Stamford Bridge Thread

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Just to re-post something I wrote a while back, regarding the Bridge

Gourlay’s 8% ticket increase takes the biscuit

16th Apr 2011, In Articles, by Alex Hinsley

You may or may not have heard the latest news surrounding Chelsea.

It isn’t to do with a new signing like Fernando Torres – that the spoilt glory supporters will become fed up with after a mere 693 minutes of hard work and faultless effort – and it isn’t to do with Carlo Ancelotti, surprisingly. Whilst the Italian’s time may not be up just yet, one thing that is up – more specifically going up – is the average price of a ticket at Stamford Bridge.

That means that in two seasons as Chief Executive, Ron Gourlay has increased the average price of a ticket at our West London home by about £8.50, give or take a few pence either way. For fans like me and you, who unfortunately do not have money trees in our back gardens, or have the luxury of wiping our backsides with tenners, it means we are simply being priced out of Stamford Bridge.

In summary, Gourlay’s taking the piss.

It means that if you are over the age of 16 and under the age of 65, you will have to pay £61 to sit in the Matthew Harding Lower to watch a game against Arsenal under the new ‘category AA’ game category, as opposed to the mere £52 you’d pay to watch Wigan. Tell me, who the fuck would pay that much to go and watch us play Wigan? And with opposition fans having to pay exactly the same price, why would a Wigan fan spend so much on coming to our home ground?

I’ll tell you who – people who can afford it, and unfortunately, most of those people are not real Chelsea fans. The club are concerned about a lack of atmosphere at the Bridge, and yet they are pricing the likes of me and you out.

Let me put this into perspective for you – in the 2006/07 season, I went to watch 17 home games. This year, I’ve been to three, because each game is costing me personally about £40 more because of seating prices being raised, on top of the exorbitant amount we have to also pay in fuel.

People who find solace in reduced prices for the Carling Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League group stage matches will be disappointed as well. Expect to pay £40 to watch us play in Europe’s ‘premier competition,’ or instead, how about you pay £30 as we struggle to beat a lowly League Two side?

It is nothing but an utter piss-take.

The club say they have spoken to the Fans’ Forum, who agreed with the new pricing policy. What ‘Fans’ Forum’ was this? The Royal Association of Rich Bastards? Call me a cynic and even call me jealous, but when you see people from working- and lower-middle-class backgrounds being forced to pay extortionate amounts to watch their team play, you can forgive them for voluntarily becoming armchair fans. I might as well just watch us on Sky on a Sunday afternoon.

The fact of the matter is you can expect prices to go up and up and up if the club want to milk the fans to pay off the Torres and Luiz transfers, and hope we can scrape through with UEFA’s financial ‘fair play’ regulations (which will mean Arsenal will probably take on Lokomotiv Plovdiv in the final in a couple of years’ time – and more than likely lose as we look on laughing).

So call me bitter, but call me disappointed as well. But the club can see quite clearly that they certainly won’t be getting any money from me next season. Overpriced merchandise made for 52 pence in Taiwan and flogged for a tenner because someone stuck a Chelsea sticker on it? Well, that doesn’t take the piss anymore. Paying nearly £1000 for a season ticket – that’s what’s taking the piss.

But will the club change anything? No, of course not. Do they even care? Well, quite frankly – no. Football is a business and unfortunately we will always have the casual tourist or ten thousand that will be willing to pay such money to watch eleven overpaid and under-committed men kick a ball around for 90 minutes.

I suppose moving to a new stadium isn’t such a bad idea afterall.

[Liquidator 5,176]

What would everybody like it too be like on the inside and the outside then? Id quite like to have soemthing very distinct- not any of that bowl shape rubbish using the 'modern stadium' template. Something like Dragao would be nice

http://portofootballclub.com/stadium.php

^^^

Now thats a stadium!

[Shane 2,275]

Anymore news on this? Have the club said anything official?

[Laylabelle 9,534]

Thing is moving staduim doesnt mean ticket prices will come down a whole lot,mean look at Arsenal huge staduim yet charging £90 in some games..just means may end up having more people paying daft prices.Hopfully though most would come down..this whole Category stuff is bollocks as its still pricey! In an ideal world surley B be a lot less cheaper then A not just a couple of quid and AA is just daft...

[Liquidator 5,176]

In an ideal world surley B be a lot less cheaper then A not just a couple of quid and AA is just daft...

And then the category A prices for next season are against teams like Everton and Aston Villa- what makes them bigger games than one against say Stoke or Wolves

[warnie_666 1,081]

How did you come to that conclusion? With you being based in Brazil, have you even been to Stamford Bridge?

He said, he read it.

[warnie_666 1,081]

So yes its another one of these topics but guy on my facebook went to a meeting at stamford bridge tonight which was run my Bruce Buck. He said its pretty much 100 percent that we will be moving stadiums. 60k seat stadium and its a matter of when not if. Waiting on finding location.

Thoughts?

How credible is that source?

I mean, Tomorrow I can post on your Wall and tell you, I was on Roman's Yatch this evening with Gourlay and Buck and we plan to bid for Messi this summer.

