enders game

Spend half a billion pounds on the ground only to end up not owning it if CPO dosnt sell? Highly unlikely

Oh dear, pretty obvious that CPO are now preparing to fight any attempt by Roman to buy back the lease, even though it may jeapordise the stadium build

The new stadium wont happen if CPO shareholders knock back Roman again, I dont think that would happen though, if planning consent is achieved and a vote is put again to the shareholders one would hope it sails through

Its a moot point tbf, because the new stadium wont be built if CPO now decide they have a whole new set of objections The last time around they objected to a relocation, if Roman now solves that issue by spending a vast fortune on a new stadium at Stamford Bridge as they asked, but then new objections are made which again means he dosnt get the freehold, we and he might as well give up CPO will in effect as someone said above, have become what they were set up to guard against

Thing is this entire thread will be pointless, there will be no new stadium, if CPO now decide they dont actually want to sell the shares under any conditionBecause that in reality will be the case if they turn him down this time, no way on earth is Roman going to spend upwards of £600m on a new stadium if he wont actually own that stadium afterwards

I could understand those who didnt want to sell last time when they said they didnt want to see Chelsea leave Stamford Bridge, that was a perfectly valid reason, however if they turn Roman down a second time, especially now Roman is prepared to do what they said they wanted spending hundreds of millions on the Bridge, then i would tend to agree with you Making up new reasons not to sell every time Roman agrees to previous objections means we just end up a stagnating

But why would Roman spend hundreds of millions on a new stadium which he would end up not owning? Answer is he wouldnt, I hope to god they dont go down that route, Roman is offering to build us a stadium , without which we will no longer be competitive, we should bite his hand off

Can anyone confirm the truth or otherwise of what a fellow chelsea fan mate has just told me He claims that CPO have stated they will be advising against the buy back of CPO shares should Roman make a second bid Ffs we dont need any more of those shenanigans, plus I thought they said they would have sold last time had Chelsea promised to redevelop Stamford Bridge which they are doing

I think people are getting carried away, acting as if the stadium build is a foregone conclusion It wouldnt surprise me if we saw at lest 5-10 years of planning delays, our neighbours have deep pockets, with a much smaller expansion allowed at the end ofit all Missing out on Battersea was a disaster, a huge brownfield site in an iconic setting, we could built something truly amazing there, instead we will have something shoehorned into a tiny plot, hidden behind a row of houses

Dont get the problem with naming rights, in fact I hardly ever use the term 'stamford bridge' Going to a game '- The bridge' - 'at home' - or just plain 'chelsea' is what I and mostly likely most people say Pedantic I know!

I like the recent policy of going for fewer signings, but the best So Cavani in please, with maybe mikel out and some youth team players given a chance

Twickenham is not a great stadium for watching football in, it was designed after Hillsborough and has massive run off areas around the pitch, to reflect safety concerns then, which means the front rows of spectators are miles away Funnily enough they relented over safety regs when the Millenium was built and that has a fantastic atmosphere with the fans a lot nearer the pitch PSI hope they knock down the east north and south stands, then replicate the west stand opposite and run the same level tiers all the way round

The secretary of state has passed the compulsory purchase applications which will allow Spurs to complete the purchase of all the necessary buildings and land to enable them to start work on their new 56,000 capacity stadium BUGGER - we will be up s**t creek if roman ever leaves

I think Roman would do it right too, his behaviour since he took over the club, tells you it would be more like the way City are doing it than Arsenal re ticket prices at a new bigger/stadium Given his taste for the dramatic/oligarch mentality Id say any new stadium he did instruct, would have to be better than anyone else's!

