'Unprecedented' - Wimbledon ground fund hits £100k

A crowdfunding page set up to raise money for AFC Wimbledon after the club's stadium was damaged by flooding has gathered more than £100,000 in donations.

The Cherry Red Records Stadium in Plough Lane was left underwater after large amounts of rain fell in the area on Sunday night and Monday morning, causing extensive damage to the pitch.

More than 100,000 litres of water has been pumped out of the stadium this week.

Wimbledon's Carabao Cup third-round match against Newcastle United has been moved to St James' Park next week and the Premier League club have pledged £15,000 to the fund.

Lifelong Wimbledon fan Graham Stacey set up the JustGiving page, external with a target of £10,000 to help try to take some financial strain off the club but has been overwhelmed by the generosity he has seen from football fans around the country, with the current target now up to £150,000 as donations continue to come in.

"It's absolutely amazing and unprecedented I think," the 50-year-old told BBC Sport.

"We've had small donations of pocket money pledged and we've also had donations of £5,000 from individuals."

One such donation was from next week's cup opponents the Magpies.

"I had to refresh the page a few times and check it was actually from the club," Stacey said.

"I cannot praise Newcastle and their fans highly enough. Their fans were the ones who started donating and putting things on social media to see what they could do [to help].

"People have a pop at the Premier League but this shows there's a heart there, at the end of the day."

Stacey now lives in Hook, Hampshire, but was born and raised in Wimbledon and started going to watch the club at the old Plough Lane ground in the 1970s.

The original club was moved to Milton Keynes to form MK Dons in a hugely controversial decision more than 20 years ago that led to fans founding the phoenix club AFC Wimbledon in its place.

Stacey has since served on the board of the Dons Trust, which owns the current version of the club, from 2019 to 2022.

The Dons moved back to Plough Lane in their new stadium in 2020, having faced a shortfall the year before when fans again reached into their pockets to help.

And Stacey said he felt "utter devastation" when he saw the damage on Monday.

"It's more than a football ground to us, it's something we built," he said.

"Getting into that stadium has been a bit of a journey.

"We didn't really know what to expect [when starting the crowdfund]. Our fans always rally around, they tackle adversity head on."

The full extent of the damage to the stadium, as well as the exact cause, is not yet known by the club but excavation was due to start on the pitch on Wednesday, managing director James Woodroof told BBC Radio London on Tuesday.

He said the nearby River Wandle had broken its banks after intense rainfall on Sunday and Monday and that the water had funnelled into the stadium, getting into club buildings and flooding the concourses.

Wimbledon had hoped to play Saturday's League Two game against Accrington Stanley at an alternative ground in south London but, like next Tuesday's visit of Crewe Alexandra, the match has been postponed.

Four tankers, carrying 27,000 litres of water each, pumped standing water from the stadium on Tuesday.

With a running tap estimated to use nine litres a minute, 100,000 litres is the equivalent of a tap being left on continuously for around a week.

Woodroof is hoping to have repairs completed in time to stage the Dons' next scheduled home game against Carlisle United on Saturday, 12 October.

Stacey, meanwhile, said he did not know what the club would choose to spend the crowdfunding money on, whether it was the cost of repairs to the stadium or ground-sharing while they take place.

"I know from my time on the board that if we are to share a ground it's not cheap, as we played a few games at QPR [Loftus Road]," he said.

"I know the money is going to be well spent and as a club we'll need it."

Wimbledon will receive 45% of the proceeds [after costs] from next week's match at Newcastle, in line with the English Football League's Carabao Cup rules.