AFC Wimbledon fans commenting on Newcastle United match switched to St James’ Park – Interesting | OneFootball

What a 24 hours it has been for AFC Wimbledon fans.

The heavens opening on Sunday night and their Plough Lane pitch and stadium flooded.

Tonight’s match against Newcastle United called off, that just one of so many issues for AFC Wimbledon fans to face.

As a fan-owned club, this is all even more serious for the League Two outfit.

Late on Monday afternoon the official announcement came, that AFC Wimbledon fans would be travelling to St James’ Park for this home cup match!

The game moved to Tyneside .

Interesting to hear what the AFC Wimbledon fans have made of moving the match to St James’ Park, read their comments on that below.

Of course, hopefully one of the significant benefits for AFC Wimbledon fans and their club, is that by having the match played up here, they will fingers crossed get a serious cash injection from the cup-tie.

As well as that, AFC Wimbledon fans have set up a JustGiving fundraiser to help their club deal with the devastating floods that have caused so much damage.

Here at The Mag we have made a small nominal donation on behalf of all the Newcastle United fans who visit the site. If you would like to join us by making a person donation, then please go HERE.

So far, at 8am on Tuesday morning, they have raised an impressive £27,517 from 625 donations towards their initial £50,000 target. Good luck to them and their club in raising as much cash as possible to get their pitch and stadium sorted ASAP.

This is the explanation on the JustGiviing fundraising page:

‘I’m raising money to help AFC Wimbledon get games on following damage to the stadium and pitch due to the extensive flooding over the course of 22-23rd September, which left the club having to call off games and destroyed the pitch.

The money raised will go towards helping the club deal with any costs associated with the floods and could range from repairs to pump hire to rental of an alternative venue – that will be decided by the Club.

We have been in touch with the Club and been assured that any help would be appreciated.

As you may know, AFC Wimbledon is a fan-owned club and the ability to play games in front of crowds is crucial to its existence…’

Another reminder, go HERE if you would like to donate a few quid to help them out.

AFC Wimbledon fans comments on news of the Newcastle United match getting moved to St James’ Park (with below these, their comments before the shift to SJP was announced) – Commenting via their Old Centrals’ Repository message board:

‘Thought this might happen re Newcastle.’

‘Newkassle anyone?’

‘A home match with over 45,000. Knock off a few bob to pay for staff, utilities etc. We’ll be so rich.’

‘45000 won’t turn up to watch Newcastle reserves/academy play us.’

‘They’d get 45,000 to watch the kits on a washing line. They also have a cup scheme that season ticket holdets sign up to at the start of the season that automatically buys their ticket. That’s anything between 35 – 40,000 minimum. Add on those deaperate to go to any game and it’ll be a near sell out.’

’45k plus gate I reckon. Not sure how many we’ll take at such short notice.’

‘Over £100 rail fare, time off work, ticket cost, etc etc…. Probably take 1,000 at most.’

‘I doubt more than a couple of hundred will go.’

‘Done Newcastle a good few times in the golden era, happy to watch it down the pub.’

‘Could be a bit chilly up Norf next week with 45% rain in the evening on tues, so wrap up for St James’ Park.’

‘Video of our pitch is the second most watched on the BBC website right now.’

‘Lift to Newcastle sorted.’

‘Been to all 24 Newcastle v Wimbledon games in the days when I was working but doubt I’ll make the 25th due to cost of going at short notice.’

‘Last time I went to Newcastle was when we played Gateshead round that running track’

‘if it’s dirt cheap to get in at St James’ Park there’s no real financial reward for us.’

‘It is £20 adults and £10 concessions. Gate receipts for Energy Drink Cup are divided 45% for each club (after certain deductions).’

AFC WIMBLEDON FANS COMMENTING BEFORE NEWS CAME OF THE SHIFT TO ST JAMES’ PARK:

‘I would imagine the Newcastle game will be switched to SJP, as likely to be the best solution for us in terms of income. But maybe this is all alarmist and we’ll be back at PL on Sat or Tue.’

‘if the stadium is genuinely unusable for 1-2 months, we either move games or have a ludicrous fixture pile-up that may damage play-off efforts. And even if we take the hit on fixture pile-up, 1-3 will be Sat games moved mid-week which I believe income is lower from.’

‘Of course Newcastle United game had to be postponed as you can’t fix a pitch in one day. We’ll know more during the next day or so I’d guess. I’m just trying t temper the “end of the world is nigh” attitude that seems to have become a default position.’

‘Assuming match not just put back 24 hours (unlikely) – having looked at our and Newcastle’s fixture lists, I suggest the match will be played on the 4th round date in a month’s time. Unless a League match for one or both club’s were postponed to accommodate and the optics for that are not good – how many Crewe fans have booked train tix or hotel rooms for next week? Plenty of time to fit in 4th round match before 5th round date.’

‘That would seem likely – a shorter gap for whoever wins between 4th and 5th round.’

‘The other worrying thing is there is a lot more rain to come this week. This could get worse before it gets better.’

