Friday 27 April 2018 14:45, UK
Having made an offer of a reported £800m to buy Wembley Stadium from the FA, is Shahid Khan's proposal beneficial for the English game? We take a look…
Should the sale go through, the FA will remain at their Wembley Stadium headquarters rent free and keep the Club Wembley hospitality business, valued at around £300m, but its availability as a football stadium will diminish significantly.
The Fulham and Jacksonville Jaguars owner Khan's wish to strengthen the NFL's position in London is thought to be the motivation behind the move, meaning FA Cup semi-finals and England internationals being played elsewhere could become a real possibility.
Much is still unknown about the ins and outs of the offer, but how will the move, in principle, affect English football? What would we be losing in the sale? What happens to the money? We take a look…
Wembley, as a business project, has been anything but an unmitigated success. Construction of the stadium cost an estimated £757m, of which, according to the FA's latest financial results, £113m remains unpaid. In fact, the FA declared in January they'd still be paying for the stadium until January 2024.
The sale would therefore represent a clean slate, wiping away the debts, no longer having to worry about such a substantial financial burden. Retaining Club Wembley revenue provides an additional bonus.
That leaves £500m free to invest back into the game. The debts will still have to be covered, but there will be plenty left to provide financial support at grassroots level - an area many feel has been neglected as the Premier League clubs' financial might has boomed.
"It looks like a fabulous opportunity and if you ask me, we need to take it," former Arsenal defender Nigel Winterburn told Sky Sports News. "We want to have a successful England team. The more youngsters we can get playing, that can get good coaching and can play on quality pitches, then surely that has to help England in the long run."
The proposed sale has angered the traditionalists, but in fact, Wembley has only been owned by the Football Association for 19 years, and England has had a national stadium - or a Wembley building site - for 95 years. Going private, therefore, is nothing new.
The real beneficiaries of the sale could turn out to be fans from others parts of the country, who live too far away to frequent Wembley on a regular basis.
Khan's purchase could see the Jacksonville Jaguars fulfil Khan's vision of seeing Wembley used for the entirety of a regular NFL season, which runs from September to December.
That would mean England internationals could be moved to other venues around the country, giving fans an opportunity to see some key qualifiers and high-profile friendlies without having to break the bank.
"It has been done before - we have not always been based at Wembley," England striker Jamie Vardy told Sky Sports. "Wherever we have played we have always had massive support. It gives a lot more people chance to come see us."
Spain and Germany are two of several successful nations who do not have a designated national stadium, so in a footballing sense, the sale shouldn't be too detrimental.
While the FA Cup final will remain a Wembley showpiece, the semi-finals could also be moved to neutral venues away from Wembley, which will please fans of teams such as Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool, who have been forced to make expensive journeys to the capital to see their team more than once in a season in recent years.
On the face of it, in a business sense, the move seems to be a positive one. However, a more long-term outlook reveals some potential drawbacks.
Having splurged £757m on its construction - much of that money being borrowed - why, when so close to actually having the stadium paid off should the FA sell, when they would own outright some prime real estate in north London, which is only really going to go up in value?
Much money is being spent around the Wembley borough to regenerate the area, which will only attract more visitors. After 2024, with that debt out of the way, the FA could really up the ante to bring in substantial profits, which, with the sale, could be Khan's main motivation for his purchase.
There are lots of unanswered questions when entering the world of billionaire-led business. There are assurances initially that the FA will be able to use the stadium rent-free for FA Cup finals and so on, but what if Khan sells up, are these assurances going to be honoured?
Also, what if an NFL franchise becomes a permanent fixture in England? Would that take priority over football matches? A Super Bowl in London in the near future is not completely out of the question.
These NFL links are what has irked the traditionalists the most.
I'm saying it must not be sold. The FA are just the custodians of the national game for the people of this country.
"I have not heard an upside to this yet," former FA Chairman Ken Bates told Sky Sports. "If we went and bought Madison Square Garden in New York and said 'oh, we're happy for the Americans to have their teams playing there when they want', do me a favour - can you imagine that?"
"I'm saying it must not be sold. The FA are just the custodians of the national game for the people of this country. The directors of the FA are just passing through, they are the trustees. How dare they even consider selling it."
Should the FA have the right to sell such an iconic venue to an American businessman? From the days of the Twin Towers to the current 90,000 seater stadium, Wembley has long been seen as the pinnacle of English football and any sale, critics say, will tarnish that image. Again, only time will tell as to how Khan's influence will affect such an outlook.
