£500mn Chelsea stadium gets London Mayor’s backing

Chelsea FC’s plans to build a new £500 million 60,000-seat stadium cleared another major hurdle earlier this week when they received approval from London Mayor Sadiq Khan.

“London is one of the world’s greatest sporting cities and I’m delighted that we will soon add Chelsea’s new stadium to the already fantastic array of sporting arenas in the capital,” Khan said in a statement on March 6.

The Premier League leaders plan to build the new arena on the site of their current Stamford Bridge home in west London, which seats 41,631 fans. The proposals received planning permission from local authorities in January and the new ground could be completed in time for the 2021-22 season.

“Having taken a balanced view of the application, I’m satisfied this is a high-quality and spectacular design which will significantly increase capacity within the existing site, as well as ensuring fans can have easy access from nearby transport connections,” Khan added. “I’m confident this new stadium will be a jewel in London’s sporting crown and will attract visitors and football fans from around the world.”

The new stadium has been designed by Herzog and de Meuron, the architects behind the “Bird’s Nest” stadium used at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena. It will enable Chelsea to bring their match-day revenue more into line with their main Premier League rivals.

Continue to follow Coliseum Summit, a global series of stadium and arena business conferences, for latest updates from around the world.

« Previous News: UFC announces ‘anchor tenant’ deal with T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas
» Next News: Manchester looks set to get a world-class sports university