Milton Keynes Dons F.C.: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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| last = Roach

| date =2 August 2001

| accessdate = 31 August 2009}}</ref> Despite Wimbledon's new prominence, the club's modest home stadium at [[Plough Lane]] remained largely unchanged from its non-league days.<ref name=toobigfortheirroots/> The club's then-owner [[Ron Noades]] identified this as a problem as early as 1979, extending his dissatisfaction to the ground's very location. Interested in the stadium site designated by the [[Milton Keynes Development Corporation]], Noades briefly planned to move Wimbledon there by merging with a non-league club in Milton Keynes, purchasing debt-ridden [[Milton Keynes City F.C.|Milton Keynes City]]. However, Noades then decided that the club would not gain sufficient support in Milton Keynes as the population was still low still being under construction,and abandoningabandoned the idea.<ref name=noadesradio/>

In 1991, after the [[Taylor Report]] was published recommending the redevelopment of English football grounds, Wimbledon left Plough Lane to [[groundshare]] at [[Crystal Palace F.C.|Crystal Palace]]'s ground, [[Selhurst Park]], about {{convert|6|mi}} away. [[Sam Hammam]], who then owned Wimbledon, said the club could not afford to redevelop Plough Lane and that the groundshare was a temporary arrangement while a new ground was sourced in south-west London. A new stadium for Wimbledon proved difficult to achieve.<ref name=toobigfortheirroots/> Frustrated by what he perceived as a lack of support from [[Merton London Borough Council|Merton Council]], Hammam began to look further afield and by 1996 was pursuing a move to [[Dublin]], an idea that most Wimbledon fans strongly opposed.<ref name="balls">{{cite news