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Plough Lane
Plough Lane, currently known as the Cherry Red Records Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose football stadium, named the 42nd best stadium in world football in 2024, in Wimbledon, south-west London, which has been the home of AFC Wimbledon since 3 November 2020. A groundshare with rugby league side London Broncos began in 2022.
Wimbledon F.C. played its matches at the original Plough Lane stadium from 1912 until 1991. AFC Wimbledon's new stadium lies approximately 200 yards further east. After 1991 Wimbledon F.C. began a ground-share with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, with the intention of moving to a new all-seater stadium elsewhere at a later date due to the original Plough Lane stadium being considered unsuitable for conversion into a modern all-seater stadium. Numerous locations within and beyond the borders of Merton were considered for a possible new stadium, but none of these came to fruition, and in 2003 the original Wimbledon club controversially relocated 70 miles north to Milton Keynes and rebranded as Milton Keynes Dons.
In 2002 a phoenix club, AFC Wimbledon, was formed by the club's supporters after the Football Association gave Wimbledon F.C. permission to move to Milton Keynes. For the initial eighteen years of its existence, AFC Wimbledon played at Kingsmeadow Stadium, in the neighbouring London borough of Kingston.
Since its inception, AFC Wimbledon had stated that one of its primary aims was to return to Merton, with a new stadium close to what it regards as its "spiritual home" of the original Plough Lane. This aim formed the basis of a project to create a new purpose-built stadium on the site of the Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium, located approximately 200 yards from the original Plough Lane football stadium, where the original Wimbledon side played for 80 years.
Plans to develop the greyhound stadium site as either a multi-purpose stadium or as a football stadium were publicised frequently by the club and the media prior to 2013. In 2013 AFC Wimbledon announced that discussions were underway with Merton Council over a joint bid for the greyhound stadium and the surrounding land, in cooperation with developer Galliard Homes, to build a new football stadium, 600 residential properties and a range of community facilities.
Construction proceeded with the permanent west stand initially, with main entry from the south off Plough Lane. This is a four-storey structure with general admission access from the first floor, and hospitality above. This structure seats 4,267 spectators; semi-permanent stands on the other three sides brings initial capacity to 9,215. Among the semi-permanent seating, the most vocal home fans will be in the south, which will include a safe standing area; a family area along the east; and away fans will be in the north stand, which is isolated with its own entry. A secondary entrance for home fans in the south and east stands is located on the easterly pedestrian-only street, Greyhound Parade.
The plans for the football stadium were approved unanimously by Merton Council on 10 December 2015. Clearance of the site in preparation for the new football stadium and housing was begun on 16 March 2018. The stadium's opening was initially planned for summer 2019, but did not take place until 3 November 2020. The land's freehold was transferred to an AFC Wimbledon subsidiary on 24 December 2018, among other transactions that also formally transferred ownership of Kingsmeadow to Chelsea.
The club thus purchased and cleared the site of the former Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium in anticipation of construction. In 2019 it was announced that a minimum of £2 million in crowdfunding would be needed to construct a scaled-down version of the original design with a single permanent stand and an initial capacity of 9,000; as of August 2019, the £2 million mark had been raised through Seedrs. In November 2019 it emerged that financing of a final £11m needed to complete the ground as envisioned was not forthcoming; the club's fan ownership initially considered scaling down the project, or accepting outside investment into the club by relinquishing ownership to meet the shortfall. However, alternative financing was quickly raised by club supporters by way of a bond issue which raised over £5 million. In May 2020, the final remaining financing needed to sign all construction contracts was confirmed following key investment from local businessman Nick Robertson.
Plough Lane
Plough Lane, currently known as the Cherry Red Records Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose football stadium, named the 42nd best stadium in world football in 2024, in Wimbledon, south-west London, which has been the home of AFC Wimbledon since 3 November 2020. A groundshare with rugby league side London Broncos began in 2022.
Wimbledon F.C. played its matches at the original Plough Lane stadium from 1912 until 1991. AFC Wimbledon's new stadium lies approximately 200 yards further east. After 1991 Wimbledon F.C. began a ground-share with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, with the intention of moving to a new all-seater stadium elsewhere at a later date due to the original Plough Lane stadium being considered unsuitable for conversion into a modern all-seater stadium. Numerous locations within and beyond the borders of Merton were considered for a possible new stadium, but none of these came to fruition, and in 2003 the original Wimbledon club controversially relocated 70 miles north to Milton Keynes and rebranded as Milton Keynes Dons.
In 2002 a phoenix club, AFC Wimbledon, was formed by the club's supporters after the Football Association gave Wimbledon F.C. permission to move to Milton Keynes. For the initial eighteen years of its existence, AFC Wimbledon played at Kingsmeadow Stadium, in the neighbouring London borough of Kingston.
Since its inception, AFC Wimbledon had stated that one of its primary aims was to return to Merton, with a new stadium close to what it regards as its "spiritual home" of the original Plough Lane. This aim formed the basis of a project to create a new purpose-built stadium on the site of the Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium, located approximately 200 yards from the original Plough Lane football stadium, where the original Wimbledon side played for 80 years.
Plans to develop the greyhound stadium site as either a multi-purpose stadium or as a football stadium were publicised frequently by the club and the media prior to 2013. In 2013 AFC Wimbledon announced that discussions were underway with Merton Council over a joint bid for the greyhound stadium and the surrounding land, in cooperation with developer Galliard Homes, to build a new football stadium, 600 residential properties and a range of community facilities.
Construction proceeded with the permanent west stand initially, with main entry from the south off Plough Lane. This is a four-storey structure with general admission access from the first floor, and hospitality above. This structure seats 4,267 spectators; semi-permanent stands on the other three sides brings initial capacity to 9,215. Among the semi-permanent seating, the most vocal home fans will be in the south, which will include a safe standing area; a family area along the east; and away fans will be in the north stand, which is isolated with its own entry. A secondary entrance for home fans in the south and east stands is located on the easterly pedestrian-only street, Greyhound Parade.
The plans for the football stadium were approved unanimously by Merton Council on 10 December 2015. Clearance of the site in preparation for the new football stadium and housing was begun on 16 March 2018. The stadium's opening was initially planned for summer 2019, but did not take place until 3 November 2020. The land's freehold was transferred to an AFC Wimbledon subsidiary on 24 December 2018, among other transactions that also formally transferred ownership of Kingsmeadow to Chelsea.
The club thus purchased and cleared the site of the former Wimbledon Greyhound Stadium in anticipation of construction. In 2019 it was announced that a minimum of £2 million in crowdfunding would be needed to construct a scaled-down version of the original design with a single permanent stand and an initial capacity of 9,000; as of August 2019, the £2 million mark had been raised through Seedrs. In November 2019 it emerged that financing of a final £11m needed to complete the ground as envisioned was not forthcoming; the club's fan ownership initially considered scaling down the project, or accepting outside investment into the club by relinquishing ownership to meet the shortfall. However, alternative financing was quickly raised by club supporters by way of a bond issue which raised over £5 million. In May 2020, the final remaining financing needed to sign all construction contracts was confirmed following key investment from local businessman Nick Robertson.
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