By David Gold
October 4 – Chelsea are looking to buy the freehold for the land on which their Stamford Bridge stadium is situated as they look to relocate the club.
Since Roman Abramovich bought the West London club in 2004, they have spent hundreds of millions and won three league titles, as well as reaching the final of the European Champions League.
However, their 41,800-seater stadium is dwarfed by some of their main rivals such as Manchester United and Arsenal, limiting the amount they can generate from match day revenues.
Such revenues represent a crucial income stream, and the Chelsea chair Bruce Buck has estimated that Arsenal have made at least £35 million ($54 million/€41 million) more per year since they moved to the 60,000 capacity Emirates stadium.
Chelsea have spent some £700,000 ($1.1 million/€812,238) looking into the feasibility of rebuilding the existing stadium, situated near Fulham Broadway, but architectural firms have concluded that this will not be possible.
The main obstacle to the club moving is that the Chelsea Pitch Owners (CPO) freehold was set up in 1993 when supporters feared the team could become homeless, and subsequently the ground was leased back to the club until 2196.
Abramovich’s long-term commitment to the club has made such a possibility remote, and Chelsea hope this will convince shareholders in the CPO to sell up when they receive offers for their respective stakes.
They are also offering to write off a £10 million ($15 million/€12 million) loan given to the CPO in 1997, and a spokesperson for the club said: “While there are no plans to move and no discussions over any potential sites, buying back the freehold removes a potential hurdle should a suitable site become available in the future.
“It has always been the desire of the club’s owner and directors that Chelsea should remain at Stamford Bridge as long as the stadium meets our needs.
“Many potential ways for increasing capacity have been studied.
“The investigations continue but adjacent railway lines, buildings and limited exits are major obstacles and mean that matchday income is limited by a ground capacity that is smaller than many of our rivals.”
As part of the proposal, Chelsea will offer to create a legal agreement that they can’t move more than three miles of Stamford Bridge before 2020, with any new ground to hold at least 55,000 fans.
Chelsea chief executive Ron Gourlay has said: “Our stadium is the eighth largest in the Premier League.
“If you look at some of the activity at other stadiums, you’ll definitely see us slipping down that table away from eighth.
“And I think we’re round about 60th in terms of stadiums in Europe when it comes to our size, so our current stadium is restrictive.”
The CPO will meet on October 27 to vote on the proposal.
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