Craven Cottage and the "Class War For Football Fans" - Telegraph article

[Steeeeeeeeeed]

From the Daily Telegraoh website today...


The class war for football fans is writ large in Fulham's ultra-luxury stadium plans

Fulham not alone in introducing enhanced hospitality areas but an entire stand is now likely out of reach to anyone other than the very rich

THOM GIBBS
SENIOR SPORTS WRITER
27 March 2024 • 6:30am
Thom Gibbs


Fulham's new Riverside Stand proves football no longer matters in modern hospitality arms race
Craven Cottage is the only Premier League ground you can walk to along the Thames. It is surrounded by beautiful housing stock and dozens of delightful pubs. The titular cottage gives it a charm beyond almost every other stadium in the country. Is that enough? It is football, so you already know the answer is no.

Fulham's rebuilt Riverside stand was originally to open in 2021 but is still not fully operational. The bits that are cost north of £100 to sit in. Anyone who bristles at that is unlikely to enjoy the seven CGI images to mark the stand's launch, a word which usually implies something is open for business. Why are we looking at computer mockups not in-real-life photos? Perhaps because nothing can possibly look as glossy as these drawings in reality. Give it half a season and those armchairs will reek of lemon-scented cleaning spray to mask the many spillages of serviceable house red.

The accompanying literature features phrases like "redefining matchday entertainment," as well as claiming there will be two Michelin star restaurants on site. This seems both excessive and optimistic given that neither has opened yet and the Michelin guide tends to wait until someone can actually eat food at a place before bestowing its most coveted award. Fulham clarify that the chefs involved will likely be previous star-winners and provide the same level of culinary excellence.


Literature around the new stand claims there will be two Michelin star restaurants on site

Inside, should the reality match the mockups, patrons will enjoy wide leather seats and brass fittings as far as the eye can see. A TV is tuned to Sky Sports News in one restaurant shot, which is not the sort of thing which would fly down the road at actual star-holder The River Cafe. In a more prosaic area, wide tables line up in thrall to an enormous screen. A third of it is devoted to F1 for anyone who cannot bear to attend a football match without knowing exactly how far ahead Max Verstappen is. A shot of the "sky deck" zone shows a swimming pool, an echo of the same feature at the home of the Jacksonville Jaguars, Shahid Khan's other team. West London famously shares a very similar climate to northern Florida.

Fans will have plenty of options for keeping track of sporting action from their seats


What is already in place beside the Thames does not promise a great future for Fulham's traditional fanbase. On the approach it looks more like a racing grandstand than a terrace in the Archibald Leitch tradition. It is glass-fronted and pointy-roofed, suitably swish and sure to impress people who find Dubai a genuinely inspiring place.

Stadiums are a challenge for club owners because they sit unused and useless for the vast majority of the year. Khan effectively admits as much: "My vision for the New Riverside Stand was to provide our fans, and our neighbourhood, with a destination that would continue to honour our history and tradition at Craven Cottage every day of the year," he said. Dream big: Gourmet Christmas dinner with a view of the very pitch once graced by Rufus Brevett.

Modern stadiums must include these hospitality areas and Fulham are by no means alone. There are rarified middle tiers at Wembley, Arsenal and Tottenham which you are only likely to visit if on a freebie or with a six-figure salary, before bonuses. At Fulham an entire stand is now likely out of reach to anything other than the very wealthy.

The Riverside images underline how stratified match-going has become. A beautiful Mark Leech photograph, which Jim White wrote about earlier this week, showed a messy mass on the North Bank at Highbury, saluting Brian Kidd as he put on a police helmet. Then as now football attracts all sorts, but in those days the overwhelming majority had roughly the same experience.

In 2024 the most loyal home and away fans will experience woeful legroom, catastrophic toilets and leaky roofs. It is a world those paying for Riverside hospitality will probably never see, and vice versa. What hope is there for unity among fans when there is such clear division? Worse is the growing sense that owners are more interested in luxury experience-seekers than those who prop up a club like Fulham during its inevitable hard times.

Related Topics
Fulham FC, Premier League
 

[filham]

Funny how different taste people hve nowadays.
None of those features listed for the new stand would give me the pleasure I used to enjoy watchinf Haynes and Tosh for 90 minutes for less than a couple of bob.

[Thailand Mick]

He criticises the look of the stand but every time I see Anfield get an extention it looks more like the post office depot with the roof damaged by high winds. I keep expecting a post truck to pull out.

