FA to sell Wembley

Goobs · Post by **Goobs** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:07 pm

To Jacksonville Jaguars and Fulham owner Shahid Khan? Just breaking on SSN now.

Guitargeorge · Post by **Guitargeorge** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:07 pm

Just popped up on breaking news. Must be some dirty Russian Mafia pocket money still swishing about.

Milltown1882 · Post by **Milltown1882** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:08 pm

Been talk for a long time about an NFL team relocating here. Could pave the way for Jacksonville to make the move and England to play around the country more September to spring.

Goobs · Post by **Goobs** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:08 pm

£800m and will form part of the first non-US NFL team. England still to play there and FA be based there.

ClaretTony · Post by **ClaretTony** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:09 pm

There was a piece in the Daily Mail this morning about it which I read - just come up on SSN in last few minutes

hampsteadclaret · Post by **hampsteadclaret** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:10 pm

- Middle East money... that wealthy bloke who owns Fulham..

£800m

I hope we tell them ‘NO’.... one national asset we should try and hang onto.

Vino blanco · Post by **Vino blanco** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:15 pm

Clarettony admits to reading the Daily Mail: there will be uproar and revolution on here now!!

Herts Clarets · Post by **Herts Clarets** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:19 pm

Cost £798m to build, which with inflation today would be 1.09bn. Why would you sell it for such a low valuation?

cricketfieldclarets · Post by **cricketfieldclarets** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:23 pm

Money talks. And it has huge potential to make money. As much as the opinion on Wembley is divided, selling the national stadium to overseas investors and other sports isnt right IMO.

That said if the money is reinvested into grass roots and The National team can still play there AND go on the road for the smaller games then it cant be a bad thing.

ClaretTony · Post by **ClaretTony** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:35 pm

Vino blanco wrote:Clarettony admits to reading the Daily Mail: there will be uproar and revolution on here now!!

Now, now, I’m not having that.

I saw a link headlined FA to sell Wembley and I clicked on it. Was written by Matt Lawton.

ClaretTony · Post by **ClaretTony** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:36 pm

Herts Clarets wrote:Cost £798m to build, which with inflation today would be 1.09bn. Why would you sell it for such a low valuation?

Helps to clear debts is the starting point

Terry Cochrane · Post by **Terry Cochrane** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:37 pm

Why sell it?

Easy. The FA can’t sell enough ridiculously priced debentures to make money and they have a huge Bank debt to service on the Stadium. A sale makes perfect sense.

timshorts · Post by **timshorts** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:39 pm

ClaretTony wrote:Helps to clear debts is the starting point

Maybe, but the 798 million doesn't include the intrinsic land value, as they already owned that. A plot of land that size in London has got to be worth a packet.

UpTheBeehole · Post by **UpTheBeehole** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:43 pm

hampsteadclaret wrote:- Middle East money... that wealthy bloke who owns Fulham..

£800m

I hope we tell them ‘NO’.... one national asset we should try and hang onto.

Not middle east money, Shahid Khan was born in Lahore and has lived in the USA for 50 years,

He's made all his money making bumpers for cars.

hampsteadclaret · Post by **hampsteadclaret** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:43 pm

Sky News saying £600 m..?

This is one crazy world.

- makes my head spin every day.

UpTheBeehole · Post by **UpTheBeehole** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:47 pm

£500m for the stadium and £300m for the Club Wembley debenture

ClaretinMyBlood · Post by **ClaretinMyBlood** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:51 pm

Wonder how much the FA charged for the NFL games previously played at the stadium?

Maybe allow a team to play there home games there for £100m per year on a 10 year contract?

skibum84 · Post by **skibum84** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:54 pm

Mr Khan can have it as long as in the T&Cs we stop playing FA Cup semis and England games there! Better off around he country.

claretburns · Post by **claretburns** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 2:11 pm

FA Cup semi finals to be reverted back to neutral grounds around the country now hopefully. I thought the point of the semis being played at Wembley was to earn money to pay off the stadium which once sold won't be the FA's problem anymore.

lucs86 · Post by **lucs86** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 2:20 pm

Is it not an embarassment for us as a nation, to sell the national stadium of our national game, the game we invented, the biggest sport in the world, so that foreigners can play a game we don't understand in it?

KeighleyClaret · Post by **KeighleyClaret** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 2:40 pm

No its not. It was an expensive white elephant to start with and the chance to return some of the money to the game should be grasped.

starting_11 · Post by **starting_11** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 2:53 pm

Herts Clarets wrote:Cost £798m to build, which with inflation today would be 1.09bn. Why would you sell it for such a low valuation?

