Chelsea "In Talks" Over Leaving Stamford Bridge

Photo / Vespa125125

According to a report in The Guardian, Chelsea are engaged in talks to leave Stamford Bridge, their ground for 105 years, and move to a new, 60-000-seater purpose-built stadium built on what is currently Earl's Court Exhibition Centre.

Despite the success brought to the club under the auspices of Roman Abramovich, there has long been a concern that. with a 41,000 capacity and surrounding rail lines and houses meaning limited room to expand, the ageing stadium cannot match the club's ambition. A move nearby would seem the best option, with the Earls Court site a favoured destination, especially as it has all but been confirmed that the exhibition hall will be demolished after the 2012 Olympics. A new ground wouldn't be complete until 2015, but it does raise the prospect that, come the decade's mid-point, Chelsea, along with West Ham and Spurs, could be playing in a new home.It would mean an end for what is one of London's more storied grounds. Opened in 1905, with the first spectators standing on embankments fashioned out of the subsoil from the construction of the Metropolitan Railway four decades earlier, in the 1920s it boasted a capacity of 100,000 and was the venue for the FA Cup final between 1920 and 1922. Later years have brought expansion to its current size, but a 41,000 capacity is significantly lower than that of, for example, cross-town rivals Arsenal (60,000). Only question is, will the proposed move mean an abrupt end to Roman's secret £20 million nightclub under the East Stand? Or can we expect the entire stadium to be turned into a disco?