FA struggling to sell best Wembley seats
THE FA are facing a serious uphill task re-selling their ring of Wembley corporate hospitality seats, with buyers for a third of the season tickets still to be found. The 10-year contracts for the 17,000 seats bought when the stadium opened in 2007 ran out last season and filling the corporate tier that bankrolls the Wembley business plan is critical to the financial future of the FA.
But the big marketing initiative of £999-a-year tickets has not proved the attraction Wembley had hoped. And there has been further disruption, with former Sunderland commercial director Gary Hutchinson, the head of Club Wembley, leaving after just six months in the role.
An FA spokesman said Hutchinson’s departure was due to him setting up a business venture in Sunderland and had nothing to do with the slow sales process he has overseen. The spokesman added that well over 60 per cent of the seats had either been renewed or sold again and that selling the remaining seats was a ‘ big focus’ for the organisation. THE BBC’s woes at the World Championships include their opening title sequence for their coverage, which features a graffiti- covered wall including the obscene comment ‘F****** French’. This was missed throughout the production preparation and was broadcast for the opening two days of the event before being noticed.
An inquest is ongoing, with the threat of heads rolling. A BBC spokeswoman said: ‘The writing was barely visible and we have had no complaints at all from our audience. However, it was spotted by our team and immediately removed on the second day of the championship.’