Building a modern Stamford Bridge for Chelsea's future

More bums on seats remains the driving force behind stadium redevelopments in the Premier League, writes Jon West...

“It has a very southern spirit,” says Jacques Herzog about his creation for the city of Bordeaux ahead of next summer’s Euro 16 finals. “It is all about refinement and elegance – things that would be totally absurd in Chelsea.”

And Jose Mourinho thought it was only referees and pundits who were prejudiced against him and his team...

Stamford Bridge is the latest sporting venue to sign up for an upgrade from Herzog & de Meuron, the Basle-based architects who gave us the varicolour glow-blob that is Munich’s iconic Allianz Arena as well as Beijing’s ‘Bird’s Nest’ Olympic stadium. Having abandoned plans to relocate to Battersea Power Station, Chelsea decided to raise the capacity of their traditional home to 60,000, which will require them to relocate to a temporary base — probably Wembley — between and 2017 and 2020 as well spend a total of around £830m.

The last time Chelsea embarked on a major building project, in the mid-1970s, it almost bankrupted them as well as getting them relegated.

Roman Abramovich’s billions mean that is no longer a factor of course yet no-one can deny that Chelsea’s home since 1905 has long been overdue a revamp.

Type the words ‘Restricted view seat at Stamford Bridge/Matthew Harding Lower’ into YouTube and you will be treated to a little slice of Blues history: the aftermath of a Frank Lampard goal against Manchester United in 2011. The home fans leap around raucously in this wobbly, spontaneous footage that also shows just a tiny sliver of green underneath the massive, dark overhang of the stand above.

It is the sort of view even a tank driver might complain about; mediaeval knights had a more panoramic vista through their visors.

“Who are ya? Who are ya?” yelled the Chelsea fans from the gloom at their United counterparts Who could legitimately have replied “Where are ya?”...

The new stadium will boast 60,000 completely unrestricted views and not before time.

It didn’t take the internet wags long to take the mick out of Herzog’s design, likening it to a ‘Slinky’, an egg slicer or a colander.

“It will have the feeling of a castle, or a mediaeval walled village,” the man himself declared. “Something you wouldn’t find anywhere else. It is beyond beauty or ugliness.” So is Diego Costa for that matter but whatever can eventually be admired from the Fulham Road it is the interior that is really important, for it is there that the money will be made.

The maths is relatively simple. Stamford Bridge can currently hold no more than 41,600 so every time 75,000 souls pack into Old Trafford that is a lot of extra cash going into Manchester United’s coffers, and that’s not including half-and-half scarf sales to Indonesian tourists.

An increase from 41,600 to 60,000 is near as dammit 50% and it is significant the number of hospitality seats at the new-look Bridge is set to almost double from 4,628 to 8,969. These are by far the most lucrative and given United’s most expensive current corporate is a 16-seater box that costs almost £175,000 Chelsea can expect overall matchday revenues to increase by more than 50%, from the £105m mark to around £230m.

Chelsea aren’t the only Premier League outfit with the same aims . Liverpool are expanding Anfield and White Hart Lane will be demolished to make way for a new stadium literally next door.

Tottenham’s inspiration appears to be a Trans-Atlantic one as Spurs have already thrown in their lot with the NFL, the home of many a nifty marketing idea.

Spurs have already agreed a deal to host NFL games and have factored in a retractable pitch that would also be useful for concerts (Chelsea have planned no such extra-curricular activities — posh neighbours won’t tolerate the noise).

The 61,000 capacity will make it London’s biggest club venue and 17,000 of those seats, in the southern stand, are to comprise a single tier which it is hoped will be capable of generating a ‘wall of sound’ to rival Borussia Dortmund’s famed 25,000-strong ‘Yellow Wall’. For many, that’s a welcome concept, especially as one by-product of Arsenal abandoning Highbury for the Emirates Stadium was a massive loss of atmosphere. Spurs have been quick to point out the “comfortable modern seating” with “generous leg-room” will see “spectators closer to the pitch than at any other comparable ground in the UK”.

Tottenham also have one eye on another modern demand. The new stadium will boast “wireless connectivity across the whole venue to enhance the fan experience, and flexibility to cater for future demands and developments”. “We know that the ‘game day’ experience for many begins long before the match starts,” the spokesman added.

That’s another nod to America, the home of the tail-gate party, yet though the US continues to inspire UK marketeers it remains tricky to ape.

Fans of the Jacksonville Jaguars, owned by Shahid Khan, can watch games from a swimming pool inside the stadium, for a price of course, yet this is unlikely to be introduced at Fulham, his other sporting interest, unless an adjacent hypothermia unit is also installed.

And there is another crucial difference in the way new sporting venues have been planned across the pond; NFL franchises have been cautiously underselling their potential in terms of seats.

Why? Because of the blackout policy that, until it was lifted this season, meant a game could not be televised within a 75-mile radius if it was not sold out.

College games may attract crowds of 100,000 across the US but only the most metropolitan of NFL franchises had attempted to cater for 80,000 for fear of upsetting advertisers.

Television is king in the US and it is significant Jacksonville also introduced a ‘Fan Cave’ at the stadium for supporters to stare at walls of screens rather than the Jaguars’ efforts outside. Of course, TV coverage has already had a significant effect on attendances in England, especially on non-Saturdays, but, for the moment at least, the owners of the Premier League’s big guns are banking on the fans to keep on coming — and keep on facing the pitch.