https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/amp/football/43906272
£800 million
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https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/amp/football/43906272
£800 million
Fulham playing in a 90,000 seater stadium...
In England everything is for sale.....
It's about the NFL.
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That must make the wee piece of turf from 1976 in my back garden worth a few bob!!
Will the FA be giving the taxpayer back their share of the money used to build it?
Can't see him moving Fulham from Craven Cottage - this is so the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars has a permanent home in the UK, so they can become the UK NFL Franchise.
Absolute madness. English football is ****ed
I think any plans to move the Jags are longer term. Khan and the city of Jacksonville have spent well over $150M on inprovements to Everbank Field in the last 5 years.
A London franchise may well happen but I don't think it's imminent.
I feel a little drunk having this conversation with you on a thread that's not our normal home :greengrin
What they've spent is a drop in the ocean really (when you look at the massive infrastructure investment other franchises have been making recently, in Minnesota, Atlanta, Vegas, LA etc). Even during their excellent season last year, Jacksonville struggled to fill half of their stadium. Florida NFL teams just seem to attract apathy these days.
Given all of the moves that have taken place in recent years with franchises moving, combined with the popularity of the sport here and the increasing sell-out speed year on year, I think Khan has pulled a trigger in making this offer. If it's accepted, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see something go before the NFL AGM at the end of this season proposing that Jacksonville move - that move timeframe might not be immediate (e.g., the following season), but I really do believe he's trying to force the NFL's hand, and if he's successful with this move, I reckon we could see an NFL UK team by the time the 2021 season gets underway.
Sensible decision by the English FA. Just as the SFA are about to make the same mistake as well.
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It is an interesting one. I agree fully it is all about the NFL.
Jacksonville started to struggled to sell tickets about 14 years ago when they went into salary cap hell. They fired off their head coach - Tom Coughlin - who then went on to lead the New York (Football) Giants to two Superbowl wins over New England. They "sold" about 20 000 of their 80 000 seats to 'advertisers' and advertising tarpaulins have covered most of their top tier. These only came off this January when they hosted a home play off game for the first time in donkeys years - I don't think the advertisers were too happy. At the start of last season Khan brought Coughlin back in a General Manager type role and they ended up one game short of getting to the Superbowl. If they can upgrade their quarter back they have a chance of staying relevant and selling tickets in Jacksonville for the next few years.
Khan has been committed to Jacksonville playing one game at Wembley as soon as he bought the franchise - I think the deal goes through to 2020. If he does buy Wembley and start to do 'upgrades' on it, i.e. upgrade the suites, corporate hospitality etc etc - the stadium is 11 years old afterall - then that will be a huge signal.
This would leave a few questions: billionaire NFL owners tend to get others to pay part of stadium build costs and refurbishments (hence why they are billioniares!). So will Khan adopt our pink chums' model to get other people to pay for it? Will he tear down the arch and replace it with a glass one? Will he bother with a safety certificate? Will he sell chips? Will he need to put in extra vomitories? Will he change the corporate hospitality suites so they do NOT overlook the pitch? Decisions, decisions, decisions.
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I have often wondered how uk NFL fans would take to an NFL franchise in London/UK. For me its not going to make me jump ship from The Packers, that's pretty entrenched for me!
I just despair whenever i see anything to do with the silly money floating about English football. It's madness and i just can't relate to it at all. Like a previous poster said English football is f***ed.
According to the BBC £230,000,000 of public money was used in rebuilding Wembley, from the national lottery, a London public fund and money from central government. If the FA sell Wembley they should be forced to pay that money back .... it cant be ethical to suck up that amount of public money and then profit off the back of it by selling the very asset you used it on and sticking it in your back pocket.
Its infuriating that huge amounts of public money have been given to the London stadium and Wembley and yet Hampden remains a crumbling dump ... its even more infuriating to see the English FA taking the piss.
I can’t get my head around American football. See when a team moves county and changes their name what happens to all their supporters who’ve supported them for years? And do they just pick up tens of thousands of new fans where they’re now playing? What an load of garbage
I don’t think the Millenium Stadium was much more than Hampden.
Either way, it depends on how you look at it. About a fifth of Wembley from public funds and they might be about to sell it for more than it cost to redevelop. Two thirds of Hampden from public funds and they might be about to sell it for around 3% of its redevelopment cost.
You'll see England travelling around playing their game, always a moan by many fans having to travel to London for internationals, there are any top stadiums all with large capacities.
They generally move because there is a demand for a pro team, American football isn't like our football re it's fans, college football is more like the equivalent to our football, localised teams and many college games are supported by thousands of fans, Pro football is all about the franchise and tv money etc.