Secondly,

Moving, Stadium is fine with me. a 60k seater is absolutely fine. More than the Looks of the stadium Id rather have the acoustics of the stadium looked at with precision. We want an atmosphere like

[Gianfranco_Z 202]

^ That sig gets me every time

[middleoftheshed 388]

How credible is that source?

I mean, Tomorrow I can post on your Wall and tell you, I was on Roman's Yatch this evening with Gourlay and Buck and we plan to bid for Messi this summer.

I believe it was Mark Worrall, this is exactly what he said

On Stamford Bridge. CFC have NOT and NEVER HAVE made any approaches to the council with a proposal to increase the capacity or redevelop the ground because they have not been to come up with a cost effective and practical plan to do so. CFCs future plans involve a stadium with a circa 60k capacity. My take on that ... 100% definite CFC are going to move when suitable "local" premises are secured.

[Steve 10,227]

How credible is that source?

I mean, Tomorrow I can post on your Wall and tell you, I was on Roman's Yatch this evening with Gourlay and Buck and we plan to bid for Messi this summer.

Secondly,

Moving, Stadium is fine with me. a 60k seater is absolutely fine. More than the Looks of the stadium Id rather have the acoustics of the stadium looked at with precision. We want an atmosphere like

He owns one of the stores outside stamford bridge and a few of them had a meeting at the ground. Which i had heard about with a few people at the ground as well. So im pretty sure its legit.

[Duppy Conqueror 1,525]

would be the most devastating event i`ve experienced as a Chelsea fan.

i guess it would reopen the doors for the fans who followed us through the real tough times but have been squeezed out the door in recent years due to having to pay "tourist prices" these days.

also,we should have a row of seats reserved only for servicemen/women. so that when they aren`t on duty they can feast on the banquet that is following Chelsea these days. they are giving up a lot for us and being able to watch their beloved Chelsea a few games a season shouldn`t be one of them!

it will be such a sad day for me though for many reasons..my grandfather died the year before we won our first championship in `55..after going to the bridge since 1930,i didn`t ever meet him,only have one photo of him,he died when my dad was 4 so for us going to the bridge where he used to spend so many hours is kinda sacred for my dad.

[termninja 5,290]

Whatever you say, it sounds strange for a club as big as Chelsea to have a 40k stadium, and in 10 years when our club gets even bigger...

[Laylabelle 9,534]

I just hope it doesnt end up looking like the Emrites.The whole location and look of their staduim just looks really weird

[TomCFC 357]

When Arsenal haven't won anything in six years and play in a 60k stadium, you know it's time to move on and expand.

[Henri 115]

Just to re-post something I wrote a while back, regarding the Bridge

Sadly true, its all about money. But look around its every top club who raises prices. Does the small clubs do the same?.

Only defence would be we only got a 40k stadium, and only a fool will think that its ever gonna be cheaper, its not

gonna happen, ticket prices a gonna be raised every season!.

[Ollie 4,400]

We love Stamford Bridge, Arsenal fans love Highbury, Southampton loved their Dell, Sunderland loved Roker. Liverpool might be moving and look how famous their ground is for them, it's iconic. At the end of the day, we need a big ground with a huge capacity and a nice big spacious pitch to play modern football on because i'm certain we can fill 60,000, especially with the amount of fans we've gained since 2003 to the present day all round the world. We're a global brand now and the stadium needs to move with the times too. We need a fortress, a place to intimidate teams, where teams will say 'wow' and feel in ore of us. Teams come to SB and it's hardly scary for them or intimidating....

Chelsea 2003 - Present is a completely different brand to Chelsea pre 2003 and it's time we moved on despite how much we want to stay where home really is. Plus... I wanna go again tbh lol.

I'd like us to move into a new home. Like from a nice house to a mansion. Just imagine what a stadium for a team owned by a multi billionaire would look like? We as a football club deserve to move to the next step. And that's a 60-70,000 all seater paradise of a stadium where we can rule the world ... Ok i'm going too far now lol but u know what i mean.

[Gianfranco_Z 202]

We love Stamford Bridge, Arsenal fans love Highbury, Southampton loved their Dell, Sunderland loved Roker. Liverpool might be moving and look how famous their ground is for them, it's iconic. At the end of the day, we need a big ground with a huge capacity and a nice big spacious pitch to play modern football on because i'm certain we can fill 60,000, especially with the amount of fans we've gained since 2003 to the present day all round the world. We're a global brand now and the stadium needs to move with the times too. We need a fortress, a place to intimidate teams, where teams will say 'wow' and feel in ore of us. Teams come to SB and it's hardly scary for them or intimidating....

Chelsea 2003 - Present is a completely different brand to Chelsea pre 2003 and it's time we moved on despite how much we want to stay where home really is. Plus... I wanna go again tbh lol.

I'd like us to move into a new home. Like from a nice house to a mansion. Just imagine what a stadium for a team owned by a multi billionaire would look like? We as a football club deserve to move to the next step. And that's a 60-70,000 all seater paradise of a stadium where we can rule the world ... Ok i'm going too far now lol but u know what i mean.

:goodpost: Well Ollie, you've sort of swayed me now you put it like that. It would be a shame to leave SB behind but if we are going to be competing at the top level for years to come maybe it is time to move on...

No to a bowl stadium though I want a Bernabeu style stadium

epic

[eldo 868]