Our New Stadium

[dkw]

DAMN YOUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!

[enigma]

bit like buses today with the good news 

[ForeverCarefree]

Matt Hughes from The Times is reporting that we are exploring the option of borrowing £500m to fund the building of the new stadium rather than relying on Abramovich to foot the bill. 

Would make sense, what with our more pragmatic approach to transfers in the last few years. 

There's definitely a sense of the club trying to run more efficiently as business rather than looking to Abramovich to prop us up. 

[Zeta]

As long as we don't do an Arsenal and never spend any money and just try to finish 4th.

[enigma]

i heard we won't be changing the stadium name either, which means we won't get money from that. however, i would rather us stay called stamford bridge than be a slave for extra money. 

[BelgradeCFC]

3 hours ago, enigma said:

i heard we won't be changing the stadium name either, which means we won't get money from that. however, i would rather us stay called stamford bridge than be a slave for extra money. 

https://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/2017/7/26/16031210/progress-as-chelsea-explore-funding-naming-options-for-new-stadium-at-stamford-bridge

[Boyne]

This coming Sunday, 13 August, is the AGM of the Chelsea Supporters Trust. Below is the agenda. I'm planning to go along and will report back. Could have posted this in any number of threads but chose this one as the re-development of the ground, the temporary stadium and the future of the CPO are due to be discussed.

1. Welcome and apologies
2. Chairman's Report - overall report on Trust issues and accounts (to be circulated, with accounts, to members by email in advance of the meeting)
3. Secretary's Report
4. 2017 Annual Survey - summary of results
5. Board Elections
6. Motions from the CST Board
   6.1 Board Elections
   6.2 Approval of 2016/17 Accounts and Use of Independent Examiner
   6.3 Chelsea Supporters Trust affiliations
   6.4 Stamford Bridge Redevelopment
   6.5 Future of Chelsea Pitch Owners
   6.6 Temporary Stadium
   6.7 Atmosphere Concerns and Safe Standing
   6.8 Ticket Pricing and Availability
   6.9 Kick-Off Times
   6.10 Membership of Safety Advisory Group
   6.11 Ticket Touting
   6.12 Stakeholder Engagement
   6.13 Football in the Community
   6.14 Club Heritage
   6.15 Supporters Club Ticket Allocations
7. Any Other Business
8. Close 

[Carshalton Blue]

I've heard the club are waiting to see how Wembley works with Spurs before any final decision is made about us playing there.

There's talk of a pop up stadium holding 36,000 somewhere in London.

Fulham might be an option with CFC building them a new main stand & paying for it with us sharing the Cottage, a stumbling could be the locals & if Fulham get promoted as no two PL teams are allowed to share a ground.

Reading's ground is also being spoke about, if it means cheering them on for promotion to stop that happening then i'll be cheering for them every Championship match they play, sod going there for a home game.

[bisright1]

7 minutes ago, Carshalton Blue said:

I've heard the club are waiting to see how Wembley works with Spurs before any final decision is made about us playing there.

There's talk of a pop up stadium holding 36,000 somewhere in London.

Fulham might be an option with CFC building them a new main stand & paying for it with us sharing the Cottage, a stumbling could be the locals & if Fulham get promoted as no two PL teams are allowed to share a ground.

Reading's ground is also being spoke about, if it means cheering them on for promotion to stop that happening then i'll be cheering for them every Championship match they play, sod going there for a home game.

Never heard that two premier league teams can't share a ground. That sounds like something that could quite easily be bunged to get an exception for. 

[bisright1]

11 minutes ago, Carshalton Blue said:

I've heard the club are waiting to see how Wembley works with Spurs before any final decision is made about us playing there.

There's talk of a pop up stadium holding 36,000 somewhere in London.

Fulham might be an option with CFC building them a new main stand & paying for it with us sharing the Cottage, a stumbling could be the locals & if Fulham get promoted as no two PL teams are allowed to share a ground.

Reading's ground is also being spoke about, if it means cheering them on for promotion to stop that happening then i'll be cheering for them every Championship match they play, sod going there for a home game.

Looked it up; 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/jul/17/tottenham-premier-league-richard-scudamore-wembley 

Scudamore did not, however, rule out the possibility of Chelsea and Tottenham groundsharing at Wembley or any other venue. He would encourage local rival clubs to set aside their differences and build stadiums together, so long as they are able to comply with the Premier League’s pre-determined fixture list.Matches are worked out on the basis that neighbouring teams play at home on alternate dates, meaning Arsenal and Tottenham do not both host matches in the same rounds of games.

 

So we can share with Fulham. As there are no other neighbouring sides. 

