I can't see the FA backing a "Wembley of the North" so that it can take games away from the stadium they actually own!
I can't either. In principal I think it would be good for us to have one in the north but not out of public money. The likes of Spain, France and Italy don't have a sole national stadium and share it around so can't see why we couldn't do that with two stadiums.
The FA need decades of receipts from Wembley to pay down their own debt on building it. That's why every tin pot cup final and the FA Cup semi finals are at Wembley these days. So it's never gonna happen.
I’m guessing Ratcliffe won’t have an issue with Trafford council owning the new stadium and charging him appropriate rent then?
Man City got its stadium on the cheap via the Commonwealth games. So I can see why he wants to try a similar trick. Frankly there's enough good stadia in the north to be able to stage the occasional England game. Even if we did go down that route, Leeds would be a more geographically fair location.
Other than geographical reasons is there a need for another National stadium? I'd say no there simply isn't the demand England play what 3/4 games per year, 2 Cup finals, 3 playoff finals, pizza cup final, conference final and FA verse, RL challenge cup final and may be 3/4 women's games so approx 20 games give or take. Most definitely a case of Radcliffe wanting a new stadium built for free
Etihad and the new coop live already tick that box for music, so other than geography and for Radcliffe to get something for nowt the real need isn't there. I'd love FA cup semi finals back on neutral grounds but money obviously dictates
But the north doesn't have an outside venue that can rival Wembley for any type of entertainment industry. We should have a stadium up north that can put on a world title Boxing fight or a gig in front of 90k.
If it made business sense to have one - and the weather is far too uncertain for boxing - there would already be one. Or some businessmen would be putting their own money into it. There are 7-8 arenas (Co-op, Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds, Hull, Nottingham, Newcastle), large football stadia (Anfield/Etihad/Elland Road), Racecourses and various other outside venues (Castlefield, Bramham Park) capable of holding large gigs in summer and winter.
100% this, we don't need another national stadium I'm not saying with hindsight it probably should have been in the centre of the country but that was never gonna happen but Wembley of the North is nonsensical, there would be Zero chance of the FA agreeing to cutting their own throats financially, unless Radcliffe pays for it then its a non starter.
When the old Wembley was demolished, the new 'Wembley' should have been built in the west midlands. That area round the M42/M6. Near NEC?? Central, great transport links, easy for everyone to get to. Most importantly it would have negated fans having to visit that bloody awful location where Wembley currently resides.
Brum is a **** hole, that has been neglected by nearly every government, just like everywhere further north. There is no "levelling up", just the status quo. The **** version of Status Quo. Sounds like a terrible copy of latter day Genesis. After a vomiting fit, I had to post it.
I know it was after but even a bit of forward planning/joined up thinking and have it at St George’s park.
Great idea why should the South economise more than the north why should we pay the prices down south to pay for all their areas to be done up whenever a northern team reaches a semi final or a final.