Chelsea handed £80m boost in potential Stamford Bridge rebuild

Chelsea have been handed a big boost in their plans to redevelop Stamford Bridge after successfully acquiring the majority of a piece of neighbouring land from a local veterans charity.

The Blues are hoping to significantly increase the capacity of their 40,343-seat stadium, which has been their home since 1905, as it lags far behind the Premier League’s biggest venues in terms of its potential for big attendances and matchday revenue.

Rebuilding Stamford Bridge one stand at a time is not thought to be preferable, leaving two other options for the project: demolish the stadium and rebuild on the current site like Tottenham, or build a brand new stadium on a different site like Arsenal.

Based on Chelsea’s purchasing of surrounding land, redeveloping on the current site appears to be the ideal scenario. It was reported last month that the club had agreed in principle the £65m purchase of a 1.2m acre site adjacent to Stamford Bridge, owned by Stoll.

The Sir Oswald Stoll Mansions are on that site and house military pensioners, while a medical centre that serves 6,500 people is also there, which had led to local objections despite the land being privately listed for sale – Chelsea are thought to have beaten 13 rival bidders for what is prime west London real estate. Stoll’s board of trustees were due to meet this month and have now made a decision on whether to approve the sale to the neighbouring football club or not.

A Stoll statement on Tuesday morning read: “Today we have announced that we have agreed to sell the majority of our Fulham site to the Chelsea FC ownership group following a 9-week resident consultation. This will enable us to establish new properties, better services for veterans & secure Stoll’s financial sustainability.”

A fresh report from the Evening Standard suggests the purchase price is actually now £80m, with Chelsea to take control of the land from 2025.

If Chelsea are to demolish and rebuild Stamford Bridge, it would require a temporary home while construction work is ongoing. Tottenham famously played at Wembley for the best part of two seasons between 2017 and 2019, although Fulham’s nearby Craven Cottage, where the capacity is currently under 23,000, is considered a more likely host for Chelsea in that scenario.