Chelsea move from Stamford Bridge?

[BridgeMonkee]

Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon has suggested the club could move from Stamford Bridge according to Andy Lines in the Mirror.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/sporttop/tm_objectid=14731476%26method=full%26siteid=50143%26headline=kenyon%2dhints%2dat%2dchelsea%2dmove-name_page.html

[bigtoga]

Good old A$$-Peter...

[Eddie26]

Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon has suggested the club could move from Stamford Bridge according to Andy Lines in the Mirror.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/sporttop/tm_objectid=14731476%26method=full%26siteid=50143%26headline=kenyon%2dhints%2dat%2dchelsea%2dmove-name_page.html

I think it is only natural that they leave. (Well maybe not natural but..)

You have to take the good with the bad. Would you rather be back to right before RA days? Remember the Liverpool-Chelsea game at the end of 2 seasons ago? Chelsea needed to win to go to the CL. If we lost that game we would have been in the UEFA Cup and Roman would have bought someone else. EVERYTHING was on the line. About a week after that game was when the takeover was announced.

That was a great game. If we lost that game we were talking about who we were going to have to sell, talk over possible administration with our 100mil debt. We could have well been in Leeds position today had it not been for Roman. If you rather go back to that and stay at the Bridge then ok. But if you like us being a European force, spending money like crazy, having larger world recognition, then you can have it!

Most Chelsea fans today can't remember the days of Petrescu, DiMatteo, LeBouf, even ZOLA! I wonder how many can even name the three goalscorers of that Liverpool-Chelsea game! (Desailly, Hyppia and Gronkjaer)

You just have to take the good with the bad and I prefer the latter scenario to the the former.

[Clan]

Sad, sad news..............

[Trigger]

Would be sad indeed but progress is progress and like us leaving behind the storied marble halls of Highbury, in todays soccer world it's 70 thou seaters that are required. I don't know where they would move in London and certainly in the boroughs of Fulham and Chelsea there's practically nowhere for a new stadium at all especially with the current house prices and big league developers snapping up every site in sight.
I'm sure you will find and build a grand and impressive stadium but living in London and nearby I know for sure it's going to be a distance away, MK Chelsea anyone ?
For me Chelsea will always be stamford bridge, down that road in fulham way that I passed all the time.
Crap, everything is changing too quickly these days.

[the101er]

In the grand scheme I don't know what it all means, but for me it means that I better get to Stamford Bridge in the nery vear future.

[Clan]

In the grand scheme I don't know what it all means, but for me it means that I better get to Stamford Bridge in the nery vear future.

Clanblue <---------Weeps, goes to phone and tells mum to hang on to all those old photos of me and the mates at the "old" ground.

[Clan]

Would be sad indeed but progress is progress and like us leaving behind the storied marble halls of Highbury, in todays soccer world it's 70 thou seaters that are required. I don't know where they would move in London and certainly in the boroughs of Fulham and Chelsea there's practically nowhere for a new stadium at all especially with the current house prices and big league developers snapping up every site in sight.
I'm sure you will find and build a grand and impressive stadium but living in London and nearby I know for sure it's going to be a distance away, MK Chelsea anyone ?
For me Chelsea will always be stamford bridge, down that road in fulham way that I passed all the time.
Crap, everything is changing too quickly these days.

Indeed, thats all true.
However, i would think that a period of sustained success ( like Arsenal have achieved) would have been the first order of business before any such grand move was even 'thought' about by the powers that be.

You can't convince me, for even a second, that half those 'supporters' that are currently packing the seats at Stamford Bridge are die hard Chels fans.

Yes, it's great that Abramovich has saved the club, and lets be honest here, we were going to be the next Leeds before they even became the first Leeds, it's great to see such fantastic players on the pitch every week - but we've won 'naff all.

A few lean years and they'll all be off to the 'New Chelsea'.

[Trigger]

You make a Brillaint point and I'm going to give plenty rep for it, You were on the way to leeds but now in the golden Roman Age nothing matters for Chelsea, yes the fear he buggers off and screws all the fans in there but this man can go out and buy a 500 million stadium anywhere he wants.

