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America's Second Favorite Fourth Tier English Soccer Team

2023-10-05 · letter vlog · John · 4:46 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Sports (also: Personal life) · mode: Personal essay · tags: calendar ritual, self promotion, community lore

As Pizzamas ends and before a week off to travel to England, John updates viewers on AFC Wimbledon's surprisingly good and fun season and its homegrown players, and argues that the fan-owned club shows community-held assets and communal action can work.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Pizzamas ending, last Pizzamas merch days, John's week off from Vlogbrothers

  • ★★ John says the greatest ever Pizzamas, at least in shirt sales, is about to end, and tomorrow (6 October 2023) marks the end of the weekday daily videos. — 00:00:01 · Pizzamas
  • ★★ John says the Pizzamas shirt and other items at pizzamas.com are available only for the next couple of days. — 00:00:11 · Pizzamas
  • ★★ John has to take next week (week of 9 October 2023) off from Vlogbrothers because he will be traveling with his family. — 00:00:21 · Vlogbrothers

00:00:29 — Trip to England to see Mike Birbiglia and AFC Wimbledon; Dear Hank and John on hiatus

  • ★★ John will travel to England to see his friend Mike Birbiglia perform comedy and AFC Wimbledon perform, by the betting odds, tragedy. (playful) — 00:00:29 · England, AFC Wimbledon
  • ★★ John says most of the community follows AFC Wimbledon through Dear Hank and John, which has been on cancer hiatus for several months, so most don't know the club's news. — 00:00:39 · AFC Wimbledon, Dear Hank and John, Nerdfighteria

00:00:57 — AFC Wimbledon backstory, sponsorship, surprising season and star players, Joe Lewis's shorts

  • ★★ John and his producing partner Rosianna sponsor AFC Wimbledon: the women's team wear a Partners In Health logo on their shirts, the men's team a DFTBA logo on their shorts. — 00:00:57 · Rosianna Halse Rojas, AFC Wimbledon, Partners In Health, DFTBA Records
  • ★★ John says AFC Wimbledon, of South London, is owned by its fans, each paying about $25 a year to vote on the club's leadership. — 00:01:05 · AFC Wimbledon
  • ★★ John says Wimbledon are bad: unlike other fourth-tier clubs owned by Hollywood celebrities or the Saudi government, a fan-owned club never has money. (playful) — 00:01:24 · AFC Wimbledon
  • ★ John says Wimbledon has a beautiful new stadium owned and built by the fans that is packed every week. — 00:01:38 · AFC Wimbledon
  • ★★ John says Wimbledon were relegated from the third to the fourth tier and barely survived in the fourth tier last season. — 00:01:46 · AFC Wimbledon
  • ★★ John says that this season, which looked no different, something weird happened: Wimbledon might be good. (hedged) — 00:01:57 · AFC Wimbledon
  • ★★ John says Wimbledon currently sit narrowly ahead of Wrexham, owned by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, and several spots above the Milton Keynes club. — 00:02:01 · AFC Wimbledon
  • ★★ John says, more surprisingly, Wimbledon are fun to watch this season, with exciting young players who score lots of goals. — 00:02:13 · AFC Wimbledon
  • ★★ Striker Ali Al-Hamadi left Iraq as an infant after his father was imprisoned by Saddam Hussein's regime and is now a superstar for Wimbledon and Iraq's national team; John loves him. — 00:02:26 · AFC Wimbledon
  • ★★ John says the mustachioed James Tilley scored seven goals in his first nine games for Wimbledon. — 00:02:41 · AFC Wimbledon
  • ★★ John says winger Aaron Sasu, 18, has played for Wimbledon's youth side since he was 10. — 00:02:48 · AFC Wimbledon
  • ★★ John says great players are emerging from Wimbledon's academy, including fullbacks Jack Currie, his personal hero, at the club since 10, and Isaac Ovandera, who joined at 14. — 00:02:54 · AFC Wimbledon
  • ★★★ John says Wimbledon will never be able to buy big stars, so it has to make them, and it has done a really good job of that. — 00:03:04 · AFC Wimbledon
  • ★★ John hails central defenders 'Greatbeard' Ryan Johnson and Joe Lewis, whose aggressively rolled-up shorts hide the DFTBA logo, which John is fine with. (playful) — 00:03:12 · DFTBA Records

00:03:37 — The underdog fan-owned club as proof that communal action can work, and lessons used in community projects

  • ★★ John says if you love an underdog story, Wimbledon keeps delivering because it will always be an underdog story. — 00:03:37 · AFC Wimbledon
  • ★★★ John says the argument of ten years of sponsoring Wimbledon, and of its fan reformation, is that community-held assets and communal action can work: not easily or always, but they can. — 00:03:45 · AFC Wimbledon, collective action
  • ★★ John says AFC Wimbledon reformed 21 years ago after the English FA told the community there was no place for a football club there. — 00:03:48 · AFC Wimbledon
  • ★★★ John says lessons from Wimbledon, its local anti-poverty action group and the AFC Wimbledon Foundation, went into many community projects, including pushing down TB diagnostic and treatment prices. — 00:04:05 · AFC Wimbledon, tuberculosis

00:04:27 — Expectation of losing players in January; fun when the team is good

  • ★★ John is sure Wimbledon won't be good all season and will lose a bunch of its best players in the January transfer window, but it is fun when they are good. — 00:04:27 · AFC Wimbledon

00:04:36 — John loves Pizzamas, thanks Hank, sign-off

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says AFC Wimbledon, which is not Wrexham, is in second place. — video description · AFC Wimbledon
  • ★ In a comment John says Wimbledon's full-game 1-0 lead was the longest they had held one in five years. (playful) — creator comment · AFC Wimbledon
  • ★★ In a comment John says Dear Hank and John should return by the end of the month. (hedged) — creator comment · Dear Hank and John
  • ★ In a comment John jokes that the Milton Keynes club would be Wimbledon's rival, except that in a normal rivalry both clubs should exist. (joke) — creator comment

Humor (significant)

  • John says he will see his friend Mike Birbiglia perform comedy and see his football team — 00:00:32

    “AFC Wimbledon perform tragedy”

  • John places the DFTBA logo on the back of the men's team's shorts — 00:01:17

    “in that liminal space between left thigh and buttock”

  • John will not name the club in Milton Keynes, calling it only — 00:02:09

    “the franchise currently plying its trade in Milton Keynes”

  • John reels off nicknames for central defender Joe Lewis and his rolled-up shorts — 00:03:23

    “Joe "big man, small shorts" Lewis”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: AFC Wimbledon · collective action

Also: People: Aaron Sasu · Ali Al-Hamadi · Isaac Ovandera · Jack Currie · James Tilley · Joe Lewis · Mike Birbiglia · Rob McElhenney · Rosianna Halse Rojas · Ryan Johnson · Ryan Reynolds · Saddam Hussein

Projects: Dear Hank and John · DFTBA Records · Pizzamas

Organizations: AFC Wimbledon Foundation · Milton Keynes Dons F.C. · Partners In Health · The Football Association · Wrexham A.F.C.

Concepts: fan ownership · tuberculosis

Places: England · Hollywood · Iraq · Plough Lane · Saudi Arabia

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