Stamford bridge is the home of Chelsea football club and has been the home of Chelsea football club since 1905. However, in more recent times, Chelsea almost lost Stamford Bridge as its. Being a prime site in West London, Stamford bridge has had the eye of many property developers. This may make you wonder does Chelsea own or rent Stamford bridge?
Does Chelsea own or rent Stamford bridge? Chelsea pitch owners PLC owns the freehold of Stamford bridge and therefore the stadium. Chelsea Pitch Owners PLC is run by Chelsea fans and leased to Chelsea Football Club on a peppercorn rent.
In this article we will look at how Chelsea Pitch Owners PLC came to hold the freehold of Stamford Bridge as well as the naming rights of Chelsea football club. It was a worrying affair in the early 1980’s &1990s. If it wasn’t for the fans at Chelsea football club and the idea of former chairman Ken Bates, then Stamford Bridge may have been lost forever to property developers.
Although the Chelsea of today is seen as affluent and throws money around in the transfer market. When I started supporting Chelsea in the 1990s Chelsea were in a lot of financial difficulties. Firstly, Ken Bates had purchased the club for £1. However, through some mismanagement prior to Ken Bates’s takeover, a property development company owned Stamford Bridge.
Why does Chelsea Pitch Owners PLC exist?
Chelsea Pitchers Owners PLC exists in order to protect the ground and name of Chelsea Football Cub. Chelsea Pitcher Owners PLC creation stems from a botched restructure of Chelsea football club in the 1980s.
The Chelsea CFO in 1982, Martin Spencer, agreed to sell the club (who were going through rocky times on and off the pitch) for £1 to Ken Bates. However, at the time Chelsea had £2.6m worth of debt. As part of the acquisition by Bates, the debt was moved to a separate company called SB Properties Limited. The stadium freehold which was owned by Chelsea was moved into the same company in order to offset the debt as the Stamford Bridge matched the level of debt. SB Properties Limited had shareholders in Martin Spencer, Shelia Marston (club secretary), Brian Mears (director and nephew of Chelsea founder Gus Mears), David and Leslie Mears, Viscount Chelsea, George Thompson and Richard Attenborough. The essence of SB Properties Limited was to become the holding company of Chelsea football club and protecting the football club from the debt.
SB Properties Limited sold shares to other third parties, mainly descendants of the football club. SB Properties began reducing the debt and the freehold of Stamford Bridge was transferred to SB Properties in April 1982, three weeks before Bates took over. However, once Bates took over Chelsea, SB Properties only leased the stadium back to Chelsea football club for a lease of only seven years!
Ken Bates wanted to unite the stadium back with the club and worked tireless to do so. However, years passed and little progress was made with SB Properties. In 1984 a property developers called Marler Estates put in a offer for SB property. The SB directors accepted the offer from Marler Estates.
Marler indented to build a smaller ground with retail or housing surrounding the stadium. There were even suggestions to ground share with Fulham. However, Ken Bates and others fought through the courts to block Marler Estates proposals. For eight years this continued until the recession of 1992 and Marler (now called Cabra Estates plc) collapsed. The administrators now controlled Cabra Estates plc assets, including SB Properties. The administrators offered a long term lease to Chelsea Football Club with the option to buy.
On the 18th March 1993, Chelsea fans received a letter from Ken Bates with an ingenious proposal. Bates listened to Chelsea fans views, as to what’s from stopping this sort of situation happening again. Bates proposed that the fans own the stadium and naming rights of Chelsea through Chelsea Pitch Owners PLC. This company is totally independent of the football club and it’s management.
The idea was adopted and Chelsea Pitch Owners PLC was formed. Shares in Chelsea Pitch Owners PLC can be purchased from the Chelsea’s website. The Shares cost is £100 per share and a maximum of 100 shares can be purchased by an individual.
Who are the members of Chelsea pitch owners?
Anyone can become a member of Chelsea Pitch Owners PLC. A number of famous ex-players are members of Chelsea Pitch Owners PLC. Famous Chelsea Pitch Owners Members include:
- Pat Nevin,
- Steve Clarke,
- Marcel Desailly,
- Jimmy Floyd-Hasselbaink,
- David Webb,
- Dennis Wise
John Terry is currently the President of Chelsea Pitch Owners PLC.