800k, that is £800k that can be called upon by AFCW regardless – in other words, it’s “there”. Hopefully whatever is raised will show AFCW what it can – and just as importantly what it can’t – do. My suspicion is that most people will tell AFCW to keep the money raised, and there won’t be any official need to return cheques.
Following on from the “cash cow” comment, even if the £1m is reached, there is still £1m at least to be raised after that, and this is where things will get interesting. As repeated so many times on here, t’s looking more and more likely that if only to release the burden on AFCW fans some major form of sponsorship will need to be found. As KM has now officially been rebranded the Fans Stadium (though most people will still call it KM), I can’t see a proven money-spinner like stadium naming rights happening. For a start, having a corporate name next to something as municipal sounding as the Fans Stadium doesn’t quite seem right. Not to mention the likely (and potentially very damaging) charges of hypocrisy. AFCW could of course drop the Fans Stadium name and simply have [xx] Stadium at Kingsmeadow or something, though it wouldn’t do their “community” boasts much good.
So with that avenue seemingly shut off, where else can AFCW raise the dough? Granted, stadium advertising hoardings will bring in the money, though don’t forget AFCW still needs money to run itself anyway, so I would guess that’s where that particular source will go. Expect some pride to be swallowed.
My own feeling is that the £1m will just about be raised, though it won’t be by a significant amount. I fully expect to be proven wrong though now I’ve said that 🙂 Meanwhile, if you are as financially astute as Worldcom’s accountants and you want an explanation of what it’s all about, best check here, though if any of it is wrong, don’t blame WISA….
Onto some more totally acceptable systematic abuse of Franchise : unfortunately, it looks like they’re about to survive due to Wankelmann and his £5m from Asda. Well, perhaps – they absolutely HAVE to go to MK, which means no groundsharing at somewhere like Northampton and no remaining at Selhurst. So, where can they go? Denbigh is still in brown-envelope-to-MK-Council stage, and the NHS (the hockey stadium, not the health service) would need to do a u-turn that even Tony Blair would be embarrased by. Wankelmann himself has said that Franchise is “technically dead”, so expect more to happen soon.
Actually, and though the guy is unspeakably prickish, Wankelmann buying Franchise could – from our point of view – be the best thing to happen. On three fronts as well. Firstly, those who went to the 3CR thing in MK a little while ago reckon that Wankelmann would immediately change the name to MK City or something, and would willingly give us the history etc back. Secondly, Wankelmann is considered a complete business failure. He allegedly burnt down Great Linford Manor for insurance purposes, and it seems that currently, if you go to GLM to record your album it’s a surefire way of proving that your career is heading down the pan. Last people I know to record there were Mrs Beckham and some non-entities called the Cooper Temple Clause. Who? Exactly.
Third reason, and on a purely spiteful level, it means that Koppout is shut out of his dream move. Just think, he put his reputation on the line, he pissed us all off to the point that anyone with a slight Unabomber bent will be considering redefining the word self-abuse. He fucked his marriage up, he fell out with Fat Nazi Hauger (who is now committing corporate fraud in Boston apparently), fell out with his pimps R&G and he STILL didn’t get the MK gig. Laugh? I’m trying hard not to. He’s now reportedly buggering off to South Africa, having failed with an £8m bid for Franchise. I know I should wish Koppel well in his future endeavours, but in truth I hope his car gets car-jacked in downtown Joburg and is brutally gang-raped by two men with HIV. And then he gets a cold.
One final thing, it looks like Franchise will be a purely MK club, which is why Wankelmann is trying to get it. It fits in, if the stories at Watford last season are anything to go by. Reportedly, existing Franchise fans were getting a torrid time from the MK fans who considered it “their” club and the original fans were intruding….