28 Apr 2008Wembley loses money

Football Leagues/ Association and Governance | Football Technology and Stadia

Wembley Stadium is to make a loss in its first year of operation.

The Wembley Board is expected to announce a £22 million loss, with most of the money having been spent on start-up costs and the effort made to ensure that the stadium was open in time for last season's FA Cup final.

However, the loss will not come as a surprise to the FA, which has stated that it expected to lose money in the first and second years of operation.

"This is not a huge surprise to us - we were always prepared we would have some losses in the early years because of significant start-up costs," an FA source told to the Press Association.

"There are also issues around security and counter-terrorism and we had extra staffing levels because we wanted to ensure it opened properly.

"Staffing costs will be lower in the future and we will claw all that money back anyway."

Wembley is set to host this year's FA Cup final between Cardiff City and Portsmouth.

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