Nicander - I think Ks fans just wanted us to give them KM for nothing.

What I don't get with the K's is why haven't had a similar arrangement as Welling had with Erith & Belvedere? The latter building their own stand and clubhouse at a true ground share agreement. Was quite novel to visit the ground twice and go to different bars in non-league. But nonetheless a pretty sensible idea.

The reality is that however much money we had donated to Ks (and I think that it's clear that we gave them more than we legally "had" to), an element of their supporters would have complained about us and spread misinformation that we had "killed them" - that said, I do think that it was important that we "did the right thing" and that our conscience was clear in how we had dealt with the situation. I think that that Ks statement is good, in that in no sense does it try to blame us for their problems.

I don't have masses of sympathy for Ks if I'm honest. Too much delusion from fans of theirs I've spoken to. Too much throwing blame around and too little questioning what they have done to safeguard their club with years and years of time to plan and organise.

Saveloy - to be fair, I can "get" being a non-league fan (even though I wouldn't want to be one) and the whole help-out-the-community thing. But I think the guy behind Anderson Travel is still involved with Ks and for people like him, he must wonder sometimes how much of a moneypit it is in return for being the proverbial big fish. I can only think the "significant" sums to keep a club like Kingstonian afloat aren't actually that big in comparison to, say, ours. But big enough at the low levels...

Think there best bet was to do a deal with Cor Casuals similar to the one Welling & one of the Erith teams did a while back. Use the £1m to build a nice stand op the CC one and get a proper legal contract written up with CCFC. Sadly, i hear they rather blotted their copybook with Casuals when tjey groundshared there, but with a new Board and an ever increasingly desperate situation, maybe things can change

REPD - I think it's just that people like to be big fish, even if they know it's a small pond. But then I say that as someone who doesn't "get" being a non-league fan at all.

Kingston is a wealthy Borough with rich people and plenty of businesses, surely the community and fib dems would want a good community asset in their Borough.

While I can fully understand somebody buying into a pro football club for the non-financial side of things like networking, what's in it for those who put funding in for someone like Kingstonian?

It was generous but none of the Ks fans would agree that it was as we are the devil incarnate

Thanks for the link CW - what a mess. Although, I respect him for saying "extremely generous donation from AFC Wimbledon".

[Link]

A lot to unpack there, but to claim that no Womble money was spent on playing budget, but instead went on: training ground facilities, insurance policies, coach travel, FA and League fees, player registrations and fines, all required kit and playing equipment, accountants’ fees, payroll admin fees, auditors’ fees, professional fees, physio supplies, match day security, storage containers, photography, bank charges, Under 18s team costs, etc. ...is, to quote one Ks fan, the kind of lie you tell a child.

Google maps shows that from tolworth the 265 stops at colliers wood fc on robin hood way and it's a 4 minute walk over the footbridge.

An additional thought on the 265. I think Colliers Wood 's ground is on the east side of the A3 and there does not seem to be either a subway or footbridge near the bus stops, though I may be wrong. That would make the bus coming from Putney preferable for arriving and leaving rather than the one coming from Tolworth.

Morning all. Weren't there some "issues" the last couple of PSFs we had at Kingstonian?

Agree, despite what a few of the 'non-league or die' people think, we didn't kill Kingstonian and in many ways we kept them on life support much longer than they would have been without us. I'm not going to shed a tear for a club that had ten years of peanuts rent at KM but still couldn't become sustainable.

Spit we didn’t turf them out (a phrase we need to avoid). We were always clear we’d move back to Wimbledon when a chance came up. We tried to get Chelsea to allow them to stay but they intended the ground for their reserves/under whatever it is and the ladies so already had 2 teams to use it.

Trigger we had to sign that to get the entrance areas from the council. It was a quid pro quo agreement that meant we had to give Kingstonian guarantees for the council to give us the land/access. It was that or we couldn’t have got the stadium to where we did = not league standard (if I remember correctly) because of away fan entrances etc.

Is Raynes park vale Kingstonian's 4th different ground since we tuffed them out? shame that chessington garden centre area ground wasn't built for them.

I would suggest that if all you have is a men's first team, it's more of a football team than an football club.

First I’ve heard of that. Wonder who signed that crazy contract 😊

We had a contracted/covenanted agreement that meant we had to pay Kingstonians a large chunk of money for early ending of their tenancy. From memory it was complicated but I recall most of that 1M was under that. It wasn’t £50 and then 999,950 free gift.

With hindsight we’d have been better off giving Kingstonians a pat on the back and packet of Toffos. Though it’s clear that neither club would have used that million quid responsibly at the time.

It’s astonishing how far Kingstonian have fallen - despite our woes, we haven’t done all that badly since we were at the same level as them….