If sheer incompetence and corruption meant it cost you £1m to build your house but the market value was only 700k... You wouldn't expect to get £1m for it if you tried to sell it... would you?

ClaretEngineer · Post by **ClaretEngineer** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 2:57 pm

The money won’t return to the game. It’ll filter away like it always does.

Did we learn nothing from Thatchers selling off of assets?

We need honest and intelligent people to run the country’s infrastructure programmes not the current lot of inept money grabbers we have at the moment.

Foulthrow · Post by **Foulthrow** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 3:02 pm

ClaretTony wrote:Now, now, I’m not having that.

I saw a link headlined FA to sell Wembley and I clicked on it. Was written by Matt Lawton.

Surprised he has the time given he has to be Dyche fit.

deanothedino · Post by **deanothedino** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 3:02 pm

lucs86 wrote:Is it not an embarassment for us as a nation, to sell the national stadium of our national game, the game we invented, the biggest sport in the world, so that foreigners can play a game we don't understand in it?

Most people can probably understand american football. It's not complicated.

Chobulous · Post by **Chobulous** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 3:10 pm

deanothedino wrote:Most people can probably understand american football. It's not complicated.

It's a highly choreographed group fight.

dibraidio · Post by **dibraidio** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 3:10 pm

Am I the only one who read it as some one has offered to buy it rather than the FA were interested in selling?

conyoviejo · Post by **conyoviejo** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 4:08 pm

Tell him to ***** right off and keep his dirty grubby fat hands off it. It's our national stadium and should stay that way.. He can shove his American football up his fat @rse..

happyclaret17 · Post by **happyclaret17** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 4:18 pm

FA to sell Wembley
....

surely it would cost more than that ???

thomaspaine · Post by **thomaspaine** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 4:30 pm

conyoviejo wrote:Tell him to ***** right off and keep his dirty grubby fat hands off it. It's our national stadium and should stay that way.. He can shove his American football up his fat @rse..

I agree totally - boring game and shouldn't be allowed any where near our national stadium.Looks like Craven Cottage would be sold and Fulham moved in to Wembley if this is allowed to go ahead.

UpTheBeehole · Post by **UpTheBeehole** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 4:33 pm

thomaspaine wrote:I agree totally - boring game and shouldn't be allowed any where near our national stadium.Looks like Craven Cottage would be sold and Fulham moved in to Wembley if this is allowed to go ahead.

Fulham are redeveloping Craven Cottage

http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2018/march ... s-approved

KeighleyClaret · Post by **KeighleyClaret** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 4:48 pm

Because the FA's investment in Wembley was so high they had to move there, play all the England games there and use it for all the big occasions including Cup semi finals - if they don't have to finance it any more then Semis can go back to neutral grounds (where they should be) and England can play at different venues around the country (as they should).

I've no problem as long as there is a proper deal for FA and League Cup finals, Playoff finals and maybe a couple of England games every year.

kentonclaret · Post by **kentonclaret** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 4:50 pm

FA to use the windfall to invest in grassroots football.

That old chestnut.

starting_11 · Post by **starting_11** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 5:07 pm

They should build a new national stadium at the NEC.

It's next door to Birmingham airport, the train to London is just over 1hr, Manc is about 1h 30. The M42, M6, M1, M5 and M40 are all nearby so it's got the existing infrastructure to hold it.

But they won't... they'll end up building the next one on cheap land in East London making it even harder for people to get there from anywhere except the south.

cricketfieldclarets · Post by **cricketfieldclarets** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 5:33 pm

starting_11 wrote:They should build a new national stadium at the NEC.

It's next door to Birmingham airport, the train to London is just over 1hr, Manc is about 1h 30. The M42, M6, M1, M5 and M40 are all nearby so it's got the existing infrastructure to hold it.

But they won't... they'll end up building the next one on cheap land in East London making it even harder for people to get there from anywhere except the south.

As much as I think we should have a national stadium and as capital London would usually make sense, the above is perfectly logical.

One of the main reasons I stopped going to England games was needing at least a day off work for them (along with all the added expense).

Birmingham would be the most sensible and if we are to insist on playing all games at the national stadium the most accessible.

Wembleys a pain to get to - even if you live in London! Wembley way etc does still have a magical feel IMO though.

bfcmik · Post by **bfcmik** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 5:37 pm

starting_11 wrote:They should build a new national stadium at the NEC.

