The Football Association is poised to sell Wembley stadium to the billionaire owner of Fulham football club in an extraordinary deal worth almost £900m.
Shahid Khan, who also owns the Jacksonville Jaguars American football team, has made an offer of a £600m lump sum and the FA would additionally be allowed to retain the revenue generated by Club Wembley, its debenture and hospitality business valued at around £300m.
The proposed deal has been in the pipeline for more than 12 months after Khan met the FA chief executive, Martin Glenn, at the Superbowl in February last year, and it was presented to the FA board on Thursday. They are on the brink of accepting, pending due diligence and the approval of the public bodies who contributed to the stadium’s iconic redesign. Khan told the Guardian he hoped the deal would be completed in two to three months.
The Department of Culture Media and Sport, Sport England and the Greater London Authority combined to contribute £161m to the construction of the £757m stadium in north London, which reopened in 2007.
It is understood the governing body would plough the profits from the deal into grassroots football, particularly increasing the numbers of pitches and their functionality. It has an outstanding debt of £140m on Wembley to pay off. An extra £460m would hypothetically pay for more than 1,000 new pitches and allow for improved facilities countrywide, including floodlights and better drainage.
However Downing Street sounded a note of caution about the sale, saying the FA should consult fans.
“Wembley is a historic place in English football, it holds a very special place in the heart of fans up and down the country and I’m sure the FA will want to strongly consider the views of these supporters before deciding what to do next,” the prime minister’s spokesman said.
Some fans expressed concerns about the stadium being privately owned and the possibility of a renaming including an American brand.
Khan stressed that Wembley would continue to be the main home of the England football team and that the “Wembley” part of the name would remain, with the possibility of a sponsor being added. But the deal would send the national team on the road for any internationals between September and December if the Jacksonville Jaguars, usually based in Florida, take up residency for the full regular season.
Khan, who is estimated to have amassed a £5.2bn fortune from a car parts business, told the Guardian he envisaged making upgrades to the stadium. “I love Wembley as a stadium, as an institution,” he said. “I think it’s under-utilised. The legacy of Wembley as the temple of English football is important. We want it to stay that way and to also have other events including NFL games. I think it needs investment and updating. Compared to American stadiums the video boards are something that need to be looked at. The lounges are a little bit dated. There are some standard issues that have to be dealt with.”
“But the name of Wembley will stay,” he added. “That is, to me, holy.”
Khan already has an agreement whereby one Jaguars game each season is held at Wembley and he insisted that initially it would be only two games per season in London. Sources close to Khan also insisted that the FA Cup final, the English Football League play-off finals and Rugby League’s Challenge Cup final would remain at Wembley.
The FA believes England fans would welcome more internationals being played in other parts of the country, with one of the warm-up matches for this summer’s World Cup being held in Leeds. Khan did not rule out bidding for Wembley to host the Superbowl. “I think Wembley is in a league of its own,” he said. “It’s not a stadium that is identified with one particular team or one particular event.”
A sale could scupper plans Chelsea have to redevelop their Stamford Bridge home. Their project involves knocking down the ground and the hotels and other buildings on the site, a redevelopment which would force them to to find a temporary home for at least three seasons.
The club had looked at a number of temporary homes but it seems increasingly unlikely Wembley would be an option. They have also considered renting Twickenham but the Rugby Football Union dismissed that possibility on Thursday.
Steve Brown, the RFU’s chief executive, said: “We are committed to rugby here – big and small – and the NFL. At the moment we don’t have any plans for football at all. We have an arrangement and an agreement with the local authority that we will stick to the sports I have mentioned. Football isn’t on our radar for this stadium.”
The Labour shadow sports minister, Rosena Allin-Khan, urged the FA to be cautious about selling immediately. “Wembley stadium is an iconic sporting and cultural asset recognised around the globe,” she said. “Whilst there are obvious benefits of England teams playing across the nation, the FA should not rush into any deal to sell the stadium. Any deal must guarantee that England continue to play at Wembley as well as around the country; that major tournaments, cup finals and play-offs for multiple sports are still held at Wembley; and that ticket prices for England games are frozen for 10 years. The FA needs to guarantee that profits of the sale will be put into grassroots football to ensure that future generations will benefit.”
Khan, in addition to his plans for Wembley, has committed to spending £100m to redevelop Fulham’s stadium. Hammersmith & Fulham council has approved a £100m redevelopment of the Riverside Stand at Craven Cottage, with work due to begin next year.