Wembley Stadium Could be sold by FA

[The Big Dady]

Fulham's billionaire owner Shahid Khan says he hopes a deal to buy Wembley Stadium from the Football Association will be completed in eight to 12 weeks.

Shahid Khan also owns the NFL Jacksonville Jaguars, and it could result in a permanent NFL franchise in London.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/43910691

 

[mattitouk]

I was also going to start a thread about this also.

Not much mixed emotions about this from me really.

On one hand, if the £600 million made from the sell could be put back into ground roots football, it should be a really good investment for the future of our sport in England, And the FA would still hold onto the £300 million of hospitality business, so that would still bring in a continued income also.

But on the other hand, and it's a big But.... IMO the negatives outweigh the positives.

IE:

1. It was payed for in a large part by tax payers money, & most probable it's not as if we will see that money back in our pockets ever again (Like the Olympic / West Ham Stadium for example).

2. We will be giving up a national treasure. England invented the beautiful game, and Wembley is the true home of football & recognised worldwide.. I don't want our national stadium being sold to the highest bidder and being re-named the "Tesco Arena" or something, like the Emirates or the Ethiad.

3. According to some media, It's already been pretty much agreed that if it was sold to a private owner, we could lose some international home games as well as important national games such as the FA Cup final and league play off's etc, to Old Trafford and other large stadiums across the country if there was fixture clashes with Mr Khans own interests of hiring out the venue to anyone willing (which for me is a big no, but maybe i'm biased because i'm based in the south of England).


Thank for the offer Mr Khan, but no thanks, that's keep our national treasure, just exactly that. (as the article says, what next?..flog off Big Ben and Buckingham Palace?).


It seems this mornings tabloids are having a field day with this topic too:

 

[Ricey]

Load of ****ing bollocks! They cannot sell the stadium to some yank who will bring ****** NFL games over here. It’s our national stadium, it would be embarrassing that we can’t play our most prestigious games like cup finals and England matches there because he wants to play stupid NFL there.

Buy Twickenham, Rugby and NFL are pretty much the same and both *****.

Disgraceful and doesn’t surprise me from the FA.

 

[kaymac]

Think it’s fairly certain that if sold then the money the FA receive will soon evaporate leading to questions being asked about what happened to the proposed grass roots investment. Asides which, in 5-10 years time £900m will seem like peanuts.

 

[Uncle Leo]

Load of ****ing bollocks! They cannot sell the stadium to some yank who will bring ****** NFL games over here. It’s our national stadium, it would be embarrassing that we can’t play our most prestigious games like cup finals and England matches there because he wants to play stupid NFL there.

Buy Twickenham, Rugby and NFL are pretty much the same and both *****.

Disgraceful and doesn’t surprise me from the FA.

Nothing has been said about FA Cup Finals not being played at Wembley. Khan would be mad not to have that game there. And England will continue to play many games there too.

If a consequence of this is more England games being played around the country, then that is a good thing. We have loads of great grounds in this country capable and deserving of hosting England games.

What is important is that the FA commits to spending this money on grassroots football and is held to account on that.

 

[Ricey]

Nothing has been said about FA Cup Finals not being played at Wembley. Khan would be mad not to have that game there. And England will continue to play many games there too.

If a consequence of this is more England games being played around the country, then that is a good thing. We have loads of great grounds in this country capable and deserving of hosting England games.

What is important is that the FA commits to spending this money on grassroots football and is held to account on that.

Yes I agree with all that but Khan will have no contractual agreement to host any of those games at Wembley. If he all of a sudden decides to fall out with tha FA then we could lose our home for England and our national stadium for huge games.

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

My first reaction to this was outrage, fairly standard thoughts of " national treasure, yanks" etc.

Then I remembered the ideas about the National Stadium was in the wrong, non central position with out dated links and poor support services/facilities around it etc so I have become non plussed.

Sell it for a billion, build a new stadium near the NEC, have a proper roof and parking, new rail terminal, shopping mall etc and use some money for grass roots footie.

 

[Uncle Leo]

My first reaction to this was outrage, fairly standard thoughts of " national treasure, yanks" etc.

Then I remembered the ideas about the National Stadium was in the wrong, non central position with out dated links and poor support services/facilities around it etc so I have become non plussed.

Sell it for a billion, build a new stadium near the NEC, have a proper roof and parking, new rail terminal, shopping mall etc and use some money for grass roots footie.

