Khan buying Wembley??!

[flyingfish]

"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."

Still, after imploring a statement from him, and once he gives one in clear an unequivocal language, some people will still be suspicious  :022:

[FulhamStu]

He keeps the Jags and uses Wembley as a home for NFL in London, not a London Franchise just yet, but long term a possibility. 

I can't see any connection to Fulham other than potential use of common infrastructure like admin, ticket sales, maybe some commercial linkage with sponsorship, or corporate stuff.  Weekend in London watching Premier League and NFL.    Could it be used in some other way to increase FFC revenues, I bet it could.
He could make part of the Wembley business belong to the FFC business for example.

I however still don't see this connected to FFC in the short/medium term anyway.

[Woolly Mammoth]

The hidden agenda.

[Steeeeeeeeeed]

Just seen this on the News, really not quite sure what to make of it in terms of the use of Wembley and the England footballer team, but can't see it affecting his Fulham / Craven Cottage interests at all  myself.

A few years from now Fulham will be a constant mid table premiership team, based at Craven Cottage, possibly doing well in cups, maybe get into the Europa Cups etc. Will have that new Riverside stand and all will be groovy.

Wembley may well be home to an NFL Franchise team, and probably still the place for England International Qualifers, but friendlies played elsewhere.

Wouldn't mind seeing an "England" NFL team, that could be great 😎

[PhilEsh]

He keeps the Jags and uses Wembley as a home for NFL in London, not a London Franchise just yet, but long term a possibility. 

I can't see any connection to Fulham other than potential use of common infrastructure like admin, ticket sales, maybe some commercial linkage with sponsorship, or corporate stuff.  Weekend in London watching Premier League and NFL.    Could it be used in some other way to increase FFC revenues, I bet it could.
He could make part of the Wembley business belong to the FFC business for example.

I however still don't see this connected to FFC in the short/medium term anyway.

Perhaps one game per season for Fulham at Everbank Field?

[Holders]

Wouldn't mind seeing an "England" NFL team, that could be great 😎

God, that would be awful!

[ToodlesMcToot]

I feel for the Jags supporters right about now. You know that they will have a far more difficult time wondering how this will affect their club over the long term. As Shad himself said, they are a small market club who need a larger revenue stream.

My hope is that Shad has seen an opportunity for Wembley to be an outpost for all of the NFL clubs and not as the future home for the Jags or a new NFL club.

I'm sure that he's communicated similarly with Jags supporters but, I wouldn't be surprised if many fear they could be losing their club sometime in the future.

[flyingfish]

http://www.jaguars.com/news/article-JaguarsNews/Statement-from-Shad-Khan-on-Wembley-Stadium-/0f9a8190-844b-42b8-a244-cdb654a5e2e5

[Holders]

I hope this is largely irrelevant to FFC, so long as it doesn't make too large a hole in Khan's pocket or distract him from what we'd consider more important. The announcement does seem to correlate with the recent purchase of that other sports ground neighbouring MP so seems to have depended on that.

It just seems a shame that the home of football should be hosting such an alien game. What next - baseball at Lord's?

[Twig]

Wouldn't mind seeing an "England" NFL team, that could be great 😎

God, that would be awful!

What a dreadful idea.

[Twig]

I hope this is largely irrelevant to FFC, so long as it doesn't make too large a hole in Khan's pocket or distract him from what we'd consider more important. The announcement does seem to correlate with the recent purchase of that other sports ground neighbouring MP so seems to have depended on that.

It just seems a shame that the home of football should be hosting such an alien game. What next - baseball at Lord's?

Wembley should mainly be the home to the England football team. But increasingly both Wembley and the England team are seen as "products" to be marketed to maximise revenue generation and investment returns.  Combine this with the obvious corruption, greed and self interest of the global administration of football and no wonder people are losing interest in the game at international level.

[SteveFFC]

What's the chances of pushing the deal through in the next couple of weeks and then, if we don't get automatic promotion, giving us loyal supporters free tickets to the play off final

[toshes mate]

Since it cost £757m to build in the first place it's not much of a premium

The FA seem to have paid off most of their debt

The FA will not have paid off their debt until 2024, and in many ways selling the stadium and ridding themselves of the debt will enable them to give better support to grass roots football.  The NFL angle has been around for sometime and I am not sure there is real sustainable interest for NFL in Britain, period.  As far as FFC is concerned it is just a separate business with any use of facilities at either CC or MP for training etc coming at cost to NFL or whoever - therefore additional income to FFC.

[Syd Cupp]

Does this Mean we can get discount for Play off final if we there.....ha ha

[PhilEsh]

What's the chances of pushing the deal through in the next couple of weeks and then, if we don't get automatic promotion, giving us loyal supporters free tickets to the play off final

I think the due diligence would take months.

[Fernhurst]

If he strikes a deal quickly and can move his team and take the shine right off Daniel Levy's new monster in North London and would also be an superb alternative for other NFL teams to hire on their trips across the pond.
We have seen (through attendance figures) there is a demand for NFL in London at least. Wouldn't put it past Levy to try to slow down the deal.
Interesting to see how this all plays out, but his track record with our club has been quality in my opinion so have no inclination not to believe his statement.

[Carborundum]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-5657091/FA-primed-SELL-Wembley-Stadium-astonishing-800m-deal.html

"Quite how that impacts on Chelsea, who have considered playing at Wembley for four years while Stamford Bridge is being redeveloped, and Tottenham, who have NFL games as a key part of their business plan for their new stadium, is also unclear at this stage"

haha banter...imagine if he said "errrr, nope" to chelsea....  :005: :005: :005:

Delicious.  I doubt "no" is actually going to be the default answer, but "how much?" will have a different response if Mr Abramovich's people are no longer negotiating with the FA.  Four years exile to the North Circular seems an appropriate fate for Chelsea.  We might even get a Home Boxing Day fixture.

[toshes mate]

There is now an official statement from our owner on the offal.

[Fulham76]

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

A very clear statement from Khan.

I was a bit concerned when I heard the news at him buying Wembley, that we could potentially lose Craven Cottage but I'm a bit more relaxed now.

[cmg]

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

You couldn't hope for a clearer, more positive, statement than that.

Of course there are some who will continue to fear the worst, read between lines and concoct elaborate conspiracy theories - that is their entitlement and may they derive whatever pleasure they can from that sort of nonsense.

One thing that does occur to me is the difficulty 'ordinary' people (like me) have in trying to imagine what it means to be as rich as this bloke is.