Chelsea’s new stadium plans hit setback

Image: Coliseum GSVA / Michael Rennschmied

Chelsea Football Club’s idea of building a new stadium at Earl’s Court in London has hit a potential roadblock after an alternative plan for the land was approved by a local council.

The Athletic said Hammersmith & Fulham Council has approved proposals for a development on the site of the old Earls Court Exhibition Centre.

The approved scheme includes a mix of new homes, retail and hospitality, and workplaces but does not include a football stadium.

The plans are led by the Earls Court Development Company (ECDC), which said, “The 44-acre, £10 billion masterplan will transform central London’s largest cleared development site, which spans both the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham and the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea.

“This first milestone paves the way for ECDC to work with partners across the public and private sectors to move forwards with plans to start on site as soon as possible.”

Chelsea Football Club is a professional football club based in Fulham, West London, England (UK). Named after the neighboring area Chelsea they compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1905 the team play their home games at the Stamford Bridge.

Stamford Bridge is a football stadium in Fulham in the Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in west London (UK). It is the home of the Premier League club Chelsea F.C. With a capacity of 40,044 it is the twelfth-largest football stadium in England.

The Athletic further stated that ECDC said the development will create approximately 4,000 homes and 12,000 jobs.

The land had also been mooted as a potential site for a new stadium for Chelsea, who are looking at future options to develop or move away from Stamford Bridge.

The development still has multiple steps to go through before being given the go-ahead. The site crosses borough boundaries into Kensington and Chelsea, whose council will also have a say in the plans.

Hammersmith and Fulham council’s decision does not guarantee the development at Earls’ Court will go ahead. Whatever decision the councils make will also be reviewed by the Mayor of London.

However, the council decision is a significant step towards the ECDC project progressing, which would likely rule out the possibility of Chelsea having a new stadium on the site.

Chelsea’s stadium project is being led by president and chief operating officer Jason Gannon, who also had significant involvement in the development of Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium.

The Athletic reported in March that the options on the table were demolishing Stamford Bridge and building a new stadium on the site or building a new ground at Earl’s Court.

If the ECDC project progresses, given the difficulty of finding another suitable site, the most likely path forward appears to be a redevelopment at Stamford Bridge.

The club bought another 1.9 acres of land adjacent to the stadium in 2023, increasing the size of the plot available to them for redevelopment.

As a stand-by-stand renovation is not seen as feasible, a redevelopment would mean demolishing the existing ground and playing home games elsewhere while work took place.

Wembley Stadium hosted Tottenham Hotspur’s home games for the 2017-18 season and much of 2018-19 while their new stadium was being built.

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