Chelsea capacity surprise

Wednesday, 09/11/2011

by Joshua Block, Shoot's Chelsea blogger

Chelsea have announced that Stamford Bridge will be the latest English football stadium to follow the American custom of carrying the name of a sponsor.

Chief Executive Ron Gourlay broke the controversial news following the club’s recent failure to obtain the land on which Stamford Bridge is situated.

Gourlay announced: "We hope to make an announcement on naming rights in the next six to eight months. It would make a big step as we have to drive up the revenues."

With FIFA’s new Financial Fair Play rules set to take effect soon, the Chelsea hierarchy are looking at ways to increase the club’s revenue if stadium expansion or relocation is delayed by the Chelsea Pitch Owners’ reluctance to sell their shares back to the club.

Having been crowned Premier League Champions three times in the past seven seasons and having been a part of the top four sides in the country for almost ten years, it is perhaps quite surprising to see Chelsea as having the eighth highest crowd capacity in the Premier League.

The likes of Aston Villa, Newcastle United and Sunderland are all ahead of the Blues as well as Arsenal, Man United, Man City and Liverpool. When we translate that to Europe as a whole, considering the club has consistently performed to a high standard in the Champion’s League in most seasons, Chelsea are languishing in an incredibly low 61st position.

According to Gourlay, Stamford Bridge will very soon be dropping out of the top 75 in Europe entirely once new homes are completed for numerous European clubs.

It is clear that Chelsea has the fan base to compete with the capacities of such places as St. James’ Park and probably even The Emirates, so we are looking at between 55,000 and 65,000 ideally, hopefully with a more sensible ticket price structure than the one at Arsenal though.

After months of deliberating, it looks unlikely that Stamford Bridge can be expanded by more than a couple of thousand due to restrictions on all sides by the Chelsea Hotel, railroad track, main roads and residential issues. This is quite simply not good enough for a club that aspires to be one of the top teams in Europe in years to come.

The example of Arsenal needs only to be looked at as a success. The old ground at Highbury now earns very well as luxury flats, while The Emirates has turned out to be a well-constructed and well-attended venue for the Gunners. Arsenal FC are now ranked as the fifth richest club in the world in terms of revenue, one place ahead of Chelsea.

Perhaps if we were to follow their plan and relocate to one of the few available locations in West London, we could easily overtake Arsenal and be snapping at the heels of Bayern Munich in fourth, with only Man United, Barcelona and Real Madrid above them.

The Blues need to be able to keep up with the other top clubs or we could risk missing out on the extra income that could make all the difference in Michel Platini’s regime of austerity.

With or without the CPO’s support, it is clear that a new stadium location needs to be looked into and discussed in detail in order to provide the best setting for the club for the coming seasons. As for our current stadium, the sponsoring issue is no concern to me. It will always be Stamford Bridge in the heart of every true blue.

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