Afraid that it is losing ground with clubs like Arsenal and Manchester United in terms of revenues, Chelsea is contemplating leaving its 105-year old home at Stamford Bridge and building a60,000-seat stadium about a mile away, on the site of Earls Court exhibition center, to be demolished after the 2012 Olympics at which it will host volleyball.
The need for a bigger andmore modern stadium has taken on greater importance because of UEFA’s new rules tying spending to revenues.
“Certainly we wouldn’t leave west London or thereabouts and there are very fewsites available,” Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck said. “We have to do things with our other commercial activities to make up the deficit that is created by thefact we don’t have a 60,000-seat stadium. We can’t say that we will never move or have a new stadium but at the moment, it’s not at the front of our agenda.”
Discussions have been keptsecret as Chelsea is facing competition from developers seeking to build a new residential community dubbed “four villages and a high street.”