The Premier League has become a place not only to live, but also 1% of the place. If money follows money, then England’s top tier is a place to see, do business, and play for those who can afford the increasingly important corporate facilities of football’s bottom line.
The grand opening of the Riverside booth at Craven Cottage was before Fulham lost to Everton on Saturday. Its exoskeleton is a feature of the Thames during the pandemic, and the bottom of the stands has been serving locally for the past three seasons. When the contractor Buckingham Group collapsed in September 2023, it made the interior fit into the finish and most of the exterior. Buckingham's collapse also delayed the reconstruction of Liverpool's Anfield Road. Renovation contractor Portview took control and went all out, and then Fulham saw the 2024-25 season.
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“The London original football club has a new world-class match-day experience,” a project embracing the wealthy 21st century declared. "A great location and now has a great hospitality," said Alistair Mackintosh, the club's CEO. Shad Khan, Pakistani billionaire owner of Fulham, is Shad Khan. "Shad puts his vision on steroids," McIntosh said. The project's cost is significantly higher than its initial £100 million pricing, with officials and architects remaining tight on the overall cost of launch day.
Khan's ambitious declaration was: "As the rest of the world, it's a true athletic at Fulham Football Club, our neighborhood and throughout London," when the construction began in 2019.
Fulham aims to provide the highest and most elite corporate facilities in the field of football. Hospitality customers will charge between £3,000 and £20,000 on nine levels of sales packages. Plus VAT. Not for the timid wallet, protesting prices at a club at a club and saying that not all Fulham fans can afford the price of houses in West London, and despite the appearance of an external gentlemanly, the club retains the suburbs' working-class core.
The club statement on May 1 read that “the decision to implement a moderate increase was made with careful consideration,” with the increase in the 2.8% season tickets. Those who once stood on Stevenage Road at the end of Hammersmith, Putney and Johnny Haynes might find the riverside a very different social class, especially in the toilet.
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The cabin has become a place to compare. Opposite the architectural modernity of the Riverside is Johnny Haynes, the creation of talented Scottish architect Archius Leitch, whose artistic decor is designed in Anfield, Old Trafford, Hampden Park and White Hart Lane, among others. Most of these grand designs have entered history.
Leitch's continued impact is also evident in the five-story stages of the Riverside Booth and the Thames Boathouses. This part of London's main river is reminiscent of images of the Oxford-Cambridge boat race, Ringo Starr's Ringo Starr's Caper with a young scuff on a tough night, and a Romcom scene with sliding doors.
Fulham seeks to reimagine the cabin more than just a football field. "Every day of the year, everyone's place," McIntosh said. On mismatched days, joggers in Southwest London can run along the Thames route under the deck of the new stands.
Inside, a variety of restaurants and bars provide private restaurants for the highest-end customers. Copper tubes, gourmet, Thames Bar Room, originals, murder and mark bars are subsections that provide excellent river vistas. Wembley's Arch and Stamford Bridge can be seen from the deck. The Barnes Football Club is on the opposite bank, an important sign of football's development in the late 19th century.
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Football is not necessarily the core of the program. The Thames is the attraction of the stars, not the sporting field. Lighthouse Social is a membership program for non-match days, adding 600 members so far. With the help of the local council, it is considered a neighbourhood friendly program, which has a selection process related to a private member club in central London. Its package ranges from £750 to £1,250 and won't buy access to membership matches, although expectation and hope 20-30% will cross the huge gap.
There are few numbers for Fulham Football Club mentioned in the new development, although a small club badge can be seen on the sidewalk where the Khan presidential seat is reached. Even if Sky Sports News is released on game day, the first three levels can provide charm and can be fully Instagrammable. The three-story sky deck of the grand piano was ordered to make it similar to the banquet hall of the Titanic, a facility dressed by the Parisians whose trade is high-end restaurants and hotels.
The scallops, oceans and veuve clicquot menus contrast sharply with the stack of pies and pints in the "Premium Football Club". The fourth floor Slim corridor adds an Agatha Christie Chic, which resembles the Orient Express, a world away from the sticky marshmallow conferences in other Premier League club club companies facilities, the Art-Deco type of Art-Deco, almost a lifelong life set by the Cottager Hugh Grant, which may find a period of drama that manifests.
Riverside looks glorious on a spring day, although the cabin is probably one of the coldest circumstances when football whips from the river. So far, the rooftop pool with headlines has not been completed, and promises will be heated. As Saturday's race began, people noticed the distant hopes of Marco Silva's far-reaching Europe. Before kick-off, football felt a world.