Graham Kelly: Corporate seats are key to FA's plans for Wembley

The bulldozers rumble up to the old stadium this morning. One's overwhelming feeling on the go-ahead at last for the new Wembley was one of profound relief, tinged with sadness at the obscene amount of money that has already gone out of football in fees to lawyers, bankers and consultants before a single brick has been shifted. It is such a far cry from the days when, as young supporters, we first travelled to the capital excitedly by train for big matches and strained to catch a glimpse of the famous twin towers, little knowing that the evening sunlight concealed a myriad extortionate refreshment concessions and unpleasant toilet facilities.

The Football Association chief executive Adam Crozier has been subjected to criticism on the grounds of egotism for ploughing on with the Wembley deal at a time when football is exhibiting signs of recession across Europe. However, Uefa's television contracts have just been renewed handsomely and, as Crozier pointed out last week, the governing body's commitments to the project will not preclude it from maintaining its £65m per-annum commitment to the wider development of English football for the next three years.

Another welcome factor which may have been overlooked is the long-term support of the Football League Cup. As the final is part of the plans for the new Wembley, agreed by the FA, the League and the Premier League in the fine print of the agreements, the competition, which is a major revenue redistributing mechanism, will be around for a long time to come.

Crozier inherited the Wembley project, and the "successful integration of the redeveloped national stadium into the FA group of companies" was included in the achievements expected of him in his first five years in office when he joined the FA in 2000. He was at pains to stress during last week's press conference that all parts of the FA board had unanimously signed off the necessary contracts.

In reality, the longer the FA was forced to delay the announcement, the less likely it was that any other option would be chosen. Costs already incurred by the FA's Wembley subsidiary, in the region of £14m, would have had to be written off. The lottery grant of £120m, £103m of which was used to purchase the stadium from Wembley Stadium plc, would have had to be repaid.

The new national stadium is the centrepiece of the regeneration strategy for the Wembley area, and consequently a new purpose would have had to be found for the old stadium, a listed building.

Moreover, it was a site with the iconic status that meant rival bidders were always going to be left with the feeling that they had little chance of dislodging Wembley's favoured position in the capital city.

Initially, there was no question of grant aid being made available for a stadium with an anchor tenant. But when Manchester's Commonwealth Games finances faltered, a deal was concluded to allow Manchester City to use the City of Manchester Stadium from next season on favourable terms.

Birmingham, another competitor, offered a greenfield site, but I believe it would therefore have also offered inordinate planning inquiries and delays. Nor could they compete with Wembley's rail infrastructure, which claimed to run 100 trains per hour from the three stations serving the stadium to clear the after-match crowds.

There is no doubt that the key to raising the finance for rebuilding Wembley is the premium seating and, whether we like it or not, the best market for this is the capital city. When Sport England was originally considering the FA's application for lottery money all those years ago, there was one crucial word which was sacrosanct: "accessibility", meaning that the events must be within the reach of the general public, either via terrestrial television or through affordable ticket prices – not corporate hospitality seating. Latterly, it has been agreed to increase the number of premium seats planned from 15,000 to 18,800.

When satellite television began in Britain in1988, the FA was lumbered with some very different arrangements. Wembley was not all-seated (it put plastic seats on the remaining end terraces after the Hillsborough disaster of 1989).

Wembley, not the FA, enjoyed the lion's share of the commercial revenue from sources such as perimeter advertising under the terms of a contract that was due to expire in 2003. And the exciting new satellite television contract with British Satellite Broadcasting fetched just £6m per year, of which a share had then to be negotiated with Wembley.

Football now seeks to control its own commercial destiny, subject always to the exigencies of the market place and the roll of the ball. Hopefully, by the time the national stadium is open in 2006, Crozier will be on target – with help from colleagues – towards achieving his final listed goal: international success.

grahamkelly@btinternet.com