Chelsea follow suit

14 April 2012

Chelsea will waste little time in responding in kind to Arsenal's announcement of the go-ahead to start building their 60,000-seater stadium at Ashburton Grove.

Russian owner Roman Abramovich's plans for Stamford Bridge are to increase the capacity from around 42,000 to 55,000 by rebuilding the South Stand and making some alterations to the East Stand.

The major renovations will include knocking down the main hotel on the site above the South Stand that was central to the dream of marginalised Chelsea chairman, Ken Bates, for a leisurestyle empire within Chelsea Village.

Bates will also lose his penthouse home situated at the top of the hotel when demolition work begins.

But Abramovich's ambitions for Stamford Bridge are centred on a world-class stadium for his expensively-assembled team rather than the add-on extras that were part of Bates' strategy.

The Russian owner has demolished the interactive Chelsea World of Sport exhibition, the health club is being downsized and various restaurants on the site underneath the hotel will be closing down when building starts.

Abramovich has already spoken to various stadium-building specialists and it is expected that designs for the new Bridge will be ready to be unveiled by September.

The Chelsea Village Hotel, which has 291 rooms together with its sister across the Bridge forecourt, the Chelsea Court Hotel, opened in 1998. It suffered badly from the downturn of American tourists following the September 11 atrocity and the percentage of rooms occupied has always been a matter of much speculation.

Abramovich's fabulous wealth ensures that knocking down a hotel, however recently built, is not a problem if it does not fit in his grand scheme.

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Chelsea follow suit

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