There may be a broad-brush correlation but with spectacular and regular outliers that show that it's no guarantee and when it goes wrong the consequences can be severe. We've stayed up. That in itself shows that clubs that have spent more than us have gone down.

Is anyone seriously saying there isn't a correlation between playing budgets and results? If they are then why dont we just do what Corinthian Casuals do and just pay players expenses?

Agreed but from what one hears there is a correlation

OI I was talking about what minority investors might get, rather than the German stuff tbh

Initial surge we’ve yet to see them achieve anything. No prizes for being top in October.

Lurker: I get what you are saying but to counter that look at Wycombe since their take over ?

KD exactly

Trebor, in that case wny not reduce the budget? There will always be teams that over achieve and under achieve, signings that under perform and over perform. But, surely in the long term the higher the budget the more chance of success....

We’ve reached the limits of being at KM, an unloved non-league ground on steroids. Our carriage awaits.

Think Neal Ardley proved that more money can just result in more mediocrity rather than improvements.

Don’t get the constant (unproven) assumption that fan owned = no success and selling up = success. Remind how Bolton and Bury are doing there. We’ve reached the limitation of our current size. Doesn’t matter if we’re fan owned or not, not having enough money to pay a decent squad is our issue. And someone would have to be mad to pump around £10m a season into us (which is what it would take to make championship and stay there). It’s simply not likely to happen. Much more likely they’ll invest enough to be a mediocre L1 club and I’m with anyone who says that isn’t worth selling up for.

Got my football fix by watching Hamburg v St Pauli earlier. Bit of an upset as St Pauli won 2–0.

Examples Doobs? We could have an incredibly rich fan like Hoffenheim or be a great marketing exercise (Wolfsburg, Leverkeusen possibly) but for which companies. Do Augsburg, Padebron, Bremen, Koln, Dusseldorf etc. have significant minority investment? If so on what basis? I'm not saying it isn't possible, I'd just want to see what the foundations of the investment would be.

Four things that should be safeguarded and only change if fans want it for me a) name of club. B ) location of club. C) home colours of club. D) badge

I’m not even sure it is inevitable. People in here have mentioned a hotel, for eg, tagged into the stadium. Anyone wants to do that they have to pay us a few million for us to OK it and then an ongoing %. Must better ideas out there too, imho

Doobs - let's move it back a step before we talk about any detail on outside investment. Let's say: it's inevitable that at some point in the next 10/50/100 years we'll sell to outside investment. The question is, what safeguards do we put in place that ensures the legacy of a football club in Wimbledon? And to be honest, it all should be focused on the ground. If the ground is secure we could have many instances of a football club, but the lasting legacy is that they are on plough Lane.

Oi - I think there is LOADS we could offer an investor, realistically, without ceding any control. Think of all the JV opportunities. Just as our presence has given galliard a licence to print money, so could it in another venture involving us but giving someone access to something profitable. Iyswim

(RK - thanks. Noted)

Surely the Fun Boy Three have got the message? Even if they haven’t, the bonds have an option for redemption should we sell out. It’s over. A dead parrot.

Train, tbh I genuinely don’t believe Davies or any of the the others on the original team had or have a handle on expenditure or income projection. Before joey jerk off starts chest beating, that’s not a tar and feather statement. I genuinely hope the new team that have evolved can help get a grip on it.

The lower we play the more we will attack teams. At the moment the balance of power in the DT is fan ownership above success, that will eventually change, hopefully over my dead body :) I think we might accept minority investment at some point if there is an answer as to whay anyone, other than a fan, would want to put in a load of money without control. If anyone says Germany 50%+1, could they please provide the list of minority investors and holdings in Bundesliga clubs so that it can be properly assessed.

RK, which bit sounds like BS?

I wrote a piece for the programme recently saying we must have a debate about outside investment (I would hope it would be minority, personally, if and when it happens) and about whether we want to restructure the DTB. I did frame it around buying more bonds so we are in control of those debates, mind :) The piece is at: [Link] but rest assured there is appetite for debate about these things inside as well as outside the DTB.

Trebor, that's a fair point but we can't put the genie back in the bottle. On reflection it would probably have been better if it had taken us a bit longer to get into the Football League and definitely L1 but we are where we are

That sounds like BS Shergy