It would have been great if they'd built a national stadium in the Midlands back in the early 2000s, but I think that ship has sailed. We wouldn't get much change out of that £800m and then we'd have two massive stadia without an anchor tenant. And the London Stadium, which has a ****** tenant. Boom boom!

 

[RobM]

..and how is this money gong into 'grass roots', exactly?

 

[The Big Dady]

..and how is this money gong into 'grass roots', exactly?

Ron is already in the queue for some new "grass roots" for the Roots Hall pitch.

If he does not get any, he is going to rename "Roots Hall" to "No Grass Roots Hall". :winking:

 

[Uncle Leo]

..and how is this money gong into 'grass roots', exactly?

The FA should commit to buying a certain amount of land and building a certain amount of pitches - grass and 3G.

Invest in coaching too; e.g. by making courses more accessible (cheaper)

Pay to extradite anyone who abuses referees.

 

[Yorkshire Blue]

Yes I agree with all that but Khan will have no contractual agreement to host any of those games at Wembley. If he all of a sudden decides to fall out with tha FA then we could lose our home for England and our national stadium for huge games.

I would be amazed if any agreement didn't include the contractual right to host FA Cup finals, play-offs and a set number of England games each year.

What it might not give is flexibility or the right to play them during the NFL season and it might cause difficulties if bidding for a World Cup or Euros.

It will also be interesting as to what happens with advertising rights and decoration (would England play in a stadium decked out in Jacksonville Jaguars colours or with posters of NFL legends?). But those can be solved and Khan may want to adopt England colours for his NFL franchise as a marketing ploy.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

Upsie.Fulham would, of course, be able to grace the staium on a regular basis.

Khan has sai there's no chance of that happening ,however.:cry:

 

[mattitouk]

Khan is also expanding Craven Cottage to 30,000, I think the work begins next year.


Talking of Wembley, I do seem to recall that Chelsea wanted to move into Wembley during the period when their stadium gets expanded. Anyone hear an update on that?

I guess that will be a bit of policing headache, with tens of thousands of Chelsea fans swanning around Arsenal and Spurs "Manor" every other week.

 

[GBJ]

Meh. Wembley simply doesn't hold the same prestige that it did in previous decades.

The glory of a Wembley FA Cup final has been ruined, due to the semi-finals also being held there.

England games are generally dreadful, with a touristy atmosphere.

Aside from the Play-offs & the JPT, Wembley is a pretty soulless, meaningless & pointless place these days. IMHO obviously.

 

[RHB]

Meh. Wembley simply doesn't hold the same prestige that it did in previous decades.

The glory of a Wembley FA Cup final has been ruined, due to the semi-finals also being held there.

England games are generally dreadful, with a touristy atmosphere.

Aside from the Play-offs & the JPT, Wembley is a pretty soulless, meaningless & pointless place these days. IMHO obviously.

All that may be true, and probably is, but selling out to the owner of an NFL club so he can have a London base? FFS!! With apologies to any NFL affictionardos on here I couldn't give a toss about American football so he just go away.

 

[southendkid]

All the talk about Wembley should always be owned by the FA is a bit weird since the original Wembley wasn't even owned by the FA until a couple of years before it was demolished. The FA only purchased it in 1998 because they wanted to bid for the 2006 World Cup, they had to compete with Arsenal who were also interested in buying the stadium. Anyone intending to base an NFL team here shouldn't be allowed to buy it but if someone that would prioritise English football was interested in buying it, would that be a bad thing? With the right buyer it would be no different to what we did with the old Wembley. It's not like the FA don't already rent Wembley out to anyone that wants it anyway.

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football-fa-infuriated-by-arsenals-bid-for-wembley-1150008.html

 

[mattitouk]

Some interesting points raised here by Gary Neville to the government.

 

[mattitouk]

Again.... This is everything that's wrong with today's Football Association...bearing in mind we invented the game and the laws etc...

https://talksport.com/football/415985/shahid-khan-wembley-stadium-fulham-tony-khan/

And all the talk about investment in smaller teams & "grass roots football"....etc etc etc..

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45337856

The important matter of a £10 loss to a tiny team (with only 50 seats in their stadium) trying to qualify for the early stages of the FA Cup seems irrelevant to the founders of the beautiful game.
However they would rather concentrate on making a £billion profit on selling our national stadium to the highest bidder, which i might add,.. that has been built by our own hard working tax payers!

In summary,

If the FA aren't careful, they will be in danger of looking more corrupt than FIFA.

 

[The Big Dady]

Looks like the Scottish FA are doing the complete opposite to England by buying Hampden from Queen's Park.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/45344645