The breakdown in relations between Dulwich Hamlet and Meadow Residential LLP, the property investment fund which owns their stadium, Champion Hill, has reached a new low after the non-league club were informed they could no longer even use their own name or initials.
Dulwich, top of the Bostik Premier Division after Tuesday’s win at Billericay, had been handed an unanticipated bill for back rent of £121,000 by Meadow on Monday evening with the threat of a winding-up order to follow within 21 days, and were served notice that their licence to play at the stadium had been terminated with immediate effect.
The south London club, who celebrate their 125th anniversary this year, were still digesting that news when they received a letter from the solicitors Blake Morgan representing ‘Greendales IP LLC’, a subsidiary of Meadow, declaring that ‘Dulwich Hamlet Football Club’, ‘The Hamlet’ and even ‘DHFC’ had been registered as trademarks on 17 October 2017.
The letter went on to demand that those trademarks “no longer be used on any printed literature and any online activity including websites and Twitter”. Dulwich intend to continue using their own name regardless of the legal implications, with supporters taking to Twitter in defiance on Tuesday night championing the hashtag #DHFC.
Meadow purchased Champion Hill for £5.7m four years ago but were blocked from an £80m residential development of the site after losing a legal battle with Southwark council last October, at around the same time the trademarks were registered on the club’s name. Their long-standing threat to evict the club – who regularly attract gates in excess of 1,500 to games in the seventh tier – was duly carried out on Monday.
“This follows repeated breaches of the licence by the club,” said a Meadow spokesman, “together with unwarranted personal attacks on the company, which has funded the club for a number of years and without which the club would not have survived as long as it has.”
Dulwich, who are exploring options to groundshare at other south London clubs as they seek to fulfil their remaining six home games this season, remain of interest to Rio Ferdinand’s affordable housing group, Legacy Foundation. The former England defender, who hails from nearby Peckham and is a close friend of the Dulwich manager, Gavin Rose, had proposed a development in compliance with Southwark Council’s requirements with a £10m bid lodged with Meadow before Christmas. That was rejected, with subsequent efforts to re-enter negotiations having come to nothing.
Southwark council intends to discuss its own potential acquisition of Champion Hill, potentially under a compulsory purchase order, at a cabinet meeting next week. The council leader, Peter John, joined the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, on Tuesday evening in writing to Meadow in their offices in New York to request they consider selling Champion Hill to Southwark, thereby bringing the stadium into public ownership and safeguarding the future of the club.
On Wednesday Meadow made a set of proposals which included transferring to the supporters’ trust ownership of the trademarks to DHST. It also said it wanted Dulwich Hamlet to see out the season at Champion Hill and to work with Southwark council to find a solution which would enable Meadow to develop the site for housing and build a new stadium for the club.
