Should the FA sell Wembley Stadium?

Drumstick wrote:I hope they don't sell for a couple of reasons.

1) The FA claim that the money from the sale would allow the FA to "make a major investment into football at grassroots level". This is disingenuous bullshit, they have hundreds of millions of pounds already that they could be using to invest, but they aren't interested. All they are interested in is flogging the EPL rights to the highest bidders. The knock on effect of this is that developing our own talent has become an afterthought because there are ready made replacements around the world that can be bought with all the viewing money the club's receive.

2) I don't want the NFL getting a foothold over here.

Regarding your first point, the FA don’t own the Premier League and don’t sell the rights. The Premier League is a completely separate corporation, formed in 1992 and owned and operate by the 20 member clubs. The FA have zero say in how it is run commercially.

I don't see a problem with Wembley being home to an NFL franchise as NFL will only ever be a minor sport in the UK anyway. If it brings in extra income for the venue and thus more staff wages and running costs that's surely a good thing for the local area and the extra income from the (admittedly very few but still some) US fans who may decide to plan a holiday around a trip to London with an NFL game as an added bonus can only be a good thing.
We may also see visits by Europeans who want to see an NFL game live but don't have the money to fly all the way to the US so I can certainly see why the FA may take this offer.

If the FA does indeed keep the right to stage events and keep all the cash while not in the NFL season I see this as pretty much a done deal.

Trying to gauge interest in the NFL in the UK is difficult. Every Wembley game sells out, and the NFL pageantry that goes with it around London over the weekend of a game is great. Presumably it's bringing in a lot of people from around Europe, and a few more American tourists than normal - also incorporating it into a wider London holiday.

Ratings wise, The NFL Show on BBC1 and 2 has been really successful, garnering well in excess of a million viewers every week across iPlayer and Live. The Superbowl also brings in about a million+ across the BBC and Sky.

Where the NFL completely collapses though is in the airing of Live 3 hours games. The ratings for the London games on BBC2 are poor, the Sky viewership until the Playoffs quite possibly the worst they've ever been (can't even reach 30,000 some weeks).

Taking the Channel 4 and the Monday night game (that was on red button and iPlayer Sport app) airing off terrerstrial was also a backwards step by the NFL.

padtrentry?

yes i was very upset when the live game went off free-to-air - im not buying Sky just to watch live games on that. i suspect a lot of UK NFL fans just went and bought NFL Gamepass or just went without.

The NFL show on the BBC has one of the best commentary teams as well as they seem like they genuinely like each other and Mark Chapman seems really excited to be learning about the sport from two pro's.
It's less serious commentary and more a look into a private chat between friends and I think it works amazingly well.

<]:^D wrote:padtrentry?

Blame the iPhone, it works for Laga (as in the drink Laga).

Tomous wrote:

Drumstick wrote:I hope they don't sell for a couple of reasons.

1) The FA claim that the money from the sale would allow the FA to "make a major investment into football at grassroots level". This is disingenuous bullshit, they have hundreds of millions of pounds already that they could be using to invest, but they aren't interested. All they are interested in is flogging the EPL rights to the highest bidders. The knock on effect of this is that developing our own talent has become an afterthought because there are ready made replacements around the world that can be bought with all the viewing money the club's receive.

2) I don't want the NFL getting a foothold over here.

Regarding your first point, the FA don’t own the Premier League and don’t sell the rights. The Premier League is a completely separate corporation, formed in 1992 and owned and operate by the 20 member clubs. The FA have zero say in how it is run commercially.

Thanks for the correction. I maintain the disingenuous bullshit part though.

both the FA and the Premier League lead the way in 'grassroots matters to us' disingenuous bullshit so youve got that right

I tried getting into the NFL after attending one of their Regent St events where they were selling merchandise and conducting interviews with the players on a big stage. It looked interesting enough, but the matches themselves though just didn't really do anything for me as it was just so stop/start all the time (unless i was just watching a poor match) and didn't have the sort of constant flow that you get with regular footy.

In regards to the thread title though, no, i don't think it would be a good idea to sell our national stadium.