“We’re going to…” – Todd Boehly makes major stadium prediction that many fans won’t like | OneFootball

Chelsea fans don’t tend to hear from co-owner Todd Boehly unless there’s a business conference in town, and this week is the Milken Institute Global Investors’ Symposium, meaning he’s going to get behind a microphone now and again.

This morning we’ve already got some comments from him about his desire to build a new stadium for Chelsea to play in. It’s a famously tricky proposition, with limited space at the current Stamford Bridge site and with the CPO controlling the club’s future.

“Inside of London it’s really complex. It’s not like we are building something in a rural environment,” Boehly insightfully pointed out.

“We have a lot of constituents to make sure we care about. Certainly the Chelsea fan base is one of them. Long term, I think we’re going to build something new, and I think we’ll figure it out.”

Well, we’re certainly glad that the fans are “one of” groups of people that the owners care about. We assume the others are shareholders and investors of various kinds.

Chelsea and CPO another step closer to conflict

The new Stamford Bridge as envisioned in the 2016 Roman Abramovich plans.

As has been predicted before, this ownership and the CPO are likely going to come to conflict at some point.

For them, moving to a new site is a no brainer – they have more space to work with and lower costs. They can build a bigger stadium for cheaper.

But for fans there is much more than the bottom line to think about. Many wouldn’t consider leaving Stamford Bridge at all. The fact that Roman Abramovich had plans for a stadium approved on the current site shows that it can be done – it’s just a question of will.

It also feels essential that any disputes within the ownership are solved before any project of this scale is signed off on.