FA To Finish Paying For Wembley Stadium By End Of '24

The FA revealed it will finish paying for Wembley by the end of '24, according to Simon Johnson of the London EVENING STANDARD. It cost £757M to "transform Wembley into a new 90,000 ground," which was reopened in '07 -- seven years after the original stadium was last used. The FA had to take out a "sizeable loan to meet the cost" and has been paying interest on it. After refinancing the loan to a "more favourable rate" in '15, the FA has £142M ($192.2M) of debt remaining and it "will be cleared in six years’ time." This will mean that an extra £2M-£3M ($2.7M-$4M) a year "will be available for reinvestment back into the game due to the money saved on interest payments." As part of the FA’s new commitment to investing £180M ($244M) a year on the game, a 38% increase on the previous sum of £123M, an extra £9M ($12M) a year "is going toward grassroots facilities" (EVENING STANDARD, 1/9).