It's next door to Birmingham airport, the train to London is just over 1hr, Manc is about 1h 30. The M42, M6, M1, M5 and M40 are all nearby so it's got the existing infrastructure to hold it.

But they won't... they'll end up building the next one on cheap land in East London making it even harder for people to get there from anywhere except the south.

There was a proposal put forward before the building of the new Wembley Stadium for a 100,000 seater stadium in that location. It was projected to cost only £420M but it was rejected as the FA decided the venue would not be 'prestigious' enough'!

IanMcL · Post by **IanMcL** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 9:44 pm

Herts Clarets wrote:Cost £798m to build, which with inflation today would be 1.09bn. Why would you sell it for such a low valuation?

2nd hand!

Cirrus_Minor · Post by **Cirrus_Minor** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 10:18 pm

If we are prepared to sell Wembley then we will sell anything. And please don’t anyone tell me English football needs the money the premier league is drowning in it. We should tell them to go and bloody swivel!

chekhov · Post by **chekhov** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 10:36 pm

Some comments on the BBC site, from Lineker, Hodgson and others, but the one that resonated most for me came from a bloody foreigner!

"Swansea manager Carlos Carvalhal, who guided Sheffield Wednesday to the 2016 Championship play-off final: "I think they are monuments and we can't sell them in my opinion. If you sell Wembley you can sell Big Ben and Buckingham Palace? We can't sell monuments, it is culture, and you can't sell culture." "

LeadBelly · Post by **LeadBelly** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 10:43 pm

Aye, I saw that Carvalhal quote myself & though- he was making more sense than most.

Maybe they can sell New Wembley and move to a ready made former athletics stadium in east London- that would be a very good move and provide a lot of satisfaction all round.

bfcjg · Post by **bfcjg** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 10:50 pm

Ten years from now most Prem teams will be franchised out to countries all over the world. These foreign owners are not in English football because they love the game and Wolverhampton for example.

chekhov · Post by **chekhov** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 10:50 pm

LeadBelly wrote:Aye, I saw that Carvalhal quote myself & though- he was making more sense than most.

Maybe they can sell New Wembley and move to a ready made former athletics stadium in east London- that would be a very good move and provide a lot of satisfaction all round.

Not practical. Needs to be converted for football.

Dejavu · Post by **Dejavu** » Thu Apr 26, 2018 11:40 pm

How can the FA sell a stadium for less than it cost and declare it a good deal. How can it be worth more to a foreign investor playing a minority sport than it is to the people who run football, the biggest sport in the world in the country that invented the game and the richest football country in the world. You have to ask who has their snouts in the trough. The FA/ Premier league are more than capable of funding "grassroots" football to a very high level and I simply don't believe the money will go there. It is merely being used as a smokescreen.
The Government should step in to stop this appalling plan.

starting_11 · Post by **starting_11** » Fri Apr 27, 2018 12:08 am

Wembley stopped being a monument when they knocked it down for that glass and plastic pice of **** they knocked up 10 years ago.

Buxtonclaret · Post by **Buxtonclaret** » Fri Apr 27, 2018 2:34 am

kentonclaret wrote:FA to use the windfall to invest in grassroots football.

That old chestnut.

By the time the FA have paid themselves their salaries, allied bonuses, plus all the other foreseen and 'unforseen' expenditures, a bit of grass seed is all they'll have left!

JohnMcGreal · Post by **JohnMcGreal** » Fri Apr 27, 2018 7:55 am

chekhov wrote:Some comments on the BBC site, from Lineker, Hodgson and others, but the one that resonated most for me came from a bloody foreigner!

"Swansea manager Carlos Carvalhal, who guided Sheffield Wednesday to the 2016 Championship play-off final: "I think they are monuments and we can't sell them in my opinion. If you sell Wembley you can sell Big Ben and Buckingham Palace? We can't sell monuments, it is culture, and you can't sell culture." "

This is the UK. We'll sell anything for a quick buck.

jlup1980 · Post by **jlup1980** » Fri Apr 27, 2018 8:04 am

Sell it and build a better stadium in a better location. Wembley is always horrendous to travel to and from.

Sproggy · Post by **Sproggy** » Fri Apr 27, 2018 8:13 am

The FA have only owned Wembley for 10 years. Nobody seemed to mind it being in private hands for the 66 World Cup final. Whoever owns it is going to want England games and cup finals to be played there so nothing will change and as other posters have said we might be able to relax the ludicrous rules that every vaguely important football match has to be played there just so the FA can claw back a few of their losses.