Chelsea explores new sites to cut costs

Article posted by Coliseum, May 28^th, 2019

Image: Chelsea FC / Herzog & de Meuron

The design team working on expansion plans for Chelsea Football Club’s Stamford Bridge stadium are attempting to revive the project by slashing costs by as much as £500 million, Architects’ Journal reported.

Sources close to the project have confirmed that alternative sites are now being looked at, with club bosses believed to be open to the idea of a new location, the Journal said citing its sister title New Civil Engineer.

However, with planning permission already in place for a Herzog & de Meuron-designed stadium, featuring 264 brick-clad buttresses, it is understood the preferred option is to remain at the current Stamford Bridge site, the report said.

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Chelsea bosses halted expansion plans last May after the initial cost of the project almost doubled to around £1 billion. At the time, a spokesperson for Chelsea said the club’s proposed 60,000-seater stadium had been put on ice due to an ’unfavourable investment climate’.

It is understood that the club wants the cost to be reduced by ’around £500million’, before it gives the green light for the project to be restarted. However a spokesperson for the club confirmed that the stadium was still ‘completely on hold’, adding that ‘there has been no time frame set for a reconsideration of this position’.

Aecom is the strategic planner on the job, with WSP and Schlaich Bergermann acting as structural engineers.

Shortly before the project was paused, VolkerFitzpatrick had been named as the preferred bidder for a £95 million contract for piling and diversion works at the stadium. Since then, Ineos owner and Britain’s richest man Jim Ratcliffe has repeatedly been linked with a £2 billion takeover of the club.

However, New Civil Engineer reported that Chelsea bosses have held informal talks with stadium designers, suggesting that if the cost can be brought down then the project could be restarted under the current ownership.

Under the original plan, the existing 41,600-seater stadium in west London would be demolished to make way for the construction of the new 60,000 capacity football stadium and an ancillary stadium.

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