Chairman statement about the purchase of Wembley

[Friendsoffulham]

Chairman Statement



A message to the Fulham supporters from our Chairman Shahid Khan.

It was revealed today that I have made an offer to purchase Wembley Stadium from The Football Association. To everyone in the Fulham Family, I wanted you to be among the first to hear the news, directly from me, and share a bit of background.

As you likely know, in addition to the privilege of serving as Chairman of Fulham Football Club, I am also owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League in the U.S. The Jaguars have played regular season home games at Wembley Stadium in each of the past five NFL seasons and will continue to do so at least through the 2020 season. The games the Jaguars play at Wembley are essential to the financial stability of the Jaguars in Jacksonville, which is one of the smallest markets in the NFL. If my ownership interests were to include Wembley Stadium, it would protect the Jaguars' position in London at a time when other NFL teams are understandably becoming more interested in this great city. And the stronger the Jaguars are in London, the more stable and promising the Jaguars' future will be in Jacksonville.

As important, Wembley Stadium would return to private ownership and The Football Association would be able to focus on its core mission of developing players with the best player developers and facilities anywhere in the game, thanks in part to the vast financial benefit that would result from the transaction. I trust many if not most of you are also supporters of the England national teams, so I hope you welcome the potential of this becoming a reality. Always know Wembley would be home to the England national teams, and that we would strive every day of the year to be the best possible steward for a venue that is iconic and beloved here and throughout the world.

No matter what the outcome of our offer may be, I want to emphatically state to you that none of this will have any effect on my commitment to your Club.

To be clear, this venture is 100 per cent independent of my investment in and operation of Fulham Football Club, Motspur Park and Craven Cottage. No less attention will be paid to developing players and fielding a squad that will win with frequency and always make you proud. It will have no impact on Craven Cottage as the home of FFC. And this is imperative to know, and I encourage you to spread the word – absolutely nothing changes in our plans to redevelop the Riverside Stand.

I hope you will support my effort in this endeavour, and I know you're with me in wishing our First Team the very best tomorrow night against Sunderland as we take aim at promotion in the final two weekends of the season. I have submitted programme notes for tomorrow's match that reflect upon our magical campaign and the opportunity ahead, and I'll have them posted online here at fulhamfc.com in advance of kick-off.

In case you don't get a chance to read the notes, let me take this opportunity to thank you for all you've done to make this a record-breaking season at Fulham Football Club. Come On You Whites!

http://www.fulhamfc.com/news/2018/april/26/chairman-statement

[Twig]

Good luck with this but I have to say that I think trying to market the NFL in the UK is doomed to failure.  Still, a nice statement and good to hear that it is independent of his ownership of FFC.

[Jonaldiniho 88]

Only stipulation is that Kline is the next England manager and we play at the cottage every Boxing Day.

[Forever Fulham]

I think this was always his long range plan--to buy a facility large enough and equipped to locate a European expansion franchise NFL team under the NFL Commissioner's misplaced belief that such expansion would be successful).   It's true the Jaguars have one of if not the smallest media markets in all of the NFL.  But there's a lot of gloss and misdirection in the official explanation.   At least in my humble opinion.  Oh, well.  He clearly has the money to do what he wants, such as buying up big iconic stadia, for whatever purpose.  As long as he keeps enough to fund Fulham FC, fine.  I suppose he'll get revenue by leasing out Wembley for every event that takes place there, whether that recoups $700Mil any time soon, well...

[Robbie]

These deals are rarely financed by one person or entity. There will be many parties. Part of the story is that various UK public bodies are still owed money by Wembley (e.g. Sport England) and they clearly want their money back.

My guess is this is partly about American Football (but even Khan will be able to see that demand could be limited). Another big part of the pitch is to make Wembley into O2 "West" ... a venue for many more entertainment events.

I doubt this has anything much or at all to do with FFC. And Khan is just the front man.

[KingofCheese]

Good luck with this but I have to say that I think trying to market the NFL in the UK is making repetitive replies that aren't funny!  to failure.  Still, a nice statement and good to hear that it is independent of his ownership of FFC.

Actually American Football is increasingly popular - didn't really care for it myself but watched this year's Superbowl and thought it was great. My brother in law and family stay up with a big screen etc and the games at Wembley are sell outs.