‘Having £2m cash in hand gives us some breathing space l but we all know that that was projected to be eaten up by our losses and bond repayments in less than 2 years. I would be very surprised if any insurance we have will cover all of the costs of this (repairs to the pitch and stadium, lost income, ground share costs etc) so at the very least this is going to bring our cash crunch a bit earlier than we had hoped.’

‘Just a disaster. Up to two months’ lost income from matches? Christ.’

‘If I’ve interpreted the data on OI’s website correctly then last night saw the Wandle’s highest level (at Summerstown) since records began. Seems the peak reading last night was 3.23. The site says ‘The highest level ever recorded at the River Wandle at Summerstown is 3.11m, reached on Friday 20th July 2007’

‘There was a rise of around 2m in the early hours of this morning.’

’20lb carp just found in referee’s changing room.’

‘The advice we had in advance was that flooding of this type was a 1 in 100 year type of thing, so I think that we had good reason for our approach. However, given that we have already had this flooding once in only 4 years my point is that that might suggest that the advance risk assessment was actually over- optimistic (ie wrong) and the flood risk is actually substantially more than once in 100 years (or maybe we have just been really unlucky and it won’t happen for another 96 years. I doubt that insurance companies deciding whether to offer us future cover will go for the latter view.’

‘I don’t think they’re sink holes – they look like the pitch has bubbled up and split in places – which would be likely considering the earth couldn’t absorb any more water in lots of places.’

‘By the looks of the pitch etc we are gonna have to play somewhere else for a few weeks as the pitch will take weeks to repair.’

‘Back to Loftus rd it is then.’

‘Terrible news, on both a financial and footballing level. Knowing we are in a flood zone, if we didn’t have insurance, that would have been pretty negligent, so would assume we do. Rain was terrible in SE London as well, local roads and parks completely underwater near me (that haven’t been before).’

‘I can tell you how heavy it was, f…ing massive. It’s not like the pitch collapsed because someone’s fish tank overflowed a bit. It was hours and hours of constant heavy rain. And the ground isn’t unique in being in trouble this morning.’

‘I’d also say the drainage would appear to work since the pitch doesn’t look to have water sitting on top of it. Look like it’s collapsed because of the water levels under it.’

‘One thing we can say is that we will be in the 4th round draw for the first time since about 1998.’

‘I’ll be amazed if we’re back playing at Plough Lane within a month, looking at the damage.’

‘We can move the game to Newcastle if really necessary – or anywhere else. But not uncommon for league cup to have games stretched out due to fixture clashes so it doesn’t need to be a bye.’

‘Ah man. That’s a massive shame about the Newcastle game and looks like substantial damage to the pitch. Our next available midweek is 15th October so not obvious when it will slot in unless we can bump the Crawley game on the 8th.’

‘Might have to give Newcastle a bye.’

‘Pumps at stadium have failed and dressing rooms flooded.’

‘Looks bad enough plus offices,changing rooms and clubshop all flooded.’

‘Who’d of thought hey, building a football stadia on a flood plain.’

‘QPR, Brentford, palace, Fulham?’

‘Does sound like an “inside the stadium” issue. Apparently the areas outside the perimeter are virtually bone dry whilst in the food areas behind the three stands the water is ankle deep. Has a horrible feeling that the system put in to drain water has actually not just failed but actively created a problem. That of course is purely my unsubstantiated assumption.’

‘Having a browse in the old planning documents (slow day at work), seems the north and east areas are expected to be flooded and the pumps for drainage also turn off to allow the pitch to store flood water. So it seems it actually operated as it intended, but maybe the damage to the pitch is a bit more extensive than one may wish for.’

‘Think we have to play within a certain mile radius, so not necessarily London.’

‘Just thinking about Sutton but we probably got too many ST holders? No seats etc.’

‘Spending a couple of months ground sharing, just as we seem to have put together a solid squad capable of winning a few games, would be so unbelievably frustrating. Not to mention the impact on finances.’

‘They are not going to rearrange grounds for our next two home games. Far too complicated and far too short notice.’

‘Lots of talk of 2 months etc and that may / likely will turn out to be true but so far club has only officially called off tomorrow. Hope after assessment it is not as bad as it looks in the pictures.’

‘Should just use a ground we already have a groundsharing deal in place. Raynes Park Vale (Womens home ground) have improved their drainage and I believe even installed toilets inside the ground. Newcastle would love to play there.’

Newcastle United upcoming match schedule, confirmed to end of November:

Tuesday 24 September 2024 – AFC Wimbledon v Newcastle (7.45pm) Sky Sports+ POSTPONED

Saturday 28 September 2024 – Newcastle v Man City (12.30 pm) TNT Sports

Tuesday 1 October 2024 – AFC Wimbledon v Newcastle (7.45pm) Sky Sports+ (AT ST JAMES’ PARK!)

Saturday 5 October – Everton v Newcastle (5.30pm) Sky Sports

Saturday 19 October – Newcastle v Brighton (3pm)

Sunday 27 October – Chelsea v Newcastle (2pm) Sky Sports

Saturday 2 November – Newcastle v Arsenal (12.30pm) TNT Sports

Sunday 10 November – Forest v Newcastle (2pm) Sky Sports