New plans for 'new' Wembley

13 April 2012

A five-point plan has been drawn up in a bid to save the replacement for Wembley Stadium, but Chelsea Chairman Ken Bates' involvement as the driving force behind the ambitious scheme looks doomed.  

The £675million scheme has been trimmed back but Bates' insistence on a football-only stadium could also be abandoned as ways are found to rescue the ailing scheme.

Instead, the Football Association have insisted on a more hands-on approach following a meeting which ended with Bates still chairman of Wembley New Stadium Limited, but his plans for a multi-functional new facility lie in tatters.

In order to instill the City of London with new confidence in WNSL, the FA have come up with a raft of new ideas to get the proposed development back on track.

1 - The FA will assume greater day-to-day control of, and responsibility for, the redevelopment of Wembley.

2 - That WNSL will withdraw from its current schedule of bank syndication to re-format its proposals for the new Wembley.

3 - That the new format will be a demonstrably different proposition which will focus on its desire to be the best football stadium in the world.

4 - The new format will not include non-core business activity.

5 - That within this new format all costs will be attacked vigorously.

"Proposals will be developed over the coming weeks with a view to representing to the City in early 2001," said the FA in a statement, after outlining their five-point course of action to regain public confidence in the Wembley development.

"This course of action is supported by Chase Manhattan, our lead bank, and endorsed by the Government and Sport England.

"All parties believe passionately in the project. They share the desire to build a world-class stadium that England can be proud of; also a stadium that has the ability to run as a profitable business which will provide long-term income to help grass-roots football in England."

Brent Council, in whose borough the stadium is to be situated, are believed to be monitoring the development closely.

Council officials have long feared the project becoming an embarrassing liability and attracting the kind of negative publicity which attached itself to the Millennium Dome.

While planning permission granted for the 90,000-capacity venue earlier this year will last for five years, should the new scheme fundamentally change the project, a new application may have to be made.

Although no more public money will be made available, lottery funders Sport England - who contributed £120million to WNSL coffers to buy the stadium two years ago - are 'comfortable' with the plans being revised, insisting the money was solely for a sporting purpose and any extension to the stadium was purely a matter for WNSL.

Sport England are to receive £20million back from WNSL following an agreement which was reached to ditch athletics from the initial plans.

Putting an athletics track back into the scheme is one of the various alternatives which has been put forward - although such an action would almost certainly force the resignation of Culture Secretary Chris Smith, who forced the principle of Wembley as a 'football-only' venue.

But Bates' involvement as the figurehead of the scheme is set to be downgraded as new personalities come to the fore.

Bates was the driving force behind the ambitious £675million scheme to reconstruct England's national soccer stadium as a multi-faceted complex including a hotel and office accommodation.

With hotel and office plans shelved at least £70million should be trimmed off the cost of a development, which will still be the most expensive sports stadium which has ever been built.

Bankers Chase Manhattan, who have spent the last two months vainly trying to raise the £410million needed to begin demolition work, left the FA in little doubt that unless major alterations were made to the Wembley business plan the financiers within the City of London would not even consider becoming involved.

Although Chase themselves have utmost confidence in the scheme and have promised to plough in £50million of the money required, their counterparts in the City questioned the FA's investment and demanded change.

The FA are now under pressure to release their entire £100million budget - which had been withheld for contingencies should the scheme hit financial problems.

Having been presented with a virtual fait accompli, it had been thought Bates would pay a heavy price for the dispute and be removed from his position as chairman of WNSL.

Instead, he received a unanimous vote of confidence from the 14-man FA executive committee, even though both Football League members had been mandated to withdraw their support for the controversial Chelsea chairman.

But with FA chief executive Adam Crozier taking a lead role and Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein expected to increase his involvement, Bates seems sure to be marginalised by the new year, when WNSL hope to have formulated a new business plan.

As late as two months ago, WNSL officials were confidently predicting that the new stadium, complete with a giant arch - three times the height of the Twin Towers - would be open in time for the 2003 FA Cup Final.

That optimistic view has already been abandoned, while the final for the year after must now be in some considerable doubt.

However, having listened to the advice of Chase Manhattan, at least it appears construction of the new stadium will eventually get under way, albeit 12 months late.

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