Should ACL show Wembley how to make a profit? (1 Viewer)

Rusty Trombone

Well-Known Member
Wembley Stadium rocked by £7.2m loss over seven months as building costs continue to weigh on its fortunes
By ALEX HAWKES, FINANCIAL MAIL ON SUNDAY

Even the Champions’ League final and Bruce Springsteen could not help Wembley Stadium turn a profit. Its owners reported a £7.2million loss in 2013 as building costs continued to weigh on its fortunes.
The figure was better than the £7.8million pre-tax loss in 2012, but this year’s losses were run up over just seven months.
The company has changed its accounting date so that its year end coincides with the end of the football season.

Unaudited figures comparing 2013 to the previous year shows turnover down by £1.1million and operating profits down from £13million to £8million.
The losses came despite a year in which the stadium hosted The Killers, Springsteen and Robbie Williams. The stadium also hosted the Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.

The company paid £12million in interest charges on its debt in the seven months up to the end of July. It still has bank loans of more than £270million.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/ne...ked-7-2m-loss-seven-months.html#ixzz30mjK6XQC

So, maybe ACL aren't that bad at generating income and profit, we should negotiate a deal to come back and get a share of the good times.
 

Terry Gibson's perm

Well-Known Member
We have just the men to get them out of this mess Super Tim Fisher and his faithful pup Labo.
 

Hobo

Well-Known Member
Perhaps England should get a rental at Sixfields and boost their revenue streams.
 

Terry Gibson's perm

Well-Known Member
The FA will need England to go a long way at the World cup to keep selling the over priced shirts to pay for this, there was never any need to build this stadium they could have continued to move the internationals around the country and the finals in Wales or built it somewhere cheaper!
 

shy_tall_knight

Well-Known Member
Sndra Garlick & Co should be appointed immediately to help, big fast cars should collect them from their Warwickshire homes and drive them at high speed to London so they can provide urgent consultancy on this national icon - they may struggle dealing with an actual structure that exists but a pie marketing strategy needs to be developed and delivered.
 

Terry Gibson's perm

Well-Known Member
Sndra Garlick & Co should be appointed immediately to help, big fast cars should collect them from their Warwickshire homes and drive them at high speed to London so they can provide urgent consultancy on this national icon - they may struggle dealing with an actual structure that exists but a pie marketing strategy needs to be developed and delivered.

They will be no use as Wembley have already chosen the colour of the seats.
 

Terry Gibson's perm

Well-Known Member
Incorrectly it seems. How else do you explain the losses and the England team being better on paper than in reality ;-)

Trevor Brooking I blame him for most things at the fa but now the have the equally useless Southgate.
 

stupot07

Well-Known Member
Perhaps the FA should've lowered their spec somewhat and not have spent £827m+ instead of the original fixed price of £458m on building the stadium.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/oct/15/football.wembleystadium

From your article it looks as though their operating profit is pretty good, just the loans to cover the cost of building the stadium are crippling them.....I wonder if they could remortgage with Boris....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - so please excuse any spelling or grammar errors :)
 

Terry Gibson's perm

Well-Known Member
I have never been and won't go until we get there so may never go! It must be fantastic for the money spent on it but I imagine most of the money was spent on nice comfy seats for the FA bods.

Maybe Joy could make them an offer for the stadium somewhere around zero is the regular offer and obviously she would want to kick anybody out who is already there so the England team would be homeless.
 

skybluebal

New Member
Perhaps the FA should've lowered their spec somewhat and not have spent £827m+ instead of the original fixed price of £458m on building the stadium.

Totally agree, this is the organisation running football in England and the ones we looked to for help (after FL). Mis-management of the re-build (was it ever needed?) demonstrates why football is in the mess it is. We obviously don't figure anywhere in the list of concerns or priorities. A £1billion stadium development is just ridiculous for playing the number of games they do. It was built to 'corporatise' and make loadsa money - never mind "real football for real fans".
 

Rusty Trombone

Well-Known Member
Perhaps the FA should've lowered their spec somewhat and not have spent £827m+ instead of the original fixed price of £458m on building the stadium.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/oct/15/football.wembleystadium

From your article it looks as though their operating profit is pretty good, just the loans to cover the cost of building the stadium are crippling them.....I wonder if they could remortgage with Boris....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - so please excuse any spelling or grammar errors :)

Even if you half the interest to £6m for the 7 months they would still have made a loss of over a million in 7 months. It does highlight the danger of thinking building a new ground will be the answer to any financial woes.