[Buffalo76]

The pictures will be the only way I'll ever get to see the new Riverside stand and all the fancy extras, but it looks fantastic nonetheless. Very posh and fancy.

Good work Mr Khan 

[Southcoastffc]

Irrespective of whether one is in favour of the new stand or is critical of the club's ticket prices this article mainly shows how much the author (Thom Gibbs, a self avowed QPR supporter) really really does not like Fulham.  Bitter?  Not half he is. Jealousy is a terrible affliction.

[Carborundum]

He criticises the leaky roofs that ticket holders in the riverside stand will never experience.

I'm not so sure. I'm as snug as a bug in a rug in the JH stand.  A side wind has to be practically horizontal to affect me when rain falls.  No leaks anywhere I can see.

I've sat in the front rows of the top deck of the new stand a couple of times for cup matches when rain has arrived.  To be literally accurate I've noticed no leaks there either.  Doesn't need to be, because the architectural wonder that is the roof is so high up that any breeze renders it useless in blocking the rain.  Two grand to get wet practically every time it rains.  My word.  How the other half live.

[Thames Bank 1]

What he also forgets to mention is that it will be open 24/7, and not just fans attending on match day.

[Lighthouse]

My first pay packet afforded me the chance to go from Brighton after a bus ride to the station to Fulham via train and underground. Buy a ticket for the game and a programme and something to eat on the way back. Now it is just laughable to think people could do that today.

But this isn't just class war. This is simply economic war on football fans. Forget the phrase 'traditional football fans' which gives you the idea we were all wearing flat caps and hiding a whippet under our coats. The fact is this is simply war against us all.

We allowed the cost of living to climb so some of us have to forget the cheese in our sandwich and just have a lettuce leaf. Oddly hasn't made us fitter just angrier. Or how about an urgent letter posted last Wednesday arrived this Wednesday when a package posted from Japan arrives in the same letter box in England two days later.

This is symptomatic of the way we have just allowed the throttling of every day convenience and affordability to be trampled on, wiped from the shoes of the super rich and thrown in a bin we can only dream of being able to throw rubbish in. Our rubbish is collected after all thanks to 5 per cent rise in Council Tax every year.

But so what? Who cares? Football is fine without the likes of me. Season Ticket holder in the Seventies, following my Dad who was a supporter before the War. Who gives a flying Fulham for the likes of us. Should earn more, should just go along with the bent system full of bent people selling bent products.

Goodbye live Fulham and Hi to tv highlights. Frankly we don't care anymore and frankly nor do they. Caviar to go with that Merlot Sir? Oh yes I believe a football match is going on. I believe the home side is winning. Up the Cottagers or whatever they are called. Lovely view of the River. Thank God for the rich.

[Southcoastffc]

My first pay packet afforded me the chance to go from Brighton after a bus ride to the station to Fulham via train and underground. Buy a ticket for the game and a programme and something to eat on the way back. Now it is just laughable to think people could do that today.

But this isn't just class war. This is simply economic war on football fans. Forget the phrase 'traditional football fans' which gives you the idea we were all wearing flat caps and hiding a whippet under our coats. The fact is this is simply war against us all.

We allowed the cost of living to climb so some of us have to forget the cheese in our sandwich and just have a lettuce leaf. Oddly hasn't made us fitter just angrier. Or how about an urgent letter posted last Wednesday arrived this Wednesday when a package posted from Japan arrives in the same letter box in England two days later.

This is symptomatic of the way we have just allowed the throttling of every day convenience and affordability to be trampled on, wiped from the shoes of the super rich and thrown in a bin we can only dream of being able to throw rubbish in. Our rubbish is collected after all thanks to 5 per cent rise in Council Tax every year.

But so what? Who cares? Football is fine without the likes of me. Season Ticket holder in the Seventies, following my Dad who was a supporter before the War. Who gives a flying Fulham for the likes of us. Should earn more, should just go along with the bent system full of bent people selling bent products.

Goodbye live Fulham and Hi to tv highlights. Frankly we don't care anymore and frankly nor do they. Caviar to go with that Merlot Sir? Oh yes I believe a football match is going on. I believe the home side is winning. Up the Cottagers or whatever they are called. Lovely view of the River. Thank God for the rich.

Red wine with caviar? No,no,no. 

[Angus Telford]

On the plus side, it's infinitely better to be making these sorts of complaints than to be worrying about the whole ground being sold off and turned into flats, and there's a good chance this stand will generate substantial new revenues that can ultimately be spent on the team.

And it's a beautifully designed structure, befitting the setting well IMO.

However, and as much as I despise the Telegraph, the article isn't wrong. To a large extent, the Riverside development we've got isn't really a football stand - more a club side project, derived I reckon from the American football model where the rich spend several hours networking with some sport occurring unwatched in the background, and from the CEO's accountancy lens which just sees numbers and never the actual football and people making up a bigger picture.

Could be better, but could be worse.

[cookieg]

I wonder what he will make of a new QPArse stand if they ever get to build it? I'm pleased we've got an owner who isn't looking to move us out and sell off the land to developers, like MAF would have done if he'd have got his way. The shiny new stand isn't for everyone and if those ticket prices help to subsidise STs in the other three parts of the ground then all well and good.

[Angus Telford]

if those ticket prices help to subsidise STs in the other three parts of the ground then all well and good.

Well we know that isn't happening

[Penfold]

I wonder what he will make of a new QPArse stand if they ever get to build it? I'm pleased we've got an owner who isn't looking to move us out and sell off the land to developers, like MAF would have done if he'd have got his way. The shiny new stand isn't for everyone and if those ticket prices help to subsidise STs in the other three parts of the ground then all well and good.

QPHa have made it clear that they need a new stadium. The Stade de Meccano offers no opportunities to expand.

[H4usuallysitting]

The reporter doesn't sound happy - reporting on something that isn't open yet

[Wolf]

I think its an objective and well written article without the supposed "jealousy" a couple are claiming.

I have been wondering about the economics that underpin all this, is it ethically right that our society skims such needless excess profit that companies and individuals can fritter away thousands on a day by a pool in a football stadium, written off against tax. Aren't we all subsidising the wealthy's extravagant days out? Seems a but shtity to me.

[alfie]

I think its an objective and well written article without the supposed "jealousy" a couple are claiming.

I have been wondering about the economics that underpin all this, is it ethically right that our society skims such needless excess profit that companies and individuals can fritter away thousands on a day by a pool in a football stadium, written off against tax. Aren't we all subsidising the wealthy's extravagant days out? Seems a but shtity to me.

How on earth do you know sitting by a pool will be written off against tax?.

[hovewhite]

if those ticket prices help to subsidise STs in the other three parts of the ground then all well and good.

Well we know that isn't happening

now that would be a great gesture by the khans.

[Woolly Mammoth]

I think its an objective and well written article without the supposed "jealousy" a couple are claiming.

I have been wondering about the economics that underpin all this, is it ethically right that our society skims such needless excess profit that companies and individuals can fritter away thousands on a day by a pool in a football stadium, written off against tax. Aren't we all subsidising the wealthy's extravagant days out? Seems a but shtity to me.

How on earth do you know sitting by a pool will be written off against tax?.

Have you seen the price of Lilos recently. They will use anything to write off against tax, even Garden Gnomes, and i am being serious for once.

[Southcoastffc]

I think its an objective and well written article without the supposed "jealousy" a couple are claiming.

I have been wondering about the economics that underpin all this, is it ethically right that our society skims such needless excess profit that companies and individuals can fritter away thousands on a day by a pool in a football stadium, written off against tax. Aren't we all subsidising the wealthy's extravagant days out? Seems a but shtity to me.

Objective ? Well written?  I'll give you that it's lucid and coherent but it's certainly not objective.  It's snide and plain silly in parts. I really can't be bothered to analyse it in detail but how churlish and silly is this " Why are we looking at computer mockups not in-real-life photos? Perhaps because nothing can possibly look as glossy as these drawings in reality. Give it half a season and those armchairs will reek of lemon-scented cleaning spray to mask the many spillages of serviceable house red."

[Penfold]

I think its an objective and well written article without the supposed "jealousy" a couple are claiming.

I have been wondering about the economics that underpin all this, is it ethically right that our society skims such needless excess profit that companies and individuals can fritter away thousands on a day by a pool in a football stadium, written off against tax. Aren't we all subsidising the wealthy's extravagant days out? Seems a but shtity to me.

How on earth do you know sitting by a pool will be written off against tax?.

On a professional basis, it shouldn't. Business entertainment can be deducted in accounts but, for tax purposes, should be added back to the profits and taxed. Also, you are not allowed to claim back the VAT.