New Chelsea stadium still decades away, admits Todd Boehly

Evening Standard

·7 maggio 2025

New Chelsea stadium still decades away, admits Todd Boehly

Blues’ ground is dwarfed by their rivals but a new home remains a pipe dream

Chelsea may not have a new stadium for another 20 years, co-owner Todd Boehly has admitted.

It has been well over a decade since the Blues first considered options for how to either renovate Stamford Bridge or build a brand-new stadium on a different site.

Stamford Bridge has a capacity of just 40,173 and Chelsea’s significant success over the past two decades has seen them outgrow the ground. Boehly has warned it could take a similar length of time to find a new home.

In terms of capacity, Stamford Bridge is the ninth-largest stadium in the Premier League, and is dwarfed by the London rivals. Both the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium can hold in excess of 60,000 supporters, and even some Championship grounds, such Sunderland's Stadium of Light, boast a bigger capacity.

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Chelsea know a larger stadium would bring increased matchday revenues, and several options have been considered, only to hit the buffers. In 2012, a 60,000-seater stadium in Battersea Power Station was proposed, followed by a move to nearby Earl’s Court, and then the expansion of Stamford Bridge itself.

Boehly, Chelsea’s co-owner since 2022, has now revealed in an interview with Bloomberg that the club may have to wait decades to be playing in front of a larger crowd.

“It is years in the making,” Boehly said. “When we originally bought the club, we agreed initially that we had 15 or 20 years to figure this out.

“It is a big project in a really interesting city like London where there are a lot of constituencies that have an opinion.

“Obviously the number one constituency for us is our fanbase and what's going to be the best for Chelsea.”

Boehly, who owns a 13 per cent share of the club, added: “I think everyone recognises that a club as big as Chelsea should have a stadium that reflects the size of the club and ultimately that's going to be a strategic advantage.”

Speaking at the Milken Institute Global Conference, Boehly revealed talks over the future of the club’s stadium would reopen once the season has ended.