The question has been raised many times about how the club could afford the interest charges on funding a new ground, has that question ever been answered?

As we are a club with no money, we should be looking to do a rental deal, and maybe if the clubs owners try a bit of friendly negotiation they may be able to get access to the other revenues the club needs.
 

Astute

Well-Known Member
Maybe Joy could make them an offer for the stadium somewhere around zero is the regular offer and obviously she would want to kick anybody out who is already there so the England team would be homeless.

You missed out the unencumbered freehold bit.
 
J

Jack Griffin

Guest
Perhaps the FA should've lowered their spec somewhat and not have spent £827m+ instead of the original fixed price of £458m on building the stadium.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/oct/15/football.wembleystadium

From your article it looks as though their operating profit is pretty good, just the loans to cover the cost of building the stadium are crippling them.....I wonder if they could remortgage with Boris....


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - so please excuse any spelling or grammar errors :)

Which is exactly why the Arena loan shouldn't be joined with the huge CCFC debt & ARVO loan at huge interest, it would cripple the club for decades to come.
Let SISU sell up and write off their debt & then CCFC & ACL can be joined together and move on with the debt cleared. It is the only sensible way forward.
 

ollyservetta

Well-Known Member
went down to the acdc concert a few years ago just after it was reopened .took me lad ,me mrs and her friend who suffers with kidney problems ,so we got a disabled parking place at the stadium .could not believe the over priced shite they was selling as food ,you could not get anything healthy ,just crap ,and when you did eventually get served its was cold ,and the pizza slices were even still frozen in ther middle ,no milk just fizzy pop and coffee .concert was a blast ,although have to say not the best arena for concerts in my opinion ,nothing near mk bowl .when we came to leave it took us longer to get of the carpark than it did to get there ,just luky that my mrs mate didn't need dialysis else we would hav been in trouble .never again ,
 

stupot07

Well-Known Member
Which is exactly why the Arena loan shouldn't be joined with the huge CCFC debt & ARVO loan at huge interest, it would cripple the club for decades to come.
Let SISU sell up and write off their debt & then CCFC & ACL can be joined together and move on with the debt cleared. It is the only sensible way forward.

Who are they going to sell to? No ones going to pay more than a £1 but with an IOU for the debts. Sisu aren't going to agree to that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - so please excuse any spelling or grammar errors :)
 

percy

Member
went down to the acdc concert a few years ago just after it was reopened .took me lad ,me mrs and her friend who suffers with kidney problems ,so we got a disabled parking place at the stadium .could not believe the over priced shite they was selling as food ,you could not get anything healthy ,just crap ,and when you did eventually get served its was cold ,and the pizza slices were even still frozen in ther middle ,no milk just fizzy pop and coffee .concert was a blast ,although have to say not the best arena for concerts in my opinion ,nothing near mk bowl .when we came to leave it took us longer to get of the carpark than it did to get there ,just luky that my mrs mate didn't need dialysis else we would hav been in trouble .never again ,

mate next time you go can i suggest you drive down to stanmore station and get the tube in from there. i went to the england scotland game and we were back home in coventry before midnight.
 

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
Who owned the old Wembley? Says the FA had to buy the land to build the new stadium.

I really struggle to see how they spent so much on it. As a football stadium it really isn't that different from the Ricoh if it had two tiers / greater capacity. There are meeting and conference facilities but having used them a few times they aren't up to much, again similar to the Ricoh. Where on earth did all the money go?

It's a nice stadium but its not great to get to if you're not from London. I think for England matches they would have been better off continuing to move round the country. Filling Wembley is great when it's against Brazil or Germany but they're going to really struggle to fill it for the Euro qualifiers. If the games were in other parts of the country people who don't get the chance to go to Wembley would get to see England play.

The acoustics in there are terrible and most live show licenses have them ending at 10pm so pretty much the whole show is in daylight. Still a queue of bands to play there though just because it's Wembley.
 

