FA To Drop Non-Essential Wembley Events, Allowing Chelsea, Tottenham To Ground-Share

The FA is planning to strip out all non-essential events at Wembley to allow Chelsea and Tottenham "to ground-share for one season at the National Stadium," according to Charles Sale of the London DAILY MAIL. Chelsea has already agreed to a £20M ($29M)-per-year deal to relocate from Stamford Bridge for three seasons, starting in '17-18 and the club "wanted to be the only football tenants." But FA CEO Martin Glenn and Wembley Managing Dir Julie Harrington believed "there should be no favouritism shown to any one club provided equal terms can be negotiated." Tottenham is in talks with Wembley about matching Chelsea's offer for the '17-18 season when it has to "move out of White Hart Lane." Wembley would find room for both London clubs by limiting its music calendar to a "brief summer window" and not having any of the rugby union club games it now stages. However, Wembley's long-term England, Football League, FA Cup, rugby league and NFL contracts "would still have to be honoured" (DAILY MAIL, 2/2).