Expansion plans for Milton Keynes
Milton Keynes is a purpose-built, 'new city' in South East England. It is located about 45 miles (75 km) north west of London and approximately midway between Oxford and Cambridge. With other towns it forms the unitary authority of the Borough of Milton Keynes.
Relocation of Wimbledon F.C. to Milton Keynes
Winkelman, an ex-CBS Records executive and music promoter, had moved to the Milton Keynes area from London in 1993. He attested to a vast untapped fanbase for football in Milton Keynes—a "football frenzy waiting to happen", he said. Critics of this claim pointed to the apparent lack of public interest in Milton Keynes City and the other local non-League clubs, and argued that Milton Keynes residents interested specifically in League football already had ample access with Luton, Northampton and Rushden & Diamonds all within . In Winkelman's own words, in a 2013 interview, he "didn't have a clue about football" when he was proposing to move a League club from another town—indeed looking back he said "it was that naivety that enabled me to go and do it." He was the only person in Milton Keynes publicly associated with the project; his financial supporters, later revealed to be Asda (a subsidiary of Walmart) and IKEA, were kept strictly anonymous. According to an investigative report by Ian Pollock, published in "When Saturday Comes" in July 2002, neither the Milton Keynes Council press office, the editor of the "Milton Keynes Citizen" newspaper nor the head of Invest in MK, the council agency encouraging businesses to move to the area, could tell him who was backing the plans. Winkelman told Pollock his supporters were "major business people in MK and some developers. A number of major international partners who've done this sort of thing before."