[Mr Parker's Dogbite]

19 hours ago, Carshalton Blue said:

Fulham might be an option with CFC building them a new main stand & paying for it with us sharing the Cottage, a stumbling could be the locals & if Fulham get promoted as no two PL teams are allowed to share a ground.

Building a stand for Fulham is a nice idea in theory but the practicalities of getting permission and building the thing in time for us to use it during the Stamford Bridge development simply make it unfeasible. Although Fulham have permission in place for a new Riverside Stand their owner Shahid Khan has started a review of the current plan so I just can't see anything happening anytime soon.

[Boyne]

As I mentioned above I attended the Chelsea Supporters Trust (CST) AGM on Sunday. 

The CST board will produce a note of the meeting in due course but in the meantime I thought I'd post some comments and information about the re-development of the Bridge. In no particular order of importance.

1. Chances are that the redevelopment of the ground will take four years and will commence in 2019. Some work could start before we move out e.g. building over the railway lines and knocking down the museum at the back of the Matthew Harding Stand.

2. A question was asked about whether the new stadium could have two rather than three tiers as is proposed. Two tiers are not an option due to the footprint of the ground. If we had a larger footprint two tiers would be possible. It's down to inclines of stands, they can't exceed a specific angle because of concerns over safety. The architects and builders on here will be able to explain the problem better than I can.

3. Representatives of the CST will meet representatives from the Spurs Supporters Trust in a few months to discuss problems and experiences that Spurs fans are having at Wembley. That information can then be given to the Chelsea Board and architects.

4. A survey was carried out by the CST earlier this year and one of the results of the survey was that 23% of Season Tickets will consider not renewing the ST while we play at Wembley or anywhere else where we decide to play. I have to say I was surprised at that figure. As the CST board pointed out in the AGM if fans choose not to renew their ST while away from the Bridge they will have to go to the back of the queue when we move back home.

5. Safe standing is still popular among some fans and the CST will continue to canvass the board about that. Safe standing will require a change in Government legislation. Clubs and Supporters clubs are often asked about safe standing and Liverpool Supporters groups have recently stated that they are in favour of it. 

6. The topic of pubs (something dear to my heart) in and around the ground was discussed. It will be interesting to see what happens to some of the pubs when we move away. Will they be able to survive due to reduced trade in our absence or indeed will they want us back on our return to the Bridge. It would be great to have some decent beer served in the bars in the ground. I rarely drink in the bars in the ground as the choice of beer is limited and expensive. A few decent real ales, ciders and perries, and of course several single malt whiskies wouldn't go a miss.

If I think of anything more I'll post here.

 

 

[Valerie]

Thanks Boyne. Surprising and interesting prediction about those ST holders. Was anything mentioned about the statistics for the Spurs ST holders?

[Boyne]

2 hours ago, Valerie said:

Thanks Boyne. Surprising and interesting prediction about those ST holders. Was anything mentioned about the statistics for the Spurs ST holders?

You're welcome, Valerie. At the AGM it was mentioned that 97% of Spurs fans have renewed their ST while at Wembley. No mention was made if the 3% wouldn't be able to renew their ST when Spuds return to WHL.

Forgot to mention earlier that the response to the question in the the survey earlier in the year about preferences for the temporary ground while away from Stamford Bridge was hat 48% for Twickenham, 42% for Wembley and 10% for the Olympic/London stadium. I can't see Twickenham being an option due to complaints from local residents and the Rugby Football Union. The low interest in Olympic/London is probably down to the fiasco when we played West Ham in the League Cup last season.

[Carshalton Blue]

Maybe the reason 23% of sts wont renew while we play elsewhere is because the average age of our home support is now 55, by the time the ground is finished some of those fans could be thinking about slowing down by then & not having to mess around with crap kick off times etc

[Boyne]

13 hours ago, Carshalton Blue said:

Maybe the reason 23% of sts wont renew while we play elsewhere is because the average age of our home support is now 55, by the time the ground is finished some of those fans could be thinking about slowing down by then & not having to mess around with crap kick off times etc

Good point CB. I read a few months ago that Chelsea has the eldest average for home support. And leaving Wembley is a pain in the arse. Leaving there at about 10pm would mean people arriving home very late. Me and the people I go the games with are all in our fifties and sixties. When I see them at the next game I'll ask them if they are going to renew when we and if we go to Wembley.

One of the biggest concerns is about the number of 16-24 year olds who can't go to the game for a number of reasons, primarily the cost. They are the fans of the future and the club should be making it easier for them to attend matches. Perhaps they should have a season ticket which costs 75% of the adult season ticket.

[Zola]

Thanks for the update Boyne, always appreciated!

