Chelsea FC owner Todd Boehly revealed this week that ongoing discussions to develop and move into a new home stadium may take up to 15-20 years.
The US billionaire owner told Bloomberg that whilst the Premier League club’s board will gather at the end of the season to discuss new stadium plans, it may take at least until 2042 before the club can move from Stamford Bridge.
Boehly said: “It’s years (until plans come to fruition) in the making. When we originally bought the club we agreed initially that we had 15 or 20 years to figure this out but it is a big project in a really interesting city like London where there’s a lot of constituencies that have an opinion.
“Obviously the number one constituency for us is our fan base and what’s going to be the best for Chelsea. I think everyone recognises that a club as big as Chelsea should have a stadium that reflects the size of the club and ultimately that’s going to be a strategic advantage.”
Breaking new ground
Chelsea’s current home stadium, Stamford Bridge, holds a capacity of 40,341 making it the ninth largest stadium in the Premier League and the 11th largest across England.
Since the acquisition of Chelsea by BlueCo, a consortium led by Clearlake Capital and Boehly, from Roman Abramovich in 2022, new stadium plans were one of the key priorities for the new ownership group.
But a move to a new location has not been top of the agenda. Instead, the club has been considering expanding Stamford Bridge’s capacity as part of a redevelopment plan which would also see hospitality areas upgraded.
However, these plans hit a roadblock in September 2023. While Clearlake Capital had agreed a £50m deal to purchase land near Stamford Bridge from owners of the Sir Oswald Stoll Mansion site, a potential expansion of the surrounding area would see several apartments destroyed in the process.
Up to 100 veterans were residents that lived in the nearby Stamford Bridge site and with the backing of Stoll Charity Trustees, were able to block the expansion from happening.
Despite the backlash from local residents, Chelsea’s board are still currently undecided whether to redevelop Stamford Bridge or move into a new 60,000 seater stadium in Earl’s Court that has been recently proposed.
The luxury of matchday revenue
Over the past 20 years, Chelsea has seen the likes of London rivals Arsenal, Tottenham and West Ham all move into new stadiums that hold significantly more people in attendance.
An increase in capacity will in turn naturally lead to more matchday revenue, an ever-present vital source of revenue for all English football clubs during a time of stringent Profit & Sustainability Rules (PSR).
Within the club’s financial year results for 2024, Chelsea generated £80.1m in matchday revenue while maintaining an average attendance of 40,000. Although the club confirmed this was an increase from last season, it falls short of some of its competitors.
Manchester United’s matchday revenue for 2024 was £137m, Arsenal’s was £131.7m, Liverpool’s was £102m, and Tottenham’s was £105.8m.
Each of the five aforementioned Premier League clubs also hold significantly larger stadiums, which will have played a key factor behind the ownership groups motives to either expand Stamford Bridge or move into a new stadium.
With the Premier League’s PSR enforcing clubs to become more stricter with their finances, the 15-20 year timeframe may put Chelsea at a disadvantage to its league counterparts, particularly when other clubs have confirmed stadium redevelopment plans recently.
Aston Villa announced it will begin the redevelopment of Villa Park to expand its capacity to 50,000, as well as upgrading hospitality facilities to help make the ground “world-class sports and entertainment venue”.
Newly-promoted Leeds United also received the backing of the city council to progress with its plans to expand Elland Road last week too.
With Villa and Leeds aiming to complete these redevelopment plans in the next two to three years, Chelsea may be playing catch up to a majority of the league when it comes to matchday revenue in the future.