Thos Fans you point out don't see that, and I've known a few even before Roman came about and it was the Harding ( how quick he was forgotten eh ) era and through until now. Fans see no downside now.

The people I know turn up when they want and when it's glamorous and they hold season tickets so you see how it is.
Chelsea will move because that dickhead Kanyon is telling Roman that's what he has to do, to get 70 thou a week and more and you will do it pretty soon given the resources .

I can't explain it but I think you aren't far from winning the title but are far ? make sense ? I don't know but that's just how I feel. there a thing lacking, Jose is going to run you real close but there's still that something and it ain't 70 thousand a week .

I don't want to see Chelsea leave too far from London they like fulham are one of the teams that truely make london football just like Highbury was before we buggered off.
For you guys there's nothing local so just where does peter think you are going to go ? Battersea power station ? .

[fedwood]

Most Chelsea fans today can't remember the days of Petrescu, DiMatteo, LeBouf, even ZOLA! I wonder how many can even name the three goalscorers of that Liverpool-Chelsea game! (Desailly, Hyppia and Gronkjaer)



im 17 and i remeber those days and im an Arsenal fan

i remeber Vialli player coach
that was funny..he was pissed at his team so he just subs himself on and scores a goal

graham le saux was there, gudjohnson was at like bolton, hasselbaink at leeds , lampard chilling at west ham

oh yeh and i remeber a certain Kanu scoring 3 lol

De Goey, gotta love him

[Roy Da Silva]

This will happen very soon. Roman, Peter, and Jose will want the best. They will want to have the best stadium in the world with the biggest capacity. I see them building a new 80,000 seat stadium in 5 or 7 years when the global brand grows. The only way the Brand grows is by winning trophies. So the presure is on Mourinho

[fernb8]

Would be sad indeed but progress is progress and like us leaving behind the storied marble halls of Highbury, in todays soccer world it's 70 thou seaters that are required. I don't know where they would move in London and certainly in the boroughs of Fulham and Chelsea there's practically nowhere for a new stadium at all especially with the current house prices and big league developers snapping up every site in sight.
I'm sure you will find and build a grand and impressive stadium but living in London and nearby I know for sure it's going to be a distance away, MK Chelsea anyone ?
For me Chelsea will always be stamford bridge, down that road in fulham way that I passed all the time.
Crap, everything is changing too quickly these days.


Problem with most of the "70 thou seaters" is that they are only half full. Look at some of the Siere A games, the stadiums are barely sell out. Look at Lazio, their ground seats 82000 and they can barely fill half of the ground. Not to mention the atmosphere, I think most Chelsea fans will tell you (the ones who actually went to the game, myself not included) that we sang louder and brought more life to the match than the Lazio fans. Of course, winning 4-0 helps...

Just not sold on the big ground theory. A great majority of the seats go to "corporate guests", who have no interest in the game and many more seats to plastic fans that will be following the next team to win the Prem. Say what you want but I even with 60+ thousand the atmosphere at Old Trafford is nowhere near that at Chelsea or Arsenal.

[Philip in London]

This will happen very soon. Roman, Peter, and Jose will want the best. They will want to have the best stadium in the world with the biggest capacity. I see them building a new 80,000 seat stadium in 5 or 7 years when the global brand grows. The only way the Brand grows is by winning trophies. So the presure is on Mourinho

I think it is extremely unlikely. There just aren't the possible locations. Look how hard it was for Arsenal, and West London is a much more prosperous area with far less fading industrial sites. There is no chance of getting planning permission in any location in the urbanised area that doesn't have an underground link, and I only know of two possible locations, one at White City and one in Chiswick, both of which are already being redeveloped by others. I don't think permission could be obtained near Heathrow because the area to the North of the airport is being kept in reserve for the possible third runway/Terminal 6 development. Nor would the club stand much chance of getting permission to build a huge stadium in Surrey: the level of local opposition would be enormous, and don't think that RA's money would make it irrelevant. Also such developments are simply illegal in the "Green Belt" around London, which covers many of the potential locations. Anyway, I doubt that RA would want to move. The Bridge is just down the road from the prime city centre residential areas where he and the other rich Russians in London live. A suburban location would have far less cache.

