Just thought I had to post congratulations to your club on the way I was treated last weekend on a trip to London.

My trip was to visit every league ground in London excluding Watford &Wimbledon over a 2 day period, I wrote to every club asking if possible to gain entry to take some pitch side photos. Only 6 clubs bothered to reply, the rest I had to keep ringing with no joy.

Only Chelsea, Charlton, West Ham, QPR & Dagenham let me gain access to get some photos with your club pulling out all the stops to help me right, from my first letter to my eventual visit.

Considering the way football has gone money orientated it was a pleasure to be treated as a football fan, not a customer with a wallet to empty.

Both Arsenal & Tottenham were rude to the point that I felt they would rip anyone off, with both stating that I would have to take a full stadium tour costing x amount of money just to take a couple of pitch side photos, even though I had explained this would not be possible due to the time constraints of the trip.

It would have been easy for a club like yours to have treated me like Tottenham & Arsenal did, but the point is they didn't. They treated me like a football fan and that has given me pride again in our great game. Never will I hear a bad word against Chelsea without letting people know how well treated I was while their.

Here's to Chelsea FC Not only Champions of Europe but in my eyes the most hospitable club in London.

All the best for the Future

Edited June 19, 201214 yr by fcumark

I need new lenses, I only got to the third line.

Great story that mate, good to hear we are getting things right off the pitch as well as on it

Nice story in a sport now so commercialised that at times it seems the fans are almost forgotten or ignored.

Makes you laugh really, all I ever hear on Talksport, usually from Liverpool, North London or Collymore is how Chelsea aren't a real football club with real supporters. Two of my boys have had birthday parties there over a space of ten years and the hosts couldn't have done any more to make things go well.

Thanks for letting us know fcumark.

To be honest, I wouldn't have been surprised if you had got the Arsenal and Tottenham response from every one of the teams that did tours etc regularly.

Glad that the club went out of their way to help you out - and sounds like you had a grand time!

Edited June 19, 201214 yr by Zola's Love Child

haha the staff were probably trying to make up for breaking the champions league trophy!

To be honest, I wouldn't have been surprised if you had got the Arsenal and Tottenham response from every one of the teams that did tours etc regularly.

Glad that the club went out of their way to help you out - and sounds like you had a grand time!

To be honest i did expect Chelsea to fob me off like the others. Thats why i had to come on here and praise your club. Credit where credit is due and all that.

Hope this works, here are some of the pictures i took while at The Bridge

Love them pictures, looks like the new grass has arrived!

Hoped you'd share the photos. Thank you

When I did the Stadium Tour about 10 years back I found the staff and everyone really friendly and accommodating, it was one of the best days of my life and even my Dad who doesn't support Chelsea and has far less enthusiasm for football enjoyed it and took a lot from it.

Sadly the media have convinced the public that Chelsea is a horrible, evil club with no morals and principles but it's glad to see real people like the OP who took the time to learn about our club and experience things don't just jump the gun.

City get the similar (but less) vitriol as us but I found them to be an extremely hospitable club as well. Staff very friendly and had no problems with me walking around and taking pictures in my Chelsea colours.

Too many allow themselves to be subjected to biased media views and it's very rare you see Chelsea reported for anything positive, even today the DM report a nothing story about a few scratches on a trophy, glad had a good experience

Edited June 19, 201214 yr by Myles_91

Beautiful pictures, thanks for posting them!

I'm very glad that you were treated well. There's something to be said for clubs doing the right thing on and off the pitch. The organisation is a class act even though the journalists would have you believe differently most times.

Great photos mate. Cheers for this thread. Always nice to hear Chelsea in a positive light/manner.

Credit to the club .

Thanks for sharing your positive experiences with us.

As others have noted we seem to be something of a media whipping boy so its great to hear real life people with experiences that don't match the newspaper anti CFC agenda.

That's great to hear but very surprising to me, you would assume that the bigger the club the less 'nice' it would be.

As a kid in the Ken Bates era I tried to get a response out of the club for a school project I was working on and was ignored, so things seem to have changed a bit since then.

When my dad died in 1998 my brother in law jokingly said we should ask if we could bury his ashes at Stamford Bridge. I thought "don't ask, don't get" and rang them up, fully expecting the answer to be no but to my surprise, they said "yes, when do you want to come?" We all went along, not really knowing what to expect - but thinking there would be a bit of a flower bed somewhere round the back - but no - they dug a hole right between the goal posts at the shed end, stopped the groundsman and made sure it was quiet while we tipped his ashes into the ground, after saying a few words. Everything everyone at the Bridge did on that day was absolutely perfect!

When ever my son gets called a plastic fan - we live in Shropshire now although I grew up in London, so everyone assumes he's just jumped on the bandwagon - he says yeah that's why my grandad's ashes are buried between the goalposts of Stamford Bridge!

Great news! :)

Glad you enjoyed it

When my dad died in 1998 my brother in law jokingly said we should ask if we could bury his ashes at Stamford Bridge. I thought "don't ask, don't get" and rang them up, fully expecting the answer to be no but to my surprise, they said "yes, when do you want to come?" We all went along, not really knowing what to expect - but thinking there would be a bit of a flower bed somewhere round the back - but no - they dug a hole right between the goal posts at the shed end, stopped the groundsman and made sure it was quiet while we tipped his ashes into the ground, after saying a few words. Everything everyone at the Bridge did on that day was absolutely perfect!

When ever my son gets called a plastic fan - we live in Shropshire now although I grew up in London, so everyone assumes he's just jumped on the bandwagon - he says yeah that's why my grandad's ashes are buried between the goalposts of Stamford Bridge!

this sent a shiver down my spine. may sound weird to some people but I think it is a dream for any real fan.

Don't think you can to this anymore however (hygienic rules or whatever)

this sent a shiver down my spine. may sound weird to some people but I think it is a dream for any real fan.

Don't think you can to this anymore however (hygienic rules or whatever)

Tbh it still gives me a tingle when I think about it and my spine felt cold as I was typing it. I was so impressed - it really cemented my (already solid) support. So never let people tell you Chelsea don't care!