Terry Gibson's perm

Well-Known Member
I thought it was owned by a private company but could be wrong, one website said that the old stadium was bought with a lottery grant so that was £120 million wasted!
 

percy

Member
Who owned the old Wembley? Says the FA had to buy the land to build the new stadium.

I really struggle to see how they spent so much on it. As a football stadium it really isn't that different from the Ricoh if it had two tiers / greater capacity. There are meeting and conference facilities but having used them a few times they aren't up to much, again similar to the Ricoh. Where on earth did all the money go?

It's a nice stadium but its not great to get to if you're not from London. I think for England matches they would have been better off continuing to move round the country. Filling Wembley is great when it's against Brazil or Germany but they're going to really struggle to fill it for the Euro qualifiers. If the games were in other parts of the country people who don't get the chance to go to Wembley would get to see England play.

The acoustics in there are terrible and most live show licenses have them ending at 10pm so pretty much the whole show is in daylight. Still a queue of bands to play there though just because it's Wembley.

wembley is a magnificent stadium, one of the best in the world. quite a lot different from the ricoh. its more like the emirates which again is a top notch stadium.
 

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
wembley is a magnificent stadium, one of the best in the world. quite a lot different from the ricoh. its more like the emirates which again is a top notch stadium.

I really don't see that much of a difference. I go through an automated turnstile the same as at the Ricoh, onto a concourse serving the same crap overpriced food and beer (if you're prepared to wait hours) the same as at the Ricoh and I then go and sit on a cheap plastic seat for a couple of hours the same as at the Ricoh. Where's the huge difference?
 

Nick

Administrator
I really don't see that much of a difference. I go through an automated turnstile the same as at the Ricoh, onto a concourse serving the same crap overpriced food and beer (if you're prepared to wait hours) the same as at the Ricoh and I then go and sit on a cheap plastic seat for a couple of hours the same as at the Ricoh. Where's the huge difference?

Yeah, it is the same as Sixfields being the same as the Ricoh (apart from the automated turnstyle).
 

chiefdave

Well-Known Member
Yeah, it is the same as Sixfields being the same as the Ricoh (apart from the automated turnstyle).

Sixfields opened in the mid 90s didn't it so hard to make a comparison on constructions costs which was my point. I can't see where the huge costs of building Wembley come from compared to building the Ricoh. In fact structures such as the Ricoh and Wembley, being 'bowl' type stadiums are probably cheaper for the equivalent capacity than individual stands as at Sixfields.

But yes, unless you're in an older stadium that's falling apart, or one with restricted views, then pretty much all stadiums offer a similar experience don't they?
 

RegTheDonk

Well-Known Member
How were they able to claim lottery money? I thought that was supposed to be used for charitable causes?
 

percy

Member
ricoh has essentially 1 tier with 32000 seats. wembley has 3 tiers with 90000 seats. ricoh has 2 rows of corporate boxes to 1 side. wemble has 1 row all the way round. the ricoh was built in cov wembley in london wembley has a sliding roof the ricoh hasnt. where do i stop. its obvious to me why its a little different to the ricoh
 

Terry Gibson's perm

Well-Known Member
No idea how they claimed it but it came through Sport England there is a National audit office report on it but got bored reading it after the first few pages.

Sport England awarded a lottery grant of £120 million in 1999 in the early stages of the planning.

The minister said chapter one of the development was now over and confirmed that the public investment in the project would be capped at £161 million, adding that the security measures for the investment were stronger now than in 1999


 

Terry Gibson's perm

Well-Known Member
Who owned the old Wembley? Says the FA had to buy the land to build the new stadium.

I really struggle to see how they spent so much on it. As a football stadium it really isn't that different from the Ricoh if it had two tiers / greater capacity. There are meeting and conference facilities but having used them a few times they aren't up to much, again similar to the Ricoh. Where on earth did all the money go?

It's a nice stadium but its not great to get to if you're not from London. I think for England matches they would have been better off continuing to move round the country. Filling Wembley is great when it's against Brazil or Germany but they're going to really struggle to fill it for the Euro qualifiers. If the games were in other parts of the country people who don't get the chance to go to Wembley would get to see England play.

The acoustics in there are terrible and most live show licenses have them ending at 10pm so pretty much the whole show is in daylight. Still a queue of bands to play there though just because it's Wembley.

It was purchased from Wembley plc in 2002 and the business was liquidated a few years later.
 

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