The powerful fan group that owns the freehold to Stamford Bridge has told i that Chelsea‘s new owners will have their support as long as they have plans to turn the ground into “London’s best stadium”.
The Chelsea Pitch Owners Plc (CPO) is a body created in 1993 to protect the future of the club, and now boasts 14,000 members from more than 40 different countries.
The CPO own the freehold of the Stamford Bridge pitch, making them key stakeholders in any development plans, and also own the rights to the name Chelsea Football Club, which they license back to the club.
“We just want to see new owners with as much passion for the football club as us, and with plans to develop the stadium, because the best team in London deserves the best stadium in London,” Chris Issit, chair of the CPO, told i.
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The founding principle of the CPO is that Chelsea play at Stamford Bridge and the ground is not developed for any other use, which is why previous proposals to move to Battersea Power Station (now redeveloped as flats) or a mooted site in Shepherd’s Bush have met with such resistance.
Investment in the ground is probably a necessity though. Developments at rivals such as Arsenal and Tottenham has created long-term financial stability while Chelsea have been reliant on loans from Abramovich that he says he has written off. Both clubs have a home capacity of over 60,000, while Stamford Bridge’s limit of 41,000 does not even make it into the top 10 football grounds in England and lacks many of the modern features its rivals have recently installed.
“One of Chelsea’s biggest future challenges, and all football clubs for that matter, will be to engage the modern fan and keep them engaged through an improved matchday and fan experience,” says Ben Peppi, a former sports agent who is now head of sport services at JMW Solicitors.
“An improved matchday experience drives increased attendances and in turn, increased revenues for stadium owners, not just through ticket sales but for brands and partners looking to partner with clubs and activate to their fanbase in new and innovative ways.”
Stamford Bridge remains a lucrative site. The CPO was created primarily to protect the club from property developers who would certainly view the site as a potentially lucrative one. Housing experts Rightmove estimate the average house price in Fulham to be £1.1m, and Stamford Bridge sits on a site approximately 10 acres in size. Even without a Premier League football club, the value of the site alone is in the hundreds of millions.
By contrast, fans can become CPO shareholders for just £110, entitling them to votes on key issues. The precarious position of the club has driven sales through the roof. i understands the number of shares sold in the last three weeks is the equivalent of a year’s business as supporters flock to safeguard the future of the club.
“The idea is that Chelsea FC plays football at Stamford Bridge,” Issit adds.
“If anybody wanted to move the club somewhere else, then they wouldn’t be able to call it Chelsea FC.”
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From Boehly-Wyss to Chelsea fans Coe and Candy, the names bidding to replace Abramovich21 March, 2022Conscious of the potential problems caused by the CPO, Abramovich attempted to buy back the land from the organisation in 2011, a move that would have required 75 per cent of the membership voting in favour. It was not a straightforward decision and 62 per cent ended up backing the offer, although there was anger at the EGM that around £200,000 worth of shares had been sold to just 20 individuals in the run-up to the meeting, thought to have been people sympathetic to the takeover.
The rules of the CPO are designed to protect against such an attempted buy-out; it is one share, one vote, with each individual person limited to 100 votes, even if they buy more than 100 shares.
Lessons can be learned from Arsenal and Spurs, says expert
A deadline for prospective owners to bid for the club passed last week and a number of different consortiums are trying to demonstrate their west London credentials in an effort to win popular support.
However, it will be current owner Roman Abramovich and merchant bankers Raine Group who make the final decision on who will buy the club.
The Russian oligarch may not necessarily take into account the number of Chelsea season ticket holders involved in a bid or their links to the club, but popularity among supporters will come into play if, and probably when, the new owners come to upgrade the ailing Stamford Bridge stadium.
But the new owners should not necessarily expect hostility from the group, who have a strong working relationship with the club and helped ensure that planning permission was granted to Abramovich for a 60,000-seater stadium on the Stamford Bridge site in 2016, although those plans were never acted upon.
The likes of property developer Nick Candy, a lifelong Chelsea fan and thought to be a leading bidder, is no stranger to the challenges of planning in high-profile locations in central London, having built the £1.15bn residential and retail complex One Hyde Park in Knightsbridge.
Scott Keown, real estate commercial partner at JMW Solcitors, told i: “Given that CFC is located in a strategic and comparatively high-value central London location, a buyer or developer would be facing many physical, logistical and regulatory constraints connected with any proposal to substantially alter the status quo of Stamford Bridge’s existing physical layout or its existing structures.
“Having said that, it is in the very nature of property development that the developer must apply its skills to find and implement solutions to a wide range of what at first glance look like thorny and seemingly insurmountable problems.
“Arsenal showed that it can be done, as have Spurs more recently with their redevelopment of White Hart Lane stadium and the related urban regeneration project to deliver new homes, shops and restaurants for the benefit of the local area.
“In both cases, Arsenal and Spurs, there were major logistical and other challenges that were eventually overcome, and the key thing on both projects was that the stadium redevelopment was complemented by adjacent residential and commercial development for the longer-term benefit of local residents and businesses.”
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