Is Selling Wembley Stadium Really Worth it?

Earlier today, reports surfaced stating that Shahid Khan, owner of Championship side Fulham, has made an attempt to buy Wembley Stadium from the FA.

Khan, who also owns NFL side Jacksonville Jaguars, reportedly lodged an £800m bid to bring the stadium back into private ownership.

Whilst the notion of selling one of the most iconic stadiums in British football to a private company seems like a bad idea (at face value), you have to think about the pros and cons of the potential scenario.

The obvious starting point is that Wembley is costing the FA a lot of money, with reports back in January stating that it would take another six years for the FA to completely pay off the £757m it cost to re-build it back in 2007.

If you remove that debt, it gives the FA the ability to put much more money into grassroots football, a notion that Khan himself cited as news of his bid came about earlier today.

It has also been reported, via the Guardian, that the FA will look to include several clauses in the deal that would keep some of the history contractually attached to the stadium. These include the FA Cup Final and Semi-Finals remaining at Wembley, as well as England home matches also staying.

However, once clause that has been mentioned is that the word ‘Wembley’ would remain included in the stadium’s name. Whilst nothing has been officially confirmed on that front, it does seem vague enough to potentially rip a hole in the traditional atmosphere of the stadium. Newcastle fans will remember how horrible “SportsDirect.com@StJamesPark’ sounded. 

Yes, that was the genuine name the stadium had during the latter stages of the 2009/10 season. 

I challenge you to find a company name that, when placed before ‘Wembley Stadium’ doesn’t sound either sarcastically funny or downright terrible.

Khan’s NFL links have also been brought in to the discussion quite heavily, with the Jacksonville Jaguars having already had a deal in place to play certain games at Wembley since 2013.

Tottenham have already made significant headway in bringing the NFL to the UK on a more permanent basis. Once their new stadium is up and running, there will be a minimum of 2 NFL games per season played there for the next decade. With these fresh options for the NFL in the UK, it is sure to bring in much more interest as the sport pushes even more boundaries over the Atlantic.

So, from a business point of view, Khan’s potential acquisition of Wembley seems like a smart decision, but from a footballing point of view, it’s nowhere near as certain. The grassroots cash injection has no promises of being 100% effective, but are we prepared to take that trade-off in the hopes that it will bring the England team some success?

I’m not so sure…