The English Football Association (FA) has confirmed it has received a bid to sell Wembley Stadium to Shahid Khan, who owns Fulham Football Club and NFL American Football franchise Jacksonville Jaguars.
The bid is reported to be £500m for Wembley Stadium, but crucially Club Wembley, the FA’s hospitality branch, which is reportedly worth £300m, would remain with the FA.
The FA said in a statement: “We can confirm that the FA has received an offer to buy Wembley Stadium.”
Khan stressed that Wembley would remain “home to the England national teams” and that Fulham would stay at Craven Cottage in a message to the club’s fans. “The FA would be able to focus on its core mission of developing players with the best player developers and facilities anywhere in the game, thanks in part to the vast financial benefit that would result from the transaction,” he said.
“To be clear, this venture is 100% independent of my investment in and operation of Fulham Football Club, Motspur Park (Fulham’s training ground) and Craven Cottage (Fulham FC’s current stadium). 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.”
The NFL released a statement that read: “We are very happy for Shad Khan and the Jacksonville Jaguars. The potential purchase of Wembley Stadium is a further powerful sign of their commitment to the UK and their vision to help us grow the sport.
“Having stadium options in London has always been critical to the NFL and, in tandem with our 10-year partnership with Tottenham Hotspur, this new relationship would allow for even greater flexibility in scheduling future NFL games in London.”
Wembley Stadium is a popular conference and meetings destination. Event spaces ranges in capacity from 300 to 1,800. The Great Hall is largest, seating
1,800, followed by the Bobby Moore Room at 1,050, the Atrium at 700, the Wembley Suite at 300, the Pitch View Room at 100 and Boxes seating 8, 12 and 20 guests.
