Taking the pulse of South West London – news, features and sport 24/7

By Freddy Mayhew

Chelsea FC are being encouraged to remain at Stamford Bridge in a statement released by Hammersmith and Fulham Council today.

Cllr Nick Botterill, H&F deputy leader, said: “Stamford Bridge is Chelsea’s historic home and the council believes it should be their future home.”

The statement follows concerns raised last week by the football club that a new-build 60,000 seat stadium on their current central Fulham site would cost over £600million.

H&F Council said that any move away from Fulham would cost more than the £600million quoted by the club to rebuild the current ground or the cost of upgrading the existing structures.

However it failed to respond to the club’s fears over ‘insurmountable’ planning risks.

The urge to increase capacity comes after rival club Arsenal, who moved from Highbury to the Emirates Stadium in 2006, nearly doubled its match-day revenue in line with an increase in seat numbers.

A CFC statement said that discussions with the local council had made it clear that a complete new-build had little chance of acceptability.

However the council did not look to be blocking future developments on the existing site in today’s statement.

“We want the Blues to stay at Stamford Bridge and, if it can be done sensibly without negatively affecting local people, increase the ground’s capacity so they can retain their position as one of Europe’s top clubs,” said Cllr Botterill.

Stamford Bridge currently seats 42,837 fans, giving it the eight largest capacity ground in the premier league.

Manchester United’s ground Old Trafford boats the maximum with 75,811 seats.