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Stadium Expansion

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Itsintheblood89

Itsintheblood89

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Morning all,

First of all I want to just make it clear, I don't want Chelsea to leave Stamford Bridge.

I have grown up around Chelsea being at SB and all that comes with it. Pre-match around the ground/pubs, inside the staduim and the rush home after to the tube cue (which is never bloody ending!).

My point here is simple. Is there any possibility of SB being extended? Is there anyone who knows of any truths which can be told as all the paper talk I ever hear seems to be utter nonsence. I understand the council are not happy with the idea of extra fans being in and around the area of SB on match days due to the already manic congestion. I also understand that the areas surrounding SB prevent any expansion outwards on any of the stands so the only possible redevelopment is upwards (so to speak). Does anyone out there know of any possibilities?

I hear rumors of Earls Court constantly and this is not what I believe any CFC fan wants. It must surely be regularly discussed though as im sure Roman is keen to help make Chelsea competitive with other English clubs in regards to Capacity.

Please, does anyone know if anything is genuinely in the pipeline?!

 
Speculation created from a comment made by Lawrenson and then 'lets find a piece of land available in West London' and turn it into a Chelsea could move story.

I don't believe a word of it.

 
Realistically, we could only fill up another 10,000 seats, week in week out.

So really, what's the point?

We might be better off exploring whether we can make the Shed End bigger. I honestly, think that's a bit of a crap stand anyway. It's just half-arsed, the whole thing. Especially, with the Shed End's spiritual meaning to Chelsea fan's.

It's an atmosphere vacuum currently.

 
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Agreed the shed end is too small and was built like that so bates could follow his dream and have a hotel. Personally I'd pull both down and start again. But I always thought the ground expansion was hindered because of health and safety and the fact the bridge only has 2 exits on to the same road a bottle neck of people.

 
docker said:
Agreed the shed end is too small and was built like that so bates could follow his dream and have a hotel. Personally I'd pull both down and start again. But I always thought the ground expansion was hindered because of health and safety and the fact the bridge only has 2 exits on to the same road a bottle neck of people.
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That is my understanding as well, any expansion is hampered by the railway line and surrounding area preventing any more exits, which means additional capacity, having to leave by the remaining exits. To be fair, I can't imagine a further 20,000 plus fans trying to leave by the same exits we have now.

 
As much as I'd hate us to lose the Bridge and hopefully we find a way too expand a lot more, I'd like us to be competing with manure etc with capacity, also it would make getting tickets alot easier, I've been trying to look into it for me and a few mates but it seems really difficult to find them, or I'm just no very good at it :blush:

 
If we had a bigger ground though we wouldn't sell it out nearly as much. Man Utd can get 70k for matches because they have been at the top of world football for decades, in contrast we're still just starting out and anyhting above probably about 50k we'd struggle to fill seats at the moment. We need a good few years of dominance at the top and in Europe to attract more fans (glory hunters) before we can realistically think about a bigger ground. But I wouild be devestated if we left the Bridge. I don't know how much revenue that hotel and chelsea village brings in, but could it not be offset by getting rid of it and having more seats in the stadium?

 
One thing would be to bring standing areas back but that wont happen in a life time.

 
Le Arse are the only double winning team no longer in the original stadium where they won the double, I dont want us to be another club to loose our history, it's not worth losing our history for a few more JCL seats.

 
BlueSkies said:
If we had a bigger ground though we wouldn't sell it out nearly as much. Man Utd can get 70k for matches because they have been at the top of world football for decades, in contrast we're still just starting out and anyhting above probably about 50k we'd struggle to fill seats at the moment. We need a good few years of dominance at the top and in Europe to attract more fans (glory hunters) before we can realistically think about a bigger ground. But I wouild be devestated if we left the Bridge. I don't know how much revenue that hotel and chelsea village brings in, but could it not be offset by getting rid of it and having more seats in the stadium?
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If you look at it that way, I want to keep it the way it is. We already have enough "glory hunters" who take up thousands of seats in the Bridge, those who're just there to take pictures and have a fun day out, rather than actually support your team.

 
Jimmy_blue said:
Realistically, we could only fill up another 10,000 seats, week in week out.

So really, what's the point?

We might be better off exploring whether we can make the Shed End bigger. I honestly, think that's a bit of a crap stand anyway. It's just half-arsed, the whole thing. Especially, with the Shed End's spiritual meaning to Chelsea fan's.

It's an atmosphere vacuum currently.
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Uhhhh that’s quite significant.... The ability to fill 10k more seats means increasing our gate revenue by 25% (in theory), whilst create space for another 25% increase if we built a 20k seat expansion.

We might only be able to add another 10k seats now, but we are one of the fastest growing sports brands in the world. It would not be unrealistic to say we could consistently fill a 60,000 seat stadium in 5-10 years. Plus we could always sell more tickets to opposition fans if we can not fill the stadium. We will be a top team that opposition fans want to see.

Increased seating is essential to stability and self sufficiency…. And when I consider how many people here have voiced that they became a true Chelsea fan after their first visit to Stamford Bridge, I would say it’s also essential in helping grow the brand and expanding the local fan base.

We need to expand with the future in mind, if we expand only to meet current needs it will be redundant, leaving us in the same situation 10-15 years down the road.

 
Ruh Buh Juh said:
If you look at it that way, I want to keep it the way it is. We already have enough "glory hunters" who take up thousands of seats in the Bridge, those who're just there to take pictures and have a fun day out, rather than actually support your team.
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Well that's just the way things work. Why do you think Man Utd have so many supporters? Because they were successful for a long time. You get more glory hunters when you are successful, but hopefully that equates to them becoming life long fans and passing it onto their kids as well if you're lucky.

 
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