H & F Council Statement On Chelsea FC
Tuesday November 1, 2011
A Council spokesman, said: “Hammersmith & Fulham Council is proud that our Borough uniquely contains three Premiership football clubs; Chelsea FC, Fulham FC and Queens Park Rangers FC.
In light of the recent decision by Chelsea Pitch Owners PLC to retain its freehold of the ground, we reaffirm our desire to see Chelsea FC remain in the Borough and our commitment to help the club to remain at its historic home of Stamford Bridge.
We recognise that all our clubs will need greater capacity to accommodate growth in their fan bases and that new financial fair play rules necessitate generating extra match-day revenue to remain competitive with the leading English and European teams.
We are currently assisting Fulham FC with its plans to expand the capacity of its historic ground at Craven Cottage and we have already agreed to grant planning permission for additional capacity. A new scheme is about to be consulted on.
The Council now proposes to examine whether there are planning options to expand Stamford Bridge to accommodate a larger capacity, recognising that such a project must be economically viable, benefit local businesses and not unreasonably affect residents.
We look forward to working closely with Chelsea FC and all local stakeholders as soon as possible to examine the options of redeveloping Stamford Bridge.”
**** Chelsea FC have issued a response to the above statement from H & F council, link here ****
make up your minds-first they said it was not possible to enlarge the stadium now the say it is? It would have to be at least a minimum 22 000 extra capacity.