August 28 – Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is poised to restart plans to renovate the club’s west London stadium, Stamford Bridge, though it seems increasingly likely he will not be the owner once the stadium rebuild is complete.
With news at the weekend that Abramovich has for a second time in six months put a For Sale sign up at the club, and that he would be willing to accept £2.5 billion, the stadium news is likely to stimulate any potential buyer for the club that is revenue-restricted by the 40,000 capacity Stamford Bridge.
Originally planned to cost £500 million, the price tag for the stadium redevelopment quickly ballooned to closer to £900 million. Abramovich had been prepared to commit £500 million of his own money to the project, but as his relationship with the UK soured and the stadium re-development sum escalated, he had second-thoughts.
The club have said that Abramovich is not selling, but City of London sources confirm this is not the case and that a sale will be made to a buyer who has the cash. Press reports are that an offer of £2 billion by Britain’s richest man, Jim Ratcliffe, was turned down earlier this year. Similarly an offer for a minority stake from American private equity firm Silver Lake Partners has also reportedly been rejected.
No date or even official announcement of a restart of the stadium development plans has been announced.
Chelsea have opened their Premier League campaign with three wins under new manager Mauricio Sarri. Abramovich bought Chelsea in 2003 and under his ownership the club have won 15 titles, including five Premier League titles, one Champions League and one Europa League.
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