Billionaire owner of Fulham Football Club Shahid Khan has made what is effectively a £900m bid for Wembley Stadium which is to become a home for both British and American football. The 'Tash with the Cash' as he is nicknamed made his fortune selling car parts in the United States and also owns the Jacksonville Jaguars NFL team.
Who will benefit from the deal? The Football Association will have £500m up front and will also receive some £400m in income from the rights to Club Wembley over the next six years. The £58m it raised from this source in 2016/17 just about covers the stadium operating costs. It will also save substantial investments over the next few years which Mr Kahn claims are necessary to 'refresh' the stadium. 'Wembley's new, but it's not that new,' he says. A sum of around £60m is being talked about.
The Football Association will be able to use the money to create a special fund to build artificial pitches and other grass roots facilities. However, some commentators are sceptical about how much of the money would find its money into the grass roots game. There is still £140m of debt to be repaid.
The stadium cost nearly £800m to complete. That's £987m in current money, so a £900m sale represents a loss, although one should take account of the avoidance of future expenditure and the £12m a year it costs to service the debt. Substantial sums are still owed to public bodies: £78m to Sport England, £18.5m to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and £16.2m to the Greater London Authority.
The Jacksonville Jaguars will play a number of games at Wembley between September and December which will lead to England games 'going on the road' outside London. There could ultimately be a NFL franchise in London. Spurs do not see this as a threat to stage NFL games at their new stadium for which it has been configured, although there will only be one such game next season.
Fixture congestion could pose problems for Chelsea's plan to play home games at Wembley while Stamford Bridge is redeveloped, but careful planning should find a way round this. There will be a certain irony in Chelsea playing at a stadium owned by Fulham's owner.
Some hope that the move will lead the FA to relocate from London to the Midlands, but there is scant hope of that.
Ken Bates has been fulminating about selling our heritage and has called on the Government to intervene, but they have indicated that they are disinclined to do so. The Wembley name will be protected by a covenant, although it is not clear whether this would cover the sale of naming rights.
Kieran Maguire reckons that the biggest winners since Wembley was built have been the banks. He notes, 'The FA have been charged £331.5 million in loan syndication and interest fees.'
Comments
Post a Comment