Over the past few decades, the Blues are trying to find a replacement of their home ground Stamford Bridge. Chelsea have been facing many problems since the ownership was handed down to Clearlake Capital in 2022. Their struggle to find a prolific striker since the days of Diego Costa, injury & ownership problems and many more.
But this problem regarding their home ground, goes further beyond the time, when Roman Abramovich was Chelsea’s owner. Rumors are again coming out that, Chelsea are holding talks over leaving Stamford Bridge. The Blues are planning on moving to Earl’s Court, in the district of Kensington in West London.
Why Chelsea wants to leave Stamford Bridge
The Bridge has been the home of the Blues for the last 119 years. The stadium was built with a sitting capacity of around 41,000 spectators. However, in the modern age football, all the top footballing clubs have a stadium with capacity of above the mark of 50,000-60,000.
Having a stadium with lesser capacity have caused many disadvantages for the Blues. First one is, collecting less revenue from the spectators. Clubs like Liverpool, Man United with 60 to 70 thousand seats, earns more money from selling match tickets.
Another problem is having lesser supporters in the ground to cheer for the home team. We have seen supporters playing a very important role in big matches such as derbies and European competitions etc. Not to mention clubs are always in fear to face the Liverpool and Real Madrid fans in their home turfs.
So, Chelsea were left with two options. Either expand the stadium or relocate it to somewhere else. They tried both of the options but have failed miserably. Back in the 1960’s Chelsea planned on to build a 150,000-capacity mega stadium. But the plan never really took the gears.
Chelsea have always wanted to expand the Stamford Bridge. But it is located in a very difficult geographical location. The ground is surrounded by dense residential areas, along with a railway line and a cemetery running side by side. Renovating a stadium in that location would create many havocs and financial issues.
In the Abramovich era the Blues submitted a bid to transform London’s Battersea Power Station in a stadium. According to reports the project was to build one of the best stadiums around the globe with a capacity of 60,000. They also wanted to build a separate single-tier-stand with a capacity of 15,000 to evocate ‘the Yellow Wall’ of Borussia Dortmund. However, their dreams were shattered as the place was sold to a Malaysian family.
Earl’s Court
According to the recent reports, Chelsea are again in talks to build a new stadium near the Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre site. They always wanted to move to that area but were never linked with a move until now. The Blues are planning on to build a 70,000-seater ground.
The Exhibition center is currently in its rebuilding phase. The development company wants to build 4,000 homes on the land along with retail and office space & three performance venues. They have neglected the reports of Chelsea owners involvement till now. Though the idea of Chelsea hasn’t took the gear yet, they need to place a bid asap.
The ECDC can move ahead if it receives planning permission. But key men involved in planning in London, believe the plans could be too expensive to carry forward. This can open the door for Chelsea to build a multiuse football stadium. It will be interesting to see what decision Clearlake owners and Todd Boehly will take in the near future regarding the Stamford Bridge.
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