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Football stadiums
Further evidence of how well run Bayern Munich is as a club comes with the news that they have paid off the debt on their Allianz Arena stadium. The debt of £346m was taken out in 2005 and was supposed to be paid off over 25 years rather than just nine.
All this has been achieved alongside success on the pitch. However, as always, a note of caution is needed about the ‘German model’. It doesn’t always translate easily elsewhere.
The overall bill for the Olympic Stadium is set to soar well beyond £600m before West Ham United move in after it emerged that installing the complex roof would be far more expensive than originally thought.
The complications will not cost West Ham – due to move into the 54,000-seat stadium from the start of the 2016-17 season – another penny on top of the £15m they have pledged towards the conversion.
Old Oak Common is London’s biggest regeneration opportunity since the Olympics. For QPR the question is whether they will be able to build the new stadium there that they see as essential to the future of the club. Their ‘New Queens Park’ scheme involves building 24,000 homes and it is claimed that it would create 55,000 jobs.
West Ham might be prepared to allow Tottenham Hotspur to share the Olympic Stadium while White Hart Lane is being redeveloped. At first it was thought that this would not be possible because the clubs were rivals for the tenancy.
West Ham would not be prepared to share the stadium in their first year there in 2016-17. However, they might be prepared to allow Spurs to rent the stadium in 2017-18.
Coventry City Council have unanimously approved the sale of the operating company of the Ricoh Arena, Arena Coventry Limited, to Wasps rugby club. The council will retain the freehold, but the rugby club will have a 250 year lease.
Coventry councillors were locked in talks late last night over whether the Ricoh Arena, home of Coventry City, should be sold to Wasps rugby club. A vote of the full council is scheduled for a meeting starting at 2 p.m. today.
If the Labour group agrees on the sale then they can easily out vote the Conservative opposition on the council. Some councillors have been asking for a free vote, but this is unlikely to happen.
Coventry City councillors are expected to be asked to vote next week on a deal for a consortium led by rugby club Wasps to take over the Ricoh Arena, home of the Sky Blues. However, opposition is growing within the controlling Labour group. There are concerns that the deal is being rushed through without the consequences for the football club being thought through.
Chelsea have held preliminary conversations with the Rugby Football Union about playing for a season at Twickenham while Stamford Bridge is redeveloped. If nothing else, it would be convenient for Chelsea players who favour living in Cobham.
Chelsea have long wanted to increase capacity at Stamford Bridge from 41,800 to 60,000 to rival the gate revenues of Arsenal and Manchester United, as well as providing more corporate facilities. This would make it easier for them to comply with financial fair play regulations.
In its latest issue The Economist takes a look at the economics of stadiums in the UK and the US. It points out that in the States clubs extract money from local officials, whereas the opposite is the case in the UK.
In the National Football League the number of teams is strictly restricted so clubs can threaten to leave if cities won’t build or refurbish their stadia. That is a blow to a city’s prestige and profile and doesn’t go down well with voters who support the team.
Rugby club Wasps are in talks to secure a controlling stake in the Ricoh Arena, a move that would have serious implications for Coventry City. Wasps aim to make the Ricoh their permanent home.