FAYED SCHEME FOR FULHAM SWITCH TO NEW WHITE
CITY STADIUM
from the Daily Telegraph 1 January 2004
By Mihir Bose
Fulham are planning to leave Craven Cottage for
good and move to a new stadium at White City opposite the BBC Television
Centre.
Although the club will go back to Craven Cottage next season from their
interim base at Queens Park Rangers' Loftus Road, this is only a temporary
move.
Telegraph Sport can reveal that Hammersmith and Fulham Council have written to
the present owners of the site, suggesting that they sell to Mohamed Fayed,
the Fulham FC owner.
Harrods Estates, Fayed's property company, are active in the negotiations but
not all Fulham directors are aware of this move. The eventual development
could also see QPR leave Loftus Road and share the new ground with Fulham.
Fulham's decision to quit Loftus Road will pose serious problems for the
Division Two leaders. They have a £10 million loan on which they pay £1
million interest every year. That loan cannot be repaid for 10 years and they
need another tenant or some other solution.
One source close to Fayed said: "The mood music is that we move to White City.
The White City site remains the chairman's favourite option as the permanent
home for Fulham. The council have always said that they would want Fulham to
move to White City and the site should be part of a sporting and social
development rather than office blocks."
This is the second time Fayed has tried to land White City. He failed in June
2002 when Helical Bar, a property development company, acquired the site after
paying around £28 million with Fulham coming third in the bidding process.
Helical Bar's plan is to develop a "media village" for independent production
companies, creating more than 10,000 jobs.
I understand that during the last week of October the borough's planners were
told that the "outline planning brief", which was due to come out in the first
week in November, would not be processed because a political decision had been
taken that the land should be sold to Fulham. Simultaneously, Fulham got in
touch with Helical Bar about buying the White City site.
Fulham have since made three separate bids for the site, £32 million, £34
million and lastly £37 million. Each bid has been refused. However, the
council have played an increasingly central role in encouraging a sale.
At a meeting in November (before the third bid but after the second) Nigel
Pallace, the council's director of environment, asked how negotiations were
going. When told that Helical Bar were not interested in selling and in any
event that the amount offered was not sufficient, Pallace inquired what figure
would be enough to sell.
Shortly before the third bid was tabled, the council wrote to Helical Bar
stating that it was the council's opinion that the land should be sold to
Fulham. Yesterday Pallace was not available for comment.
Fayed has already got a conditional sale on Craven Cottage. This was done in
September 2002 with Fulham River Projects, the condition being that planning
consent for a residential development at Craven Cottage was granted. He has
received £15 million as an upfront payment.
This agreement is the subject of a separate legal dispute about who owns
Fulham River Projects. During the hearing, the judge remarked that the £15
million was crucial for Fulham's finances.
Should the council persuade Helical Bar to sell, then Fayed could complete his
property deal with Fulham River Projects.
Sources close to Fayed insist that any money obtained would go into the new
stadium. But the £45 million likely from the sale of Craven Cottage would just
about pay for the site and not the stadium, which could cost another £150
million.
Fayed spent more than £100 million taking Fulham from the Second Division into
the Premiership but those days are over.
How Fayed would finance the White City project is not clear and it is doubtful
Fulham fans will be attracted. Results-wise, the two years at Loftus Road have
been among the best in the club's history, yet season ticket sales are down on
the last campaign played at Craven Cottage.