Reaching the Five Thousand

Welcome to our first update. We hope to have a little summary on a weekly basis to let you know how the campaign is developing. At the time of writing we aren’t yet at the 100 hours mark since this site went live and we already have more than 5,000 clicks of support, which is frankly astonishing. More than 2,000 surveys have been filed and we have more than 400 volunteers who want to help spread the word still further.

As ever with this wonderful football club it’s a humblingly amazing response. Many thanks to everyone who has helped us get this off the ground.

But don’t stop yet! As Marc and Charlie explain in the surprisingly beard-riddled video below, we’ve only just started a long campaign. The key now is to make sure as many people as possible in and near SW19 know about the campaign and to drive more local residents to fill in surveys showing their support for the proposals. The more sign-ups we get, the better we can support the club’s planning application by showing councillors and planning advisors how popular the stadium will be.

Over the next couple of days we will be sifting through all the offers of help and volunteering and emailing everyone to co=ordinate next steps. But the key message is this:

• Please persuade as many people to sign up as you can – talk to friends and local residents as much as possible.
• We will be looking for people who can help ensure our posters and our pledge cards are seen by everyone in Merton. If you’ve got time to get more people backing the campaign, we will make sure you get the materials you need.
• If we all spend a few hours to reach just a few more people each this December, we can show the council in the new year that bringing the Dons home has significant public backing, not just from Wimbledon fans, but from the wider community.
• We’d also love to hear from any Wimbledon fans or sympathisers with links to any local societies, groups or community centres where they think they would be able to put some pledge cards or posters to raise awareness.

So here’s to 10,000 supporters and 2,000 more surveys by the time of the next update…

BTDH!