Private members' club to boost Fulham

The owner of Fulham FC is betting a £350mn investment in its stadium that includes adding a private members’ club will provide the Premier League club with the financial firepower to compete with its richer rivals. “I think it’s going to go a long way towards making Fulham competitive and compliant with [financial] fair play rules,” Shahid Khan told the Financial Times on a tour of the west London development, which features a grand piano, marble bar and a riverside walkway.

The multibillionaire said the additions to Craven Cottage, the club’s home since 1896, were made viable by its Thameside location, which was a “key asset” — adding Fulham has the “most educated, richest fan base in English football”. Khan is seeking to build new revenue streams to help reduce his financial support and fund player signings after Premier League clubs spent a record £3bn-plus in the summer transfer window.

The league’s financial regulations mean clubs cannot lose more than £105mn over three years. Khan made his money in the US after emigrating from his native Pakistan. The south-west London club has remained in the top flight of English football since earning promotion in 2022. Lighthouse Social, a private members’ club overlooking the Thames, is the first built within a Premier League stadium. It is a key part of a wider investment that Khan sees as a centrepiece of the local community and helping Fulham to comply with the league’s financial rules.

Lighthouse Social spans three floors and 12,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor spaces. Membership costs up to £1,200 a year and allows access to swanky surroundings by French interior designers Dion & Arles that include a conservatory, library, meeting spaces and several bars. An archway with black and white tiles is a rare, and subtle, nod to the football club’s colours but fans are hardly the target audience given properties nearby sell for millions of pounds.

Jamie Caring, a consultant for the project, said the “goal was not Fulham fans — our goal was to serve the community”. The typical member of the private club is probably a couple with children who live within walking distance of the stadium, he added.

The vision is to ensure Fulham can compete against clubs with bigger revenues and wealthier owners. The club has finished 10th, 13th and 11th since returning to the Premier League, easily avoiding relegation to the Championship. Fulham also sits in the bottom half of the league table in revenue terms.

Infrastructure investment is vital to closing the gap. Craven Cottage’s capacity rose from just under 25,000 to 27,900 following the expansion of the Riverside stand. Season ticket prices range from £720 to £10,000 in the “Gourmet” section that offers food from top chefs and premium seats on the halfway line, according to Fulham.

Simon Duke, chair of the Fulham Supporters Trust, said generally speaking season ticket prices are “not unreasonable” but general admission tickets were “still a bone of contention” and mattered because pricing was an important part of retaining local fans. “We understand football is a business. Fulham is running at a loss and has to close the financial sustainability gap — this cannot be done on ticket prices alone. It will be interesting to see what financial difference Fulham Pier makes because that could be a game-changer for Fulham,” he added. T

he wider development is also designed to solve a puzzle common to all clubs: how to make use of the stadium outside the 25-odd match days a year. As well as improving match day hospitality, clubs are increasingly competing to host concerts and other events, such as business conferences, at their stadiums.

Crucially, the riverside investment targets different segments of the community. The Fulham Pier food hall is open to all, while the Lighthouse Social and boutique hotel target a more affluent demographic drawn from the many finance types who live nearby. Khan admits a private members’ club — which will also gain a rooftop swimming pool — “might not work for every club because they’re not sitting on the north bank of the Thames. This is very specific to Fulham and serving Fulham Football Club.”

Fulham requires big funding from owner

After lengthy delays, Fulham’s shiny, new Riverside Stand has finally opened, creating “a unique Thameside destination with first class facilities for supporters and partners on match days, as well as for the wider community year-round”. This ambitious project has increased Craven Cottage’s capacity by around 4,000 to 29,600, while it has also taken advantage of the club’s fantastic location and wealthy catchment area by including two Michelin star restaurants, a rooftop swimming pool, corporate hospitality and event space, all benefiting from views of the Thames. Chief executive Alistair Mackintosh observed, “Fulham is the sort of club that can have a business class or first class and have fans that turn left on a plane.” Indeed, there is also an exclusive members club – with a football season ticket as an optional extra. It’s fair to say that “the times they are a-changing”, as this is a long way from the traditional pie and a pint. However, in a world where clubs face the tw...

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The Political Economy of Football V2

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