[Carshalton Blue]

1 hour ago, Boyne said:

Good point CB. I read a few months ago that Chelsea has the eldest average for home support. And leaving Wembley is a pain in the arse. Leaving there at about 10pm would mean people arriving home very late. Me and the people I go the games with are all in our fifties and sixties. When I see them at the next game I'll ask them if they are going to renew when we and if we go to Wembley.

One of the biggest concerns is about the number of 16-24 year olds who can't go to the game for a number of reasons, primarily the cost. They are the fans of the future and the club should be making it easier for them to attend matches. Perhaps they should have a season ticket which costs 75% of the adult season ticket.

I'm hoping Chelsea will offer sts for Wembley to members as well to then guarantee a sts at the new Bridge, if they do i'll buy one just to a sts back, saying that i dont want to go to Wembley, i'll suffer it for the most part but would give my sts away free for some games especially midweeks.

Saying that for personal reasons i havent bought any mships for this season, i'm just going to go if & when offered a spare ticket from mates, i get sick of the VWR at 7am, sat waiting for 40mins to try & get a ticket v the likes of Bmouth for example, with recent personal events getting stressed out about missing out on a ticket is the least of my worries.

[Boyne]

7 hours ago, Zola said:

Thanks for the update Boyne, always appreciated!

You're welcome Zola. 

6 hours ago, Carshalton Blue said:

I'm hoping Chelsea will offer sts for Wembley to members as well to then guarantee a sts at the new Bridge, if they do i'll buy one just to a sts back, saying that i dont want to go to Wembley, i'll suffer it for the most part but would give my sts away free for some games especially midweeks.

Saying that for personal reasons i havent bought any mships for this season, i'm just going to go if & when offered a spare ticket from mates, i get sick of the VWR at 7am, sat waiting for 40mins to try & get a ticket v the likes of Bmouth for example, with recent personal events getting stressed out about missing out on a ticket is the least of my worries.

I heard at the CST AGM that we have 25,500 ST holders at the moment and there are no plans to increase the number. When the Bridge is redeveloped I've heard that the number of tickets available to members will increase. If the number of ST holders for the new Bridge isn't increased I'm guessing that members won't be offered ST while at Wembley. However, it will be interesting to see if those Season tickets for those who don't renew when we move to Wembley will be offered to members.

As for the VWR it is a joke. Am fortunate that as ST holder I usually don't have a problem buying a ticket for non-Premier league home game. But having tried to buy tickets for away games it is a pain in the arse. It would help if when you accessed the ticket page on the website you knew where you were in the queue and how long you would have to wait. I used to work with a Spurs ST holder and he told me that when he tried to buy a ticket he was told where he was in the queue and how long he would have to wait. I think I'll write to the club and ask why we can't do the same at Chelsea.

Haven't seen anything from the club for ages about the redevelopment - unless I've missed something. It should be the CPO AGM at the end of next January so hopefully more news then.

[lukecfc]

12 minutes ago, Boyne said:

As for the VWR it is a joke. Am fortunate that as ST holder I usually don't have a problem buying a ticket for non-Premier league home game. But having tried to buy tickets for away games it is a pain in the arse. It would help if when you accessed the ticket page on the website you knew where you were in the queue and how long you would have to wait. I used to work with a Spurs ST holder and he told me that when he tried to buy a ticket he was told where he was in the queue and how long he would have to wait. I think I'll write to the club and ask why we can't do the same at Chelsea.

The VWR isn't actually a queue, every 30 seconds it ticks and you may or may not be selected to go through at random. You have a better chance of getting in if you have it open on more browsers and devices. It's sh*t. Funnily enough the ticket exchange actually has a queuing system which is barely needed anyway.

Edited August 16, 2017 by lukecfc

[enigma]

while we renovate the stadium, is there any chance of making our pitch bigger or will it have to stay same size? 

[Davey Baby]

4 minutes ago, enigma said:

while we renovate the stadium, is there any chance of making our pitch bigger or will it have to stay same size? 

 

It's going to increase but only marginally, because of a lack of space.

[bisright1]

At the Atl Madrid stadidum they have plaques on the ground of all the players to make over 100 appearances. It is a bit controversial because there are a couple of players that made 100 and then moved to Real Madrid. 

Would be interesting to see if we do something similar. Gallas might be only controversial one I can think of. We tend to be a bit more supportive of ex players.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chelsea_F.C._players

[lukecfc]

2 minutes ago, benjsross said:

It is a bit controversial because there are a couple of players that made 100 and then moved to Real Madrid.

And their plaques got vandalised in return. I saw a picture of Turan's smeared with muck.

[enigma]

not gonna lie, seeing atletico's new stadium has me feeling a bit envious. our new stadium can't come soon enough. a shame we don't have more space to build an even bigger stadium. when you see the players in the tunnel and on the sidelines etc, you realise how much space that place has.