[colinwhite]

Class from the owner to inform the fans in this way !

[KingofCheese]

These deals are rarely financed by one person or entity. There will be many parties. Part of the story is that various UK public bodies are still owed money by Wembley (e.g. Sport England) and they clearly want their money back.

My guess is this is partly about American Football (but even Khan will be able to see that demand could be limited). Another big part of the pitch is to make Wembley into O2 "West" ... a venue for many more entertainment events.

I doubt this has anything much or at all to do with FFC. And Khan is just the front man.

It has always been my view that FFC was a long term stepping stone for Khan to promote NFL here and to bring his team to London. It made sense why a billionaire American would choose a smallish club in London to buy - even if that club was in my opinion the best team in the world!

[KingofCheese]

Decent statement, does a good job of anticipating fans' concerns and addressing them

Agreed! Much better than the clowns who run my department who tell us nothing apart from lies!

[filham]

Stats Boy for England ?
Seriously though it is good to see our Chairman making an effort to communicate with us Fulham fans.

[HatterDon]

There will NEVER, I repeat NEVER, be an NFL franchise based in England. As I've said many times, the cartel structure of the NFL requires that each team be based in the US. The way the league does business, controls the transfer of players, and enjoys huge tax exemptions cannot be duplicated in England or what's left of the EU. Additionally, a club permanetly based in Europe would screw up the US television schedule [and cost everyone in the league money]. AND the costs involved in travel every other weekend would cut into the obscene revenue even the worst NFL team gets every year.

There might be as many as three Jags games at Wembley going forward, but probably not any time soon. This deal is good financially for Khan, for the FA, and for the stadium. It won't affect Fulham at all ... unless Khan having more of a financial stake in England could somehow be construed as bad for Fulham.

[Forever Fulham]

Don, it wouldn't screw up the U.S. television schedule, because they likely plan on creating a separate conference, say, the European Conference, to go with the American and National  conferences of the NFL, playing amongst its own intraconference members all of which within the same two or three time zones.  There would be, I'm guessing, the occasional interconference league games, with teams traveling over the Atlantic to play one another.  Something like that.  It's a fact that viewership of NFL games is down, continuing a slide that's been going on for years.  One of the reasons franchise owners (but not Khan, thank goodness) came out so strong against the kneeling by African American players (and some supporting white players) during the performance of the national anthem before each game.  Commission Roger Goodell has got it in his head that the league must expand to survive and flourish.  It's a folly, or course.  If you can't grow the talent in the proverbial shadow of your stadium, you can't thrive as a franchise.  Whether there will never, as you say, be an NFL franchise in London, no one can really say for sure.  They might try to import the skill position players and try to plug a few positions with big beefy local product.  Who knows?  The NFL loves rugby players trying out for teams.  Some are enormously gifted as athletes and huge.  Maybe they see a segue from that sport, played throughout Europe, and NFL football.  It's possible.  But, will the franchise survive?  Looks very unlikely. 

[FulhamStu]

This communication is very good.  I have repeatedly criticised the club for not doing this sort of thing and the timing and clarity was excellent.  Whether you chose to believe it or not is up to you.   Khan has always been consistent and true to his word.  He made a big mistake with his whatever it takes comment but only said that once and will have learned a lot from that which is still used to beat him.   Fulham is clearly in his heart but with so much wealth and so many interests it's not unreasonable he takes a high level interest.  Personally I am very happy he is our owner, look around and see how many poor owners other clubs have.

[toshes mate]

Khan is practised at this kind of thing given the number of times he must have had cause to reassure his existing personnel and interested parties, he ticks all the boxes.  However, there is always an agenda whether it is simply a collection of ambitions, a thought train, or even the conspiracies of business we see every day, just before an institution looks like running off of the rails or crashing with fatalities. 

But I echo HatterDon's views about the NFL and how many times we have seen America's interpretation of football attempt to grab a foothold in England.  It rages for a while every decade or so, but seems stuck in enticement via a few matches at London's Wembley, whilst never ever promising to breakthrough into mainstream following.  It'll be interesting to see what happens to Wembley on the improvements front if Khan's bid is successful, and I do feel a certain optimism that Khan will do a better job than the existing masters have done.