Chelsea have been handed yet another reminder of just how hard and long of a process it is going to be to solve their ongoing stadium issues. The future of Stamford Bridge has been raised at several key stages in the past 13 years, but now the pressure on an underperforming ownership group to move the club forward on and off the field.
Upon their takeover in May 2022 the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital lead consortium pledged their committment to expanding the capacity and also making the stadium more in keeping with its modern Premier League and global rivals. However, such is the complex nature of the matter, very little tangible progress has been made.
This has most recently come to a headas the Earl's Court Development Company (ECDC) — which owns the land that previously had the Earl's Court exhibition centre on it — confirmed a masterplan to revolutionise the enormous plot with visions of creating culture, retail, dining, leisure and gardens among more in an ambitious project.
This had been one of the main possible options for Chelsea when it came to an external site away from Stamford Bridge due to its proximity to the current ground, but the new propsoals are for work to commence in 2026 for an opening of more than two million skilled jobs in 2030. For Chelsea's own stadium plans things would need to move extremely quickly if they were to have any chance of remotely buying and using this land.
Now, with any developments still far from reaching a conclusion at this stage, Chelsea have been shown just how tough it is to operate these huge projects. Just one week after travelling to Goodison Park for what many had expected to be the last time before Everton themselves moved stadium, a statement on plans has been released
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