One of the fundamental problems with running a football club is that the stadium is an expensive capital asset which is under utilised. You can try and hire out the suites for conferences and some continental clubs have built in space for shops and businesses underneath the stand, e.g., Real Madrid, Utrecht. However, with the number of out of town stadiums growing that becomes a less feasible option. Meanwhile, the pitch stands silent and empty, being nurtured by the ground staff for the next game.
One of the fundamental problems with running a football club is that the stadium is an expensive capital asset which is under utilised. You can try and hire out the suites for conferences and some continental clubs have built in space for shops and businesses underneath the stand, e.g., Real Madrid, Utrecht. However, with the number of out of town stadiums growing that becomes a less feasible option. Meanwhile, the pitch stands silent and empty, being nurtured by the ground staff for the next game.
One other option is to hire out the pitch to a rugby club. We did that for a while at Charlton with London Broncos. It doesn’t bring in that much revenue, as attendances are often thin, although Wasps do better at Wycombe than the host football club. Downsides are that egg chasing cuts up the pitch and you can usually still see the different lines at football games.
Currently four top flight rugby union clubs are tenants of a Football League club: Saracens, London Irish, London Wasps, and Sale Sharks. There are also examples from rugby league, e.g., Huddersfield’s stadium.
London Welsh look as if they could be on track for promotion to the Premiership after winning the away leg of their play off final against Cornish Pirates. Their picturesque ground at the Old Deer Park in Richmond is too small so they signed a deal with Oxford United to use the Kassim Stadium which has sufficient capacity to meet the rules.
However, the Rugby Football Union have ruled that it does not meet the requirements, principally because London Welsh do not have ‘primacy of tenure’. This means being able to play fixtures at the time stipulated by Premiership Rugby and/or the host broadcaster. The boyos say they can meet this requirement and are appealing the decision, arguing that the facilities at the Kassim are at least the equal of many other football grounds already hosting top flight rugby.