If we had the right stadium with the right pricing we'd fill a 70k stadium The increased capacity re the corporate side would easily subidise the cheaper seats to ensure capacity crowds

True, but its the massively increased corporate areas that will provide most of the money, our corprorate set up is a joke compared to Arsenal - besides how do we get kids back in and stop the average age of match going fans at the bridge going over 60? Compared to most other teams fans we look like grandads these days - and thats besides the £30-50m shorfall we will have income wise compared to our rivals with bigger stadiums Spurs, West Ham, City and Liverpool will soon have much bigger stadiums, Manyoo and Arsenal already have

I dont care what Arsenal do, we have an owner who puts his money where his mouth is, Arsenals owners just want a cash cow and have been fleecing gooners for years At the bridge these days its like going to an old people's home, our demographic must be 50+ no problem with that but we have to get new younger fans involved or the match going habit will die out, but we cant have massively reduced kids prices with such a relatively small stadium Plus its the ability to increase corporate facilities massively that will allow us to subsidise kids seats in a new stadium - we either get a bigger stadium or face long term decline imvho that is

Stamford Bridge is not what it was, as you say the shed is now a tiny little stand half occupied by away fans! Bottom line is our rivals with bigger stadiums will have a £30-50m advantage every season re matchday income, with FFP and Roman no longer able to spend big - or if he leaves - that difference over years could see us become also rans - in ten seasons they could spend up to half a billion more on players Then there is the matter of getting kids in cheaply and stopping us becoming Chelsea OAP FC, with a small capacity we have to keep charging top dollar to compete, with another 20,000 seats we could allocate a few thousand to kids at much reduced rates and ensure we have match going fans in the future

To be fair the fans who have tickets in CPO voted to hand back the shares by quite a large majority, so if they are to be trusted then their wishes have been thwarted Anyway, Id love us to be able to redevelop Stamford Bridge, if it was possible it would be my option 1,2,3,4 to 100, problem is it isnt, the site is too small, the clubs detailed investigation and conclusions they published make that perfectly clear, as does the actual size of our existing plot

This is where we should have been playing, I cannot understand why people cant accept our present site is way way too small, its not about wanting to leave the Bridge, the Bridge just isnt viable for what we require in a stadium

? not sure what that means - it was owned by someone else yes By an Irish investor who got into financial difficulties and the banks were threatening foreclosure it was at that time Roman had talks about purchasing the site off him, chelsea then rushed through the CPO share buyout deal, were knocked back and shortly later the banks did foreclose - and it went to sealed bids on the open market those are the facts of the matter - there was no conspiracy and chelsea's sealed bid of approx £300m fell short

I think the club handled it as well as they could, the rush was because they knew the Battersea site owner was in serious financial trouble and there was a window of opportunity to buy the site But they needed to be sure they actually owned Stamford Bridge first, plus they could not just basically let the owner know they had to have the site by telling CPO it was Battersea they were moving to, less he just upped the price by tens of hundreds of millions There was no conspiracy Im afraid, just Roman looking to buy a site for a new ground - nobody amongst the sayno campaign has ever been able to come up with a rational theory re any conspiracy either, all that is immaterial now though, the tragedy is we lost what could have been the best stadium location in the world and will from now on be at least £30-50m worse off re revenues compared to our bigger rivals

It may have been once the banks foreclosed, but if Roman had been able to negotiate a private sale, there is a very good chance the new stadium build at battersea would now be underway chelsea needed to have the freehold of stamford bridge though to be able to a)finance the deal and b) be sure they would not be stuck with the battersea site if at a later date CPO refused to transfer the shares I hate to think it, but I think we made a huge mistake there

The most disappointing aspect to all this, is that it may have in fact been us the fans, or rather a minority of them, who were and have been responsible for us missing out on the one suitable, in fantastic alternate site - ie Battersea Its now clear Roman was in talks with the private owner, who at that time was being threatened with foreclosure by the banks - the refusal to pass on the CPO shares and freehold of Stamford Bridge, left our club in a terrible bargaining position and we lost what could have been the site for the most iconic stadium in world football

That was the massive problem they faced correct - the fact they made a bid for Battersea within weeks of losing the CPO vote, tells us everything The rushed nature of the CPO share offer, was due to Chelsea seeing an opening at Battersea where the Irish owner was on the verge of going under Chelsea could not however tell everyone in the lead up to the CPO vote that it was Battersea we were after, as you do not tell the people who's house you are buying that you must have their house regardless - because the price skyrockets It did mean however that when Chelsea lost the CPO vote - Chelsea were then negotiating for Battersea without even having the freehold of their own stadium - nightmare all round