What is far more likely to happen is that the Bridge will be expanded to 50-55,000, though this won't be easy either. Remember that due to the high ticket prices and extensive corporate hospitality Chelsea currently vies with Manchester United to have the highest matchday income of any club in Europe. A 55,000 seater would probably produce a rough tie in matchday income with Arsenal's 60,000 seater and with Old Trafford at its likely final capacity in the low 80s.

[mad theory]

Problem with most of the "70 thou seaters" is that they are only half full. Look at some of the Siere A games, the stadiums are barely sell out. Look at Lazio, their ground seats 82000 and they can barely fill half of the ground. Not to mention the atmosphere, I think most Chelsea fans will tell you (the ones who actually went to the game, myself not included) that we sang louder and brought more life to the match than the Lazio fans. Of course, winning 4-0 helps...

This is England not Italy. IMO it wouldn't be a problem getting 60-70 fans each week, after all being a Chelsea fan is the trend at the moment.

[GPK]

I believe this is taken out of context. See minutes from the fan forum...

http://www.chelseafc.com/statpage.asp?id=fans_forum

Re ground configuration: What is the aim? Is ground relocation being considered.

Club: Our aim is for a 50,000 stadium. We are certainly confident of demand going up over the next few years. The difficulty we have isn't just the configuration of the stands, but rapid access/ exiting. There is no ready-made answer. We are also identifying restricted view seats and dealing with those.

It is difficult to become as big a club as we want to be without a bigger capacity.

At some point there has got to be an evaluation of that done. We're not there yet and we won't be re-evaluating for the next few years.

Fans: The stadium could do with more of an identity.

One idea may be to have a mural of Chelsea players through the years along the East Stand wall - this could be part of the centenary celebrations.

Club: We don't want fans or the football world to think of this area as Chelsea Village. The whole site in practice is Chelsea F.C. and the other businesses are all part of the Club - we want to start emphasising that aspect.

The changing rooms/ tunnel area now has a large Chelsea F.C. sign - we are gradually going to rebrand to push this.


From this "fan" personally, I'd like to see them start selling out SB now.

[nicephoras]

I don't think its going to happen in the remotely near future. Paying for a stadium in London would be prohibitively expensive, as anyone who's been monitoring Ashburton Grove will tell you. And Chelsea is considerably more expensive than the area where *snort* Emirates Stadium is going to stand. Roman may have a lot of money, but even he's not crazy enough to personally fund a gigantic construction project in Chelsea, or somewhere else in West London.

[srd....]

also one of the reasons roman had chosen chelsea as an investment over spurs was the fact he liked the set up already in place,i.e the village.also clearing those debts when he arrived,it just doesnt seem likely he'd want to up and move after pumping that kind of coin into the club.

[BridgeMonkee]

also one of the reasons roman had chosen chelsea as an investment over spurs was .

the fact that Sperz is located in a third world sh1thole area. Who would want to be anywhere near there? :)

True, we could move out of London like those gypsies formerly at Highbury formerly in Woolwich. But still it won't be for a long while yet, 5-10 years?
He'll try to increase capacity first, blah-blah-blah, local council, build a new tube station, blah-blah-blah, etc.

Battersea? AKA "South Chelsea" by realtors :)
Battersea Power Station? Was supposed to be Euro disney at one point - great location, right next to the river and the park and the dogs home, could be a viable option in the future, though how much would that be? for now the fashionable Stamford Bridge location will do.

[Philip in London]

Battersea Power Station? Was supposed to be Euro disney at one point - great location, right next to the river and the park and the dogs home, could be a viable option in the future.

No it isn't. A retail/hotel/office etc redevelopment has just started. In any case it wouldn't have been possible to obtain permission to demolish the power station and the transport links to the site are inadequate.

[srd....]

the fact that Sperz is located in a third world sh1thole area. Who would want to be anywhere near there? :)

once i spread some more around,thou shall be repped for that one,lmao :D