Chelsea news: £500m Stamford Bridge redevelopment expected to get green light from council this evening

Chelsea’s new stadium will move one step closer this evening with Hammersmith and Fulham Council expected to give planning permission to the redevelopment of Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea have submitted plans for the £500m project that will require them to find a temporary home, likely at Wembley, for the next three seasons. But with council planning officials already having approved Roman Abramovich’s plans, tonight’s meeting is set to be an effective rubber-stamping of them.

The approval of Hammersmith and Fulham Council will mean that Chelsea only need the agreement of Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and of the Chelsea Pitch Owners, who own the freehold to the Stamford Bridge stands, before work can commence. The CPO want to safeguard the long-term future of football on the Stamford Bridge site, and to ensure that it is sustainable even after Roman Abramovich no longer owns and runs the club.

Although Chelsea explored the possibility of leaving Stamford Bridge for alternative sites such as Earls Court or the Battersea Power Station, they are now committed to staying at their original home. The size of the site means that their only option to build a new, bigger ground there is to dig down, lowering the pitch level, replacing the current 41,600 seater stadium with a new 60,000 seater ground.

Building a bigger ground is the only way that Chelsea can make up the gap to rivals such as Arsenal in terms of match-day revenue. Arsenal made an estimated £101million from match-day revenue in te 2014-15 season, £30m more than Chelsea’s £71m. While Chelsea have made money from player sales in recent years, especially selling Ramires and Oscar to China, they fall behind their Champions League rivals because they simply cannot get enough people through the gate. The Emirates stadium holds 60,000 people, and Tottenham Hotspur’s new White Hart Lane will hold 60,000 when it opens in August 2018.

Chelsea supporters are supportive of Abramovich’s plans to rebuild their old home, and hope that they are successfully completed. “We are very supportive of the idea,” Chelsea Supporters Trust chair David Chidgey told The Independent. “We are delighted with the absolutely stunning plan to rebuild Stamford Bridge, and to keep it as part of the community. It is a fabulous design, and has been very well handled by the club.”

The one concern that Chelsea fans have is where the club will play during the three years that they would need during the rebuilding of Stamford Bridge. Wembley is the front-runner but some fans are concerned at how far it is from their traditional support base in south-west London.