The FA have come up with a novel way to flush your history and tradition
down the toilet – selling Wembley.
While the bid for Wembley, at £500m, is less than Ken Bates paid for it
redevelopment the stadium loses money each year after the interest
payments Ken saddled the FA with at the time. Somehow believing that a
hotel and conference centre would magically pay all the bills Ken delivered a
stadium massively more expensive than it needed to be and years late.
That an American football club owner now wants to buy it at a knock down
price looks a good deal to the FA because they are short sighted, morons. St
George’s Park is a perfect example of how a committee of marketing men can
lose the plot, allow projects to drift and forget what they were for in the first
place.
Shahid Khan, who also owns perennial underdogs Fulham, wants to move his
Jacksonville Jaguars to the stadium, imagining that Londoners would still give
a shit about gridiron after the novelty had worn off … a hint … they won’t … The
FA has received assurances that the FA Cup will continue to be held at the
venue, until the American changes his mind or sells on to another owner who
wants to turn the place into a dog track.
England will have to make themselves scarce while the, what do we call them,
the London Jags?, play their season. So from September to December
Wembley will stage no England matches.
How this will fit with Chelsea wanting to borrow the ground for four seasons is
not clear. Presumably we’d have to play all our home games before
September or after January. Perhaps we could borrow Craven Cottage while
the American’s are in.
It all guarantees a smooth and reliable playing surface for the few FA Cup
finals allowed at Wembley before Khan realises they are no longer profitable
enough. We’d move them back to Crystal Palace park and